Alien Species Mentioned in this Chapter:
Oporq (Argit's Species), Kineceleran (XLR8's Species), Tetramand (Four Arms's Species), Petrosapien (Diamondhead's Species), Polymorph (Goop's Species), Cerebrocrustacean (Brainstorm's Species), Vulpimancer (Wildmutt's Species), Biosorvortian (Lodestar's Species), Planchakule (Juryrigg's Species), Osmosian (Kevin's Species)
He was Green.
Formless, blissful Green.
And he was home.
Home was dark but Home was home. And Home was home to family.
Red, Yellow, Purple, Indigo, Blue… They were all here and for the first time in a long time, Green felt complete. Home wrapped his inky black black arms around himself, sending a wave of comfort washing over everyone within.
A shot of pain spread through Remus's liquid form but it wasn't enough to snap him out of his own mind.
The corners of the deep, dark void that made up Home began pulling at Green. Yellow and Purple began buzzing with unease and worry but Red, Blue, and Indigo carried on their business like nothing was wrong.
Remus's Anti-Gravity Projector hit the ground and his body began boiling with the sudden loss of control.
Yellow stepped between the edge of the darkness and Green and Purple. Suddenly, Yellow wasn't Yellow anymore. None of the colors were. The blurry streaks were replaced with human forms but Remus couldn't see them clearly. In his mind, Remus couldn't even see or feel himself clearly.
Where was Roman? He was still vaguely aware of his physical form. Roman wasn't anywhere close. He needed his brother to make his mind see clearly. He couldn't make sense of his vision. All he knew was that something bad was happening to Yellow. He wanted it to stop but there was no sign of any help coming anytime soon.
Remus's consciousness was split between the real world and his vision. Physically, he couldn't see much of anything. He just knew he was alone. But in his mind… Part of him still wished he was human. Humans forgot traumatic things. Polymorphs did not. What he saw counted as traumatic enough to forget, he'd say.
The image was unclear but he could see the darkness of the void pulling at Yellow. Yellow fought back and as far as he could tell, Yellow fought well but he couldn't overpower whatever was dragging him in. It was odd in the most terrifying way. It looked like the dark aura Remus associated with home and safety yet this force was cold and scared him to the figurative bone. It reeked of home but it wasn't. It was something else entirely.
Time dragged on and Remus had no idea how long he was trapped in the vision, watching Yellow fight against the dragging blanket of black as it reached out for Green and Purple. He couldn't make any sense of it but that didn't make it any less real. It was terrifying in every way.
Ever so slowly, his physical awareness began to overpower his mental one and his mind began to free itself from its vision.
It was a massive relief but that didn't mean it wasn't painful. Remus had no idea how Polymorphs were even able to register pain but it felt like scorching chains were pulling him down, trying to drag his mind back into the mental prison he was trying to escape. It flooded his body with fire, making his insides scream.
Eventually, the final string snapped and the vision was gone.
Remus let out a noise as his mind suddenly became clear. His body still ached but at least he was out of that horror show.
"Remus? Remus!" a voice called but Remus couldn't tell where it was coming from. His body had been reduced to a puddle and he wasn't quite oriented enough to get everything in the right place. After a great deal of effort, he managed to get his eyes straight. His gaze fell on Helen only she was farther than she should've been. And there was a green haze between them.
The Anti-Gravity Projector went back online and Remus was able to pull himself together a bit more. He was in a cell, he realized. The same ones as the ones in the lower levels. He couldn't tell which one it was, just that he was in it and Helen was in the cell across from him.
She looked concerned, waving her tail absentmindedly, but seemed to relax a bit when she saw Remus get his body back together. "Remus! Hey, Roman. He's up again."
"Is he okay?" Roman called from the cell next to his. Remus turned and pressed against the wall. He could feel him on the other side. If only the parallel walls weren't as solid as they were. He couldn't see through them. Even if he couldn't reach out, Remus longed to have his brother at his side.
"I think so," Helen responded. "He's still kind of bubbling but he's up again. He's pressing against your wall. I think he knows you're there."
"Good," Roman said, sounding relieved. "That felt like a bad one and I wasn't able to help… It went on for so long."
"Don't worry, Princey," Remus croaked, voice coming out staticy through his speakers. He hoped his Anti-Gravity Projector wasn't damaged when it hit the ground. He needed that to… Well, do everything. He wasn't anything more than a puddle without it. "I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine," Roman responded. Remus flicked his Anti-Gravity Projector, hoping it would get back to normal. It felt kind of funny but he couldn't tell if that was because he was still a little out of it or if something was actually wrong. Maybe neither, maybe both. He wasn't sure.
