Me: Well, first off, a forewarning—this chapter is a little more intense and, well, violent I guess? I mean, fighting is violence, but there's some pain endured so, forewarning if you don't enjoy such things. Cutting of flesh and such is involved.
Mushra: Why are you telling—
Me: some things can trigger people, and when writing, I didn't know if it might be triggery.
Mushra: Ah, makes sense. Be careful reading?

Chapter 13—Pushed Past the Point Of No Return

The bug Enterran rolled across the dirt, before using its multiple arms to get to its single pair of feet once more. It was a false hope act, but if they chose to give up their bodies briefly in sacrifice as they fight against the Enterran warrior intruders? Well, that's their choice.

"You know what?" Mushra asked as his hover board turned upside down for him to knock out a few bugs with a good spinning whack with his staff.

"No, but feel free to tell us." Sago remarked back sarcastically, as he spun a kick at one of the Enterran and slashed another coming up behind him. Xavier didn't waste effort; he knocked aside or crushed adversaries with his rock attacks.

"It seems like, when we were younger, we had to use hyper form a lot more. We've really grown!" He stated confidently; apparently battling putting him in a slightly better mood for the time being.

Sago couldn't help but smirk as he water whipped a few adversaries away. "Yeah, you've definitely grown, Mushra!"

"I know, thanks—wait, are you making a short joke?!" he asked, punching a bug in the face while glaring down Sago who only laughed.

"Hyper forms—must be nice!" Xavier stated, giving an oof when he was tackled down, and was suddenly being piled by a few nasty looking ant Enterrans, but Sago came and blasted a few, kicking another few off and helping the other man to his feet.

"You're not a hyper Enterran?" Sago questioned.

Xavier didn't answer. He just focused on the returning ants, squashing them quite well with his rock attacks.

The three of them managed to group back together in their battling, until it was the three of them facing down a few more adversaries. They were just coming across the dirt plane, from where, the guys didn't know. There's not been many houses or buildings thus far. But they'd find their base soon.

"You're not getting the humans, boys! Just leave'em behind, like you did your dead friend, ha!" one of them yelled as they were massing forward.

Well, they shouldn't have done that. Suddenly, with a call of Hydro Power and Hyper Flame, fire and water erupted and with it, it brought the screams of the badmouthing bug Enterrans.

Good that they had hyper formed—as when they finished the mass, carding or knocking them out, they were followed up by a group of vicious seeming centipedes.

"I hate bugs."

Battling as valiantly as ever, their friends still awaited them still too far away to be near safety. Because as the men battle, the women were pitching a fit in their lab confinement.

"What are you even doing?!" Winter demanded to know from Dr. Parasite, but there was distress in her voice. His lab tools brought no comfort, nor did the robotic arms that suddenly stirred into life that hung and worked from the ceiling. Now and again they had helped, but now, they took away some of the more menacing tools and never came back with them.

"What the HELL are those jewels for…?!" Jaden managed to spit through her teeth, still in pain, but almost too angry to give it full attention.

Heather had given up on words the past few minutes, and focused mainly on physical endeavors. Like kicking the shit out of her tube.

"Due time, due time, eheaha…" he chuckled to himself, observing the jewels. Constantly, he would scurry over to the other woman who lay unconscious. Her tube would light strangely and make a noise and Winter ended up gathering it was some scanning function. "Hmm, vitals, still all over, but settling bit by bit. By the next hour, I should have an idea of if she'll be a success, failure, or complete dud…"

"Just WAIT until I get OUT of this!" Winter exclaimed when he stated that. "We're living beings, we're not lab rats!"

"Oh, and how many humans, willingly or not, have gotten themselves involved in experiments? Such ones that have even greatly benefitted your world! I have studied, ladies, I have! I have read all the good your kind has done, and the bad! I am no different!"

"Yeah, you're pretty similar, sure," Heather began in a huff, as she was tiring herself, "except, you know, other than being a FRIGGIN' BUG! …But apart from that, sure!"

