Chapter 56: Major Battle 12: The Déjà Vu Wars Final

A massive organism had grown to an incredible size, to a length of around five kilometers in length. The overlord that carried Othafurn was quickly brought to the giant creature's mouth, becoming ingested by the giant floating beast. A tentacle from the leviathan had lowered itself to the ground and opened its tip, similarly like the mouth of a nydus worm, to allow Virid a means to board the beast's insides. After the two important zerg organisms were safely brought inside of the creature, it started rising high into the air until it could see the moon in the distance. An orange glow enveloped the monster, which seemed to make the air become charged with energy, before it blinked out of existence in an orange flash.

Officer Raxa, leader of the forty Crescent Arms soldiers that was part of Patrol Group 20, managed to catch a long glimpse of the creature, blinking at the very moment it had warped away. After a few seconds of idiotic open-mouthed gazing, he shook his head and reported his findings to the colonel in charge of the operations at investigating Red Mountain. "This is patrol number 20 reporting. You wanted me to contact you guys if I saw anything out of the ordinary, right?"

[That is correct, patrol 20. Have you found something to report?]

"Yeah um... I think I saw something that matched the description of a 'dread maw.'"

[Can you describe the creature? We need an accurate recollection so we can relay the details to the commanders.]

"Um... The creature was fucking huge, like it could eat buildings, for one. It had tentacles on its chin, it had an abdomen that looks like it was puffed out with eggs or something, and it... well... vanished in some orange light."

[... Copy that, patrol 20. We are relaying your description to the higher-ups right now. Please standby for further orders.]

"Understood, Colonel Phelioc. Officer Raxa of patrol number 20, out." He said, pocketing his short-range handheld radio.

"You think it's another one of them experiments that those copper boys were working on?" "I doubt it. No way they could hide something that big without alerting the public." "What even WAS that?" "Didn't you hear Raxa talking? It was a dread maw." "I know, but THAT was a dread maw? Looks like it could make shits big enough to crush a dune-boat!" "That's a load of crap."

Raxa rolled his eyes, but then turned to his men and stood stiffly. "Remember your discipline and training, lads. We're not like the weak chinned, pulp shake drinking Torus Chain guards, protected in their fancy walled cities of theirs. We're Crescent Arms soldiers. We're as rowdy as a starved mongwedger, tougher than the course sand of a desert, and meaner than a shryik serpent with its tail stepped on. We won't back down from a fight, and we give our lives freely in the service of our emperor. Our job is to work ourselves to the bone in his service, either to die and be free from our prison, or live the better life in his perfect world. Remember our motto! Every soldier strives for the silver lining!"

"Strive for silver!" "Strive for silver!" "Strive for silver!" "Strive for silver!" "Strive for silver!"

[Patrol 20, come in.]

Raxa reached for his short-ranged radio and spoke to it again. "Officer Raxa, responding."

[We have acquired more orders from our commanders. We are to maintain our position until reinforcements arrive. Expect the four armies to take control of the mountain area in an hour.]

Raxa nodded. "And our patrol group, sir?"

[Considering the nature of the orders given to us, our commanders told US to maintain OUR position. However, they were also specific about any patrols that might suffer uneeded casualties. As such, you are to return to our forward base.]

He sighed. "Got it, forward base. We are currently at a drop-off near the lip of the caldera, but we can make our way back without difficulty."

[Then get to it, patrol 20. You will continue with your primary mission after we have received further orders to do so. Retreat back to the forward base southwest of your position. Afterwards, notify us of your findings and be on standby.]

Raxa nodded. "Yes sir. Forgive me for asking, sir, but what scared the higher ups to change our current orders?"

[They're orders from the higher up, patrol 20. That's all you need to know. Off the record, however, they think that there is some kind of zerg organism that can somehow go through solid rock. It's better to be safe than sorry.]

"Acknowledged. Raxa out." Raxa said, pocketing his handheld radio again. "Rothef, Garleen, notify everyone that we're going back to the forward base."

His two officers looked at each other before Rothef asked a question. "We're retreating, captain?"

Raxa nodded and sighed. "Humor the higher ups, Rothef. Apparently, that 'dread maw' scared them something fierce enough to change our standing orders. Now get to it! And that goes for everyone else too! We're going back to forward base!" As Raxa shouted his orders, he began to itch his left arm lightly.