"He's gotta be fine," a voice said. It took Remus a moment to realize it was Argit. "He don't got a choice. He's the one who got all of you into this mess."
"Hey!" Pierce snapped. "He did us a favor. Remember, if it wasn't for me, you'd be dead with the rest of the aliens."
Dead? Who was- Oh. It all suddenly came rushing back. Pyro, the Vulpimancers, Servantis… "Oh shit. We can't stay here."
"You got that right," Manny agreed, surprising Remus. He hadn't realized he was here too but he supposed that made sense. Silently, he calculated who exactly was on the level. Helen, Roman, Pierce, and Manny were confirmed. Argit was still in his cage by the door. He assumed Bios, Planch, and the Vulpimancer were still in their cells. He could hear the Vulpimancer making her usual angry noises. That just left Kevin and Alan.
"What do you mean we can't stay here?" Argit spoke up. He paced in his tiny cage, claws scraping the metal under his feet. "It's safe here. And warm. And there are no Vulpimancers."
"One Vulpimancer," Bios corrected.
"Whatever. What I meant is that here, we don't get eaten."
"Getting eaten by a dog is better than life in a cell," Alan pointed out, grumbling.
"That's right," Kevin said in agreement. "It's only so long before Servantis tries killing us like everyone else that lived down in these cells. Remus, can you find any holes to squeeze through?"
"Um, no?" Remus responded. "The only opening is covered with an energy field. Even if my AGP was fully back online, I wouldn't be able to get through it."
"What do you mean back online?" Roman asked. "Did you get hurt during your vision?"
Before Remus had the chance to respond, Argit slapped his hairless tail against the bars of his cage aggressively. "Woah, woah. You want to escape? Servantis took down all six of you Amalgams and Kevin all on his own! You bust out, we're all dead."
"Planch want out of his cell!" the Planchakule cried, speaking up for the first time all day. "Cell bad! Outside good! Fix outside! Planch die in cell! Ou, out, out!"
"He's right," Bios said. "We aliens, our time is almost up. Servantis will probably keep you Amalgams around for a while but he'll tire of you eventually. We need to get out."
"Are you guys crazy?" Argit shouted, panic bleeding into his voice. Remus wanted to reach out to him. He wasn't really sure why.
"We don't need the rat or the Vulpimancer to get out," Pierce pointed out but before anyone could respond, the sharp noise of a door opening and four sets of footsteps echoed through the lower levels.
Everyone went quiet as the Rooters stepped onto the level, casually strolling into the cellblock like it was any other day. Remus and Helen exchanged a glance, mutual unease radiating between them. Helen put her mask down and pulled her tail close. Remus wished he could do the same but he settled for pulling all his goo into one coherent blob.
Servantis, Leander, Phil, and Swift walked down the cell lined hall, radiating an intimidating aura that Remus had never felt from them. It was cold enough to make his fluid form shiver. He didn't even know he could shiver but somehow, he was. He couldn't say he liked it.
"Children, children, children," Servantis began lightly, as if he were scolding them. Maybe he was. Remus had no idea what was going on in that massive, Cerebrocrustacean head of his but he knew there was something wrong with the Rooter. "You've done something very, very bad."
Roman slammed his peranite arms against the force field keeping him in his cell. In his mind, Remus could imagine his brother's face twisting with anger as he glared at the thin man. "The hell, Servantis! You can't walk in here and act like- like… You killed them! You killed our friends and you're acting like we're kids who got caught stealing cookies. You- You're willing to just toss away lives and you have the audacity to come in with that stupid, sweet facade like you care about us?"
"It's not my fault you got attached. Really, it's your own fault. I told you not to come down here and look where it got you," Servantis responded, folding his hands behind his back. "You Amalgams… You were going to be the best fighting force in Plumber history and you just had to toss it aside."
Roman let out a throaty noise, livid, and pounded on the force field again. "When I get out of here, I'm gonna-"
Roman was cut off by the sound of an energy field disappearing and Roman fell out of his cell with a loud clang. Surprised, he didn't even get to his feet, instead gaping up at Servantis.