And suddenly, as Heather tried again to tamper with something at the top of her tube, she was suddenly shocked, and it felt as if it traveled up her entered arm. With that, she stopped her tactics for a moment, looking to the doctor, who was smiling proudly.

"There's…no point fighting." Winter heard, and turned to see the other girl was awake again, as Parasite scurried to the other side of the room, for some sharper tools and unnerving curved ones.

"There's always a point to fighting." Winter stated strongly and proudly. "I should know; I just helped return my friends from their baby selves to go save my sister and friend from a pompous snake lord."

The woman looked confused, and just shook her head, looking so pale and sickly in her tiredness. "He's a monster, they all are. Look what he's done." She lifted her arm, and rubbed at the wound, despite Winter's complaints telling her not to. She seemed to rub away what was mostly coagulated blood, and that's when she saw the wound clearly. The mass of it wasn't due to it being a widely opened wound. No, it was due to what was implanted into the wound. Surrounded by pink and red and swelling flesh was…a jewel. It was white, but the shimmering pulsed… It pulsed with the most striking blue once, and then a strike of the lightest yellow. It still seemed lightly painted in the rest of her blood, though. She glared down at it, wincing.

"What….why…" Winter stated to herself, doing nothing better than mouthing the words. He was sick, to be cutting them open and…implanting things in them? What for!?

"I don't know what for, but I know the moment he put this in me, and start shooting me up with his concoctions, my body hasn't stopped aching. I just want this over…" she glared at the ground, but shut her eyes sadly. That's when a blue mist suddenly released from some sort of things in the bottom corners of the tube. She wrinkled her nose at it, stopped breathing for a moment, and then just let it happen. Soon enough, her face relaxed and she seemed to be…falling asleep, though almost in a last ditch effort, she was forcing her eyes open.

And Winter noticed, and did her best to get her attention. "H-hey! Tell me your name! M-mines Winter!"

The other girl looked to her, her striking blue eyes wide for a moment, before shutting, the last movement being that of her lips as she pushed out the name, "Alex" before going under.

"Alex! Alex, come on..!" Winter complained. She looked to the parasite and expected him to be coming over to the girl he'd just put under, to start sticking or cutting at her again. But no…he was off to the other side of the room…smirking, as he pressed a button, and she heard a noise below her.

Blue wisps of a strange smoke or gas were coming her way and she stood. "No!"

"Winter, what is it?" Jaden called to her sister.

"S-some sort of sleeping gas! He's putting us under, don't…don't let…" she coughed, as it had already reached her and she couldn't hold her breath quick enough. She could feel her legs getting weak, until they gave way and she slid down the tube hard.

"Winter!" Jaden cried out, just as she heard the release below her. Her hand went to her mouth and nose without any thought, and she looked to Heather to get her to do the same. She pointed at her hand frantically to give a signal.

Heather was confused, but caught on soon enough, using the hand that hadn't been shocked after she took a breath. Jaden hadn't taken a breath of course, in her panic, and soon she couldn't fight it, removing her hand and taking in a gasp. It was mere seconds before she seemed dizzy and leaned against the side of the tube and fell to her knees.

Heather looked to the bug as he came towards them then. She took a breath with her hand on her mouth just as the gas released, and she dropped her hand. She stared down Dr. Parasite, and he came her way, holding the jewel in his hands.

"Which one, which one~…" he taunted as he watched her, almost hopping on his feet.

Heather hit the glass once more, with both hands, glaring him down, before she released breath and took in more. She slowly slid down, doing all she could to fight it, but soon, she was on her knees, and then laying against the side of the tube.

"Ah, yes…I think I know what you will be."

…

….

…

..

Searing pain.

There were cries. There were grunts. And then there were just twitches and writhing. The sleeping gas was strong, and kept them mostly under, if not completely. Jaden couldn't comprehend what was going on, and felt the panic of wondering if she was dreaming of screaming at the scars on her body, or if she was awake in hell.