The patrol groaned as they turned tail and went back the way they came from, even when they were returning back to their base camp. They had hoped to find something else interesting, or get a chance to see more of these 'zerg organisms' up close. Their conversation, however, was intercepted by the four roaches that were underneath their feet at the time. Some of the roaches pursued after the fleeing patrol, but many of the other roaches and infestors at the main hive cluster were already getting ready to depart to lands outside of the mountain's caldera, while hiding under the sand and moving out in every possible direction.

The zerg had little time, but it was all the time they needed. Corvurn was busily analyzing the DNA of the shryik serpents that was infested, only to finally be assimilated into The Swarm. Corvurn used an infestor to neurally dominate a bull shryik serpent. Corvurn later ate and analyzed the monster's genetic template with impunity. Corvurn could then modify its genetic data, or 'essence' as Corvurn prefers to call it, and eventually incorporating a new strain into The Zerg Swarm.

Just before the Crescent Arms patrol had reached the lip of the mountain's caldera, Kay was reciting an old conversation that his future self had made with Lovechief Kragnon. It was incredibly tedious, but Kay had to make sure that everything fell perfectly into place. Kragnon seemed receptive to Kay's presence after calming down, which was very much like in Kay's past in the past alternate timeline. Tedium aside, he needed to bridge a friendship with Kragnon and make sure that he doesn't get captured like last time, or become an activated sleeper agent. But alas, Kay didn't mind doing such a tedious task. He knew that he needed to do this. At least the two zerglings from this timeline were eager to participate in this conversation, despite being unaware of the redundancy that Kay had to go through again.

Kay perked up. "Could you explain what the other chieftains are? And could you tell me what a Thoughtlord does?"

Kragnon smiled. "Certainly, but I think it's time I took my rest. My jaw feels like it has been flapping for well over a time. My throat is even beginning to feel sore."

Kay shrugged his shoulders and got up. "Must be from all that yelling. Anyway, I got a hive cluster to manage. If you feel like talkin-"

'Patrol force detected. Currently retreating.' Corvurn reported.

"Gh- Corvurn? What's going on?" Kay asked, turning away. Kragnon only gave a confused expression since he was unable to hear the telepathic link that the zerg shared.

'Burrowed roach strain detected gilanian patrol. Soldiers ordered to retreat. Events in timeline changed. Overheard conversation. Empire has prior knowledge of swarm.'

Kay paused for a short while as he accessed the hivemind intelligence to assess any information relevant to the intrusion. What he discovered through the roaches shocked him. "... The fuck? How did the Crescent Arms Division find out about us so soon?"

"The what arms what?" Kragnon asked, his face emoting confusion.

"Hush you. I'm talking to Corvurn." Kay said, turning to Kragnon and then turning away again. "Corvurn, how the hell did those soldiers learn about us?"

'Unknown. Possible temporal recursion. Era Agency likely suspect. Possibly shared information regarding swarm?'

Kay raised his eyebrow. "When did we get so many problems this time around?"

'Also unknown. Crescent Arms patrol retreating. Recommend evacuation.'

Kay Sighed. "Fucking hell... Alright, you can go ahead and evacuate the surface hive cluster, but try and stall any more soldiers or Golden Star gilanians from getting close to our hive for as long as possible."

'Could follow patrol. Root out forward base. Initiate in combat.'

Kay shook his head. "No can do on that. We can't risk what happened last time." He then turned to look at Kragnon, concern in his stare. Apparently, the timeline has been irrevocably changed, whether or not he had followed the events of the timeline as best as he could. Sure, he did release Kragnon from his cold-pod way earlier than in the timeline before, but the activity of the Crescent Arms Division forces had been altered within this timeline as well. "Um... There has been a slight change of plans as of late. I think it's about time I tell you that I have the memories of myself in an alternate future timeline, and that those memories have been sent back to me in order to prevent a possible future from happening."

Kragnon paused for a long time before he tilted his head. "So what you are saying is... that... you have somehow interacted with the Era Agency?"

Kay turned away and proceeded out of the council room. "That's one way of putting it. If you want to look outside, I won't stop you. But remember my warning that I gave you. Do you remember what I have told you to do?"

Kragnon tilted his head further as he watched Kay leave. "... That... I should stay in the tower?"

"Exactly." Kay said, finally taking his leave as he was followed out by the two zerglings that seemed to guard him.

Once Kay and his beasts left, Kragnon stood up from his seat and straightened his gown before speaking again. "Maiden. Show a camera feed outside of the tower."

[Command detected.] The screen showed... several types of horrors that Kragnon would have never expected to see in his lifetime.