"Roman, Roman, Roman. I always thought that fighting spirit of yours was going to make you one of my best Amalgams," Servantis sighed. The covers on his scarlet exoskull began to rise, exposing his brain and the electricity crackling beneath. "Oh well. It seems you need to be taught a lesson."
Remus barely had time to spot the flash of red electricity before it made contact. Roman clutched his head, screams bouncing off the metal walls of the massive room.
"Roman!" Remus shouted, his Polymorph form becoming dense with distress. He still felt pretty out of it from the vision but he managed to find enough control of his body to form a fist and pound it against the green energy field keeping him from rushing to his brother's aid.
Roman's arms hit the floor loudly and he curled up, trying to protect himself against the pain of Servantis's blast to no avail. Instinctively, Remus tried to rush to his side. The sight was all too familiar, Roman on the floor and in pain, and everything in him was begging him to just do something to help his brother but he couldn't. Remus couldn't recall if anything like this had ever happened before. He didn't think it had and he could safely say he hated it.
Hearing his brother's screams was something normal and he hated that he was so used to it. But, normally the screams came from their painful visions. That was something Remus could understand and they could share. This… Roman had never been attacked like this before. It was too new and even if the force field wasn't holding him back, Remus didn't know what he could do.
He had to do something though. Shouting and pounding against the barrier wasn't doing anything. Everyone else was doing it too. He knew he could do more than that. He had to do more than that. He was Roman's brother. Their bond was special. It was his job to help him. That was certain and he felt it so strongly in every part of him.
"Roman!"
And then it was out of him.
Remus wasn't sure what happened or if it was even him who did it but he could swear yellow crackled in his vision before the whole world warped.
The entire level seemed to twist in a way that Remus knew just wasn't possible but it was happening right before his eyes. For a moment, he wondered if he was still trapped in a vision- it certainly felt like it- but he could feel the floor rippling under the bulk of his body. Metal walls tore apart, exposing wires, and the force fields shut down. Remus didn't hear it nor could he see it, being so unsteady and all with everything moving, but somehow he just knew.
His body moved on its own and he slid across the metal floor and barreled into Roman. Surprisingly, he didn't feel any of Servantis's blast. The Cerebrocrustacean Amalgam must've been knocked away when… when… when whatever it was rippled through the Null Void. Remus didn't focus on it though. In the unstable world, his mind was solely on his brother. He let his form deflate and he curled around Roman's peranite form protectively. He wasn't sure what was quaking reality but they just had to wait it out.
It felt... odd. But not foreign. Like he'd experienced reality playing with itself like this before. Remus couldn't pinpoint the feeling through and in all honesty, he was too petrified to really dwell on it right now. The world around him was breaking itself, throwing everything and everyone on the floor around and twisting the fabrics of space around them.
It felt like eons before everything settled down. It could have been, Remus didn't know. He didn't want to know. Remus hadn't realized it but he'd tuned out everything around him and it was starting to come back. Beneath him, he could hear Roman breathing heavily and he let himself relax. His brother was okay.
But he couldn't relax forever. Now that he could see straight, he could survey the damage. All the cells were bust open, even Argit's metal cage, and aliens and Amalgams alike were thrown everywhere. Remus couldn't tell if anyone was hurt. He felt fine but he was a Polymorph. They couldn't exactly get hurt. If the damage to the level's infrastructure implied anything, everyone had to at least be a bit banged up.
An ear-splitting bellow sliced through the air and suddenly the Vulpimancer was tearing across the floor. She was lying by the door near Argit's cage but she made no attempt to eat the little Oporq. Instead, she let out a savage, slobbery howl and lunged at the Rooters.
Remus looked around quickly, trying to locate everyone as fast as he could. Argit, Kevin, Helen, and Alan were behind him, almost all the way in the stairwell. Pierce, Manny, and Planch were lying between Remus and the Rooters on the other side of the room. And Bios… Where was Bios?
The sound of metal tearing filled the room as Vulpi threw herself at Phil, scratching furiously. For a moment, Remus was terrified reality was going to bend again but then he saw the tall Biosorvortian stepping forward.
"Run!" Bios called, using their magnetic powers to tear down the walls and put a barrier between everyone behind them and the Rooters. "Get out of here! This may be your only chance!"
"What about you?" Helen cried, getting to her feet. She stumbled a bit but managed to regain her balance by lashing her tail behind her.
Bios cast her a glance over their shoulder. "I'm old, even for a Biosorvortian. You kids have a lot more to lose than I do. Vulpi and I will hold them off as long as we can. Just take a ship and get out of here!"
