Chapter 2: Growth

A| N: Changing the roman numerals to regular numbers so it's easier for people. Also just so you know, the people of Lua have the power to go through their own memories physically, like a dream realm.


The green eggs cracked open as five more zerglings hatched from their respective cocoons. He now had a total of six zerglings under his command. They were the beginning of the Swarm. These zerglings would prove useful to him in the coming days. They would allow him to protect his sister and himself. They were strong, ferocious, and fearless. Julian walked around the zerglings and inspected them, looking for any faults or differences. They were almost completely identical, with some facial differences with some of the mouths being in different places.

"Fascinating. These zerglings are completely bound and devoted to me, and they have minds of their own, however small."

The zerglings had apparently sparked Thea's curiosity as she walked up to one of them and started to poke and prod at its face. The zergling growled in response and Thea backed away quickly to Julian's side as she eyed the zergling fearfully. As the zerglings stops to make any more threatening noises she inches back toward it, being more cautious and less open. She tried to touch it again but it almost bit her finger as she did so.
"Don't go too close to them, Thea. I may be able to control them but if you constantly annoy them, they are going to nip you back." Julian warned. He looked back at Thea while she continued with her childish antics. He went back to his own work, sifting through his memories to try to find out what he could about his swarm. Every time he gets close to any clues, however, he was pulled from the memory and taken back to reality.

"Something is blocking my Memories."

He tried once again and was rejected from the section of his memories, but this time when he was pulled from his Memories he tried to fight back. The mental strain that was enacted on him was too much so he couldn't break through. He looked around as parts of the ground shook. He saw that some birds were flying off and the trees themselves were shaking. He heard some loud thumps before a large Beast broke through the tree line, charging towards the hatchery. It had a dark red hide with small spike son it while it ran on four legs. Thea ran quickly to where Julian was as the Beast spat globs of acid at the zerglings right before they reacted, and one unlucky zergling was hit. It screeched and writhed while it was dying and it only took a few seconds for the acid to end its fairly short life.

The rest of the zerglings spread out and quickly surrounded the Beast. Julian quickly recognized it as a Gorgon, which was a Tier 5 Beast. It was the most common Tier 5 and also the weakest, but it was still strong. The Gorgon leaped back to escape the circle of zerglings, spitting a few globs of acid at its foes before landing on the ground. The zerglings nimbly dodged the acid, at most taking only minor wounds. The zerglings leaped onto the Gorgon, tearing and ripping at anything they could. The fearlessness and ferocity of the zerglings were unmatched by anything Julian had seen by far because within a minute the Beast was dead. Thea was huddled near him, clearly afraid of anything else that might happen. Julian suddenly felt light headed and promptly collapsed onto the ground.


Once he woke, he was in the Memory. But the Memory around him wasn't his. He looked around and saw that he was in a chamber, much like one of the chambers in his hatchery. It was as if he was inside it but he knew that he was in the Memory. The walls of the room had little indents with glowing helixes atop them, spinning and floating. The next thing he saw was a tiny little worm crawl out of a green egg. It looked similar to the larvae, the small worms to which he saw earlier and has now named, but was a tiny bit larger. As it exited the egg moments passed before it was the size of himself. It became a very bulbous creature, It had 8 legs like a spider but had four smaller arms that came from its torso.

These arms didn't look all that different from its legs, except having small fingers that extended from the arms. Its face was like an insect's, sleek but primal. It had long hair like cords that came from behind its head and they shook as the being shifted its head. A voice echoed in Julian's mind, he assumed it was this creature's
"Human. I have deemed you worthy of communication with me. Know this. You have been chosen because you are the one that will lead the Zerg into glory. You alone will walk this path and you will succeed. I hereby release you from this realm. You have been allowed to enter the Genome Chamber."


After a few moments, he was back in his body looking up at the sky with a zerglings and Thea looking down on him. Thea was trying to shake Julian awake while the zergling just sat there staring blankly at him.

"What happened to you, Julian? You just fell and landed on the floor for a couple of minutes. The creep looked like it was reaching towards you like it was trying to take you somewhere." Thea said. She had a concerned look on her face and she was holding his hand very tightly.
He shook his head, disoriented and confused. "I-I-I'm fine. I just went to the Memory."

Thea gave him one last look before heading towards the hatchery to explore it. Julian sat up and tried to figure out what that creature was and what the Genome Chamber was. But, the more tedious and needed task to do was to start moving their belongings from the cave to the hatchery. He looked to where the zerglings were and they were ferrying the meat from the Gorgon. He sent a mental command and one of the zerglings carried its meat to where Julian was sitting. He ordered it to place the meat into one of the rooms of the hatchery.

With that taken care of, he commanded two of the remaining five to follow him as he got up and started to head to the cave. It only took him a couple of minutes while running to make it to the cave and there were no visible signs of anything coming in while they were gone so Julian quickly got to work on packing their things.

It took around a half an hour for him to pack all of their things, living in the Wild making most people only have the barest of essentials. It was a bit too much for a single person to carry so he had one of the zerglings carry a pot on its scythe.
With all their belongings packed he started the trek back to the hatchery. It was an uneventful trip, and Julian started to make his plans for what's next. He needed to expand his cluster and grow his swarm. He also needed to talk to the creature he met in the Genome Chamber. The creature could hold all the answers he needed, so when he returned to his hatchery he needed to enter the Memory and find the Genome Chamber.

It took an hour to get back to the hatchery and it was the same as he left it, large and threatening. The creep carpet had grown a bit since he left and it was starting to get close to the trees. Julian wondered what they would do to them. Would they cover the trees and prevent them from getting sunlight or would they only spread above the roots? He would need to investigate later. He told the zerglings to start taking their belongings into the bedroom he found earlier.
Julian entered the hatchery and went into the room with the green pool. He then sat down and concentrated, entering the depths of the Memory.


He opened his eyes and saw that he was in the Genome Chamber. The same helixes of orange stuff still floated along the walls but at the front of the room, he saw the creature he was looking for. It was sitting on the floor facing a large helix, almost the size of himself. It was also far more complicated than the other helixes, those having a simple structure, but this was a large mixture of strands, yet organized and each of them having its own purpose. The creature lifted its head and turned around to face Julian.

"Human. You have questions I presume?"

"Yes. One of the many questions I have is why was I chosen to lead the Swarm and who are you?" He questioned.

"You were chosen for your intellect and best possible chance of dominating this planet. There are other humans who have been selected as well, so you must fight and kill them all to become the true ruler of the Zerg."

"I am Mela. I am one of the few parasites tasked with granting the powers you now possess. I will remain inside of you until you have proven yourself worthy of not being monitored."

"Now, another question I have is what other creatures can I create?"

"The creatures you can create are those that you make from DNA. I will provide you with some templates that are very useful, but you must create others to prove your worth."

Mela stood up and started to move around the room. Julian's eyes followed her as she pointed to one of the helixes which Julian assumed was DNA.

"The next step in improving your cluster is to morph an Overlord. It will allow you to control more zerg from a farther range and let you control more zerg. One human can only control a few zerg at a time. Once to leave this place, you must morph one and start creating more hatcheries. That would allow more larvae to be born so you can create more creatures. And now, it is time for you to return to the "

Mela pointed towards a large door-like opening, indicating that it was time for Julian to leave. He turned around and headed towards the metaphorical door, and as soon as he entered he found himself in his hatchery in the real world.


A|N: A bit of a shorter chapter than last chapter, I hope you enjoyed.