"... Oh gods. What even ARE the zerg?!" Kragnon shouted in awe and shock as he saw his once beloved home turn into an infestation.

As Kay exited the tower, he felt a deep pang of frustration within his carapace. How, in the world called Kiln, did Raxa and his superiors find out about the zerg? If Corvurn was correct in his assumption that the Era Agency was responsible for sharing such information with Gollog's empire, then the swarm was going to have a tougher time surviving on Kiln. But still, a plan was put into action, and Kay was determined to have The Swarm survive on Kiln, thwart the Golden Star Empire, and escape the prison that he was brought into. "Okay Corvurn. How long do you think it will take for the empire's army to mobilize and approach the center of the caldera?"

'Unknown deadline. Prediction, soon. Zergling strain targeting creep tumors. Will retreat to nydus network afterwards. Cave entrance, barricaded. Constriction grown behind sand barrier. Creep will recede rapidly. Leave no trace of zerg presence. Hive can regress into drone strain. Enough time. Less of baneling strain needed for nydus network destruction.'

Kay nodded as he went to the nydus worm. "What about the roaches and infestors that will be stuck on the surface?"

'Reconnaissance needed. Roach and infestor strains burrow-move, reaching different locations. Difficult to detect. Changelisks prepared for long-term infiltration. Also difficult to detect.'

Kay sighed. "Even so, I can't help but worry about what kind of changes happened within this new timeline. With that said, I want the zerg to burrow as deeply as they can, and then spread out from there. We need to find a way to get to the core of this world and infest it somehow."

'Understood. Emperor Gollog organism resides in core. Must be assimilated, or destroyed.'

"Preferably infested first, and then destroyed afterwards." Kay added.

The roaches could have kept following after the patrol further as they retreated back to their point of origin, no doubt running back to their precious base camp in boredom. But still, their retreat was a cause of concern for Kay. Why would they retreat when they had been ordered to enter the summit in their past timeline?

Several minutes had passed, roughly forty or so, before the caldera of Red Mountain was populated by several scores of many more gilanian soldiers. Many bore the armor of silver and blue, several had the uniforms of gray and yellow, some had copper and green jackets, while a few had black and purple tactical skintight suits. The roaches noticed that the empire gilanians were setting down several seismic sensors in a procedural fashion. The roaches and infestors that managed to burrow past this sensor sweep were lucky to escape such scrutiny, despite the danger of being revealed to Gollog's forces. Now, however, the roaches and few infestors within the caldera have nowhere to go. They had erected searchlights that brightened the shadowy summit, which was still slowly being brightened further by the hexagonal moon's glow.

"Commander Kralluf, the seismic sensors are detecting buried lifeforms in the center of this caldera. It looks like they're near the rock structure and the freshwater spring." A gray and yellow uniformed colonel reported to his handheld radio.

[Good work, Skedir.] A familiar gruff voice replied back. [Our informant says that this is a new zerg tactic, so you are authorized to exercise caution. These zerg critters haven't attacked us yet, but we have been given definite proof that the zerg truly are dangerous. Exterminate the area of all hostile organisms and locate the underground village.]

"Yes sir, Commander Kralluf. May I request bombardment of the central caldera area?"

[I like your way of thinking, corporal! After all threats have been eliminated, use the seismic sensors to locate the entrance to the hidden village. Now stand back, unless you want to be blown into smithereens.]

Desert platforms that have been positioned a far ways away from the center of the summit centered their devastating artillery cannons onto the space between the red rock structure and the natural freshwater spring, which slowly produced evaporating water that was supposedly safe to drink. After thirty seconds of preparation, the artillery cannons fired at the center of the caldera with a cacophonous uproar. Each shell that impacted the center of the caldera heavily damaged the roaches and infestors that hid there, but they were all killed so quickly that they didn't have enough time to counterattack.

After the artillery shells stopped firing at the caldera's center, one of the gilanian soldiers called out. "Seismic sensors are showing no underground organisms in the immediate area! There is also a bunch of sand blocking off a cave entrance that leads into an underground tunnel over there! There is something alive right behind it!"

"Got it." The uniformed guard looked up, pocketing his radio. "Can I get a team of sand diggers to go in and dig that spot?"

"But what about the thing that's past the sand blockage? Can't we bring a fire breather unit with us?" A lower ranked Torus guard complained.

"Just use slow, deliberate movements. We will send a fire breather unit to join with you. Now form a team and do it, or I will demote you to private and have you on permanent toilet-cleaning duty."