Heather felt trapped, and she wanted—no, needed to break free, and Winter just wanted it all to stop. Time was nonexistent. All they knew was the pain in the dark, and the pain that woke them once more. No, not the slashes on their arms as they felt the warm blood spilling, it was another pain. A jolt through their bodies. Heather couldn't decide if it was Parasite electrocuting them, or if it was something on the inside.

Jaden felt pain all over, in both her arms, aching in her body as if it were trying to tear itself into something else. And the light was blinding. It made her want to go back to the darkness, as it made her head burst.

It was only now and again that they could comprehend one thing or another, which was when they were on the verge of waking and could hear the doctor's voice around them.

"I traveled far for this, all of it, you all should be honored! Searched deep for these fabled jewels, these crystals, and far for these creatures-"

More pain and blinding light. Sometimes his scuttling form. Winter spotted him with some strange animal body parts in hand, before the pain brought her to tears and the water blinded her.

"-they were thought extent since our arrival! But no, some survived, some birthed, and some rebirthed…oh, how exciting, what to choose, who!"

"Let me…out and…I'll choose for you…" Heather sputtered weakly.

She just spotted, above, a small compartment in the top of her tube opening, and one of the robotic hands entering and coming down towards her. She reached out to grab it with the intentions of breaking it, as it had some strange separating tools, or something like tongs, though they held something shimmering darkly. But the moment she touched the metal of the arm, it shocked her again and she yelled.

"Heather…" Jaden huffed.

Heather woke a bit more from that, breathing deeply through her nose and she was about to grab at the arm again, but the blue mist entered the tube once more, and after being shocked, it wasn't long before she was under once more.

Winter didn't have the energy to fight, and from what little she could witness of the others, what was she to even do? All she could do was twitch or whimper or yell in brief anger that brought her nowhere.

Darkness fell once again for them all, pain seeming to cradle them in the darkness, and it wasn't even taking the gas anymore, as shock took over from the rising pain. Some bile soon made its way into the tube, which the robot arms cleaned up. For some reason, the bile put off Parasite's good mood.

As did the news he soon received. As the robot arms were now implanting jewels and others were injecting strange red liquids, he was pulled away from his show by one of the bigger flies.

"Doctor, they're coming…they're coming!" he buzzed fearfully.

"Who, who?! Who is coming to ruin my work?!"

"The warriors, they—they've come for your experiments! They're carding through our best—they've even taken the centipedes!" he squeaked and followed the exclamation with a cry of fear.

"Contain yourself! You MUST hold them off, at all cost, I CANNOT have this ruined, they are not done!"

"But Doctor!"

"Go!"

The fly buzzed out the door and up the stairs that led back up the ruined building, and Dr. Parasite turned back to the four subjects that all lay unconscious. After the time he'd taken, he had them just where he needed them to be, right where the first subject had been before the three had arrived. He feared the results of speeding up the rest of process would bring, but he had no choice!

He scurried off to his computer, looking it over. Their vitals were all over the place, but their health was enough to just survive the next process. At least, he hoped. He'd implanted the jewels, as well as the extra DNA he'd gathered. He had nothing more he could do.

He put in a combination into the computer, typed away some instructions, and then finally, he placed a finger to linger on the green button on his panel.

"Good luck, my lovely children—awake anew and know I have rebirth you!"

And with the press of the button, blue light began to pulsate through the tubes, and the four women woke with pain. Soon, the room was filled with their screams never-ending.

Mushra: Wow, that was intense…and we're seriously not there yet!?
Me: No, you're not, you guys weren't always the most perfect fighters, dude. Better than most, but still…
Mushra: why can't I use my control of fire to, like, blast there?!
Me: well for one, STORYTELLING, for another, you all have to go together! You can't separate, stupid, that's the LAST thing you do!
Mushra: I thought that was horror movies.
Me: well, sometimes it can apply to other thrilling and intense moments, k. Btw, next chapter MAY be the last of this story, just a heads up! Coming soon!