"Bios!" Planch shouted, jumping on Manny's chest.
Bios's mouth curled ever so slightly, smiling fondly. "Take care of them for me."
Planch looked torn before turning to the kids behind him. "You heard them! Out! Out, out, out!"
Remus still wasn't feeling a hundred percent between the recent vision and being thrown across the room but his body responded to the shouting. He bubbled a bit, trying to get up but it didn't react quite like he wished it would. Roman got up, careful not to send Remus splattering as he slid off his crystal-like chest, and softly took Remus's Anti-Gravity Projector in one hand. Remus let Roman guide him, pulling him toward the door. "Come on, everyone. We don't have all day."
The Amalgams looked conflicted, glancing back at Bios as he closed up the barrier between him and the kids. Argit, however, didn't hesitate to clamber up onto Roman's shoulder. "You heard the man! Let's see some running!"
Kevin got to the front of the group and waved them after him. The other Amalgams exchanged a glance before hurrying after him. Roman put a hand on Argit to keep him flying off his shoulder and readjusted his grip on Remus's Anti-Gravity Projector before breaking into a run.
Remus didn't particularly like being dragged. Wherever his projector went, his body was forced to follow and his friends liked taking advantage of this unfortunate characteristic of the Polymorph but right now Remus had to say he was grateful. Like the others, he was sure that if he was feeling himself he'd have a hard time leaving Bios behind.
They stopped being hesitant once they reached the upper levels and the shock wore off. Freedom was within their grasp and they just had to run for it.
Remus was a bit surprised Kevin knew the way to the hangar but he supposed it made sense. Just because Servantis kept the twins collared didn't mean he hadn't let Kevin wander the base. By the time they rounded into the hangar, Remus was a bit more composed than before and he managed to pull all two hundred pounds of his slime in tight and cling to Roman's bulky form. Roman didn't seem to mind and if Argit did, he didn't comment on it.
Kevin barely slowed down when the group skidded into the hangar. The others, Roman included, paused in surprise at the sight of all the javelins lined up in the hangar but Kevin wasted no time making a beeline for the nearest one. He used his powers to turn his arms to metal before sharpening them into a tool to pry the doors open. Remus didn't know how these things worked but he hoped Kevin could fly one without keys. Or at all. Despite all their training these past couple years, Remus knew none of them had actually been trained to fly a jet of any kind.
"Maybe we should think about this," Pierce suggested, pausing as the Amalgams reached the door.
"No time! Gotta move fast!" Helen responded, smacking her brother with her tail to prod him into the ship. He stumbled forward and Helen grabbed his arm to drag him in.
Everyone piled on board as fast as possible and Kevin had the engines going the moment Manny slammed the door shut. The javelin began tearing through the hangar before everyone settled down. The sudden movement nearly sent Roman toppling and Remus ended up slipping off his back and splattering against one of the back windows.
"Kevin!" Roman shouted as he dropped Remus's Anti-Gravity Projector, arms flailing as he tried to balance.
"What?" Kevin grunted as the javelin began to pull out of the hangar.
"Bah!" Planch said loudly and jumped onto Kevin's lap. "Let Planch drive! Drive, drive, drive!"
"Do we really want that guy driving?" Argit cried, jumping off Roman's shoulder to cower in Manny's arms.
The Tetramand dropped him unsympathetically. "At least he knows how to drive one of these things!"
"I don't care who's driving," Alan said. "Let's just go!"
"Go, go, go!" Planch cheered and the engines roared. Just as Remus began to pull himself together again, the ship shot forward and he was plastered the window once more. At least he got a good view.
The roll out of the hangar was a bit rocky but the ship pulled out within a few seconds and metal walls turned to endless red void. Remus could practically feel the tension fade from his goopy form as more and more red filled his vision and the metal got smaller and smaller. They were really leaving the base.
A hand ran through his goo and Remus realized Roman was trying to get his form back together. It took a moment for Remus to locate his Anti-Gravity Projector but he found it soon enough and managed to mold himself back into something more humanoid for the first time in hours. Almost immediately, he felt a bit better. More like himself.
"Are you okay?" Roman asked silently, taking a seat next to him. The other Amalgams were already claiming the seats but Roman seemed perfectly content just sitting with his brother.
Remus tried his best to smile but settled for just leaning against Roman's shoulder. "I don't know. But I think I will be."