"Ugh. Yes sir."

[Actually, we have been given further information and tactics from our informant.] Kralluf interjected. [We are to set a heavy defensive perimeter around the cave entrance before we enter through it. I want a stacked wall of magic wall projectors surrounding the cave entrance, and several automated turrets and seismic sensors overlooking them. I have gotten the permission to bring more desert platforms to our location, as well as to deliver Pinnacle Superior here, General Pallax's favorite toy. The golden war machine is going to take some time getting here, but I want those defenses set up as you start unblocking that cave. You have your orders, so get them done quickly.]

"Uh... Yes sir."

Once that order was carried out, Torus Chain officers had erected a wall of magic wall projectors that surrounded the spring and rock formation. The seismic sensors and automated turrets were built later, mostly being placed on top of and within the wall perimeter. While the perimeter wall was made, the sand digging team finally got started with their task. A fire breather unit joined them as they began shifting sand. Once their work had started, they took slow and deliberate movements to slowly clear the sand away from the cave entrance. The work was tedious, but the cave entrance was finally discovered and cleared of the sand that blocked their entry.

A gilanian that wore a heavily-built fireproof suit, fitted with several plates of armor that was attached to him, was deployed to deal with the zerg constriction that was at the other end of the sand blockage. He waddled with the sand diggers and patiently waited for his chance to use his flamethrower's business end on his target, once the wall of sand was removed. During his slow travel into the cave, the sand diggers had uncovered what looked like the zerg constriction that blocked the digger team from proceeding further. "Uh... Sir? I think you better look at this." One of the sand diggers reported.

Colonel Skedir sighed. "What is it?"

"I don't know what to describe it, but... Think you can use my uniform camera system to see for yourself?"

Skedir was now curious. "I'll allow it." He said, taking a plastic data sheet and holding it up. "Requesting link with video feed."

"Request accepted."

Once he saw what had stopped the sand diggers' progress, Skedir didn't know what he was looking at when he saw this mass of... stuff that looked thorny with thick flesh and several illuminated boils shifting around every now and then. It was uncomfortable to look at. "Commander Kralluf, I'm patching this live video feed to you now. What do you make of it?"

[Eugh. Looks like something that might come out of a horror themed moving painting. Is there a way around it?]

"This is Corporal Kadur, sir. Whatever this stuff is, it's blocking the only path to the underground cave system." Said Skedir's lesser ranked officer, who was tasked with digging the sand out of the cave.

[Crap. I guess we'll just have to burn that mass to ash. Let the incendiary unit do his job.]

Skedir shook his head and sighed. "Sir, what about the 'slow and deliberate' approach we have been doing? That's been working for us so far."

[Then the flamethrower burning that mass will have to be slow and deliberate now, will it?]

Once the sand diggers retreated behind the fire breather soldier, he readied his flame thrower weapon at the zerg constriction. "Lighting up." A quick spurt of the flamethrower sprayed a coat of napalm onto the mass of zerg flesh, which made the constriction wiggle and wither violently. This burning process continued for several seconds, as the flamethrower unit cleared away the constriction.

Skedir sighed, feeling as though there was going to be hell breaking loose later in the night.

[Has there been any other activity in the surrounding regions?] Kralluf asked.

"None at all sir. The seismic sensors are telling us that they haven't detected anything. It looks like the lifeforms at the center of the summit were just guard animals protecting the entrance of their nest."

[... I don't like this. When is there going to be some action?]

"Sir." The soldier wielding the flamethrower said. "I burned a way through the mass. The tunnel extends further down, but I'm seeing this black and purple stuff on the ground. Feels like there's a layer of mucous with slugs writhing around in it. Do I fall back?"

[Negative. Maintain your post at that location and notify us anything strange that you can see. We'll be sending a team to join with you a little later on, so sit tight.]

Nobody breathed a sigh of relief. The flamethrower wielding gilanian stood where he was in the cave, his suit covered in ash and black smoke that seemed to surround him temporarily.

[Alright then.] Commander Kralluf said, sounding dangerously excited. [Maintain the automated turret system and have this entire caldera protected, so anything that doesn't register as a gilanian is going to be cut in half with bullet fire. I want desert platforms maintaining a safe distance away from the center of the hot zone, and have them continue training their artillery cannons at the center of the mountain. Send in several breaching teams to infiltrate into the cave system.

I want the first group to consist of magic armor specialists and anti-riot robots, using magic wall technology to push through. Sharpshooter and heavy fire support teams will back up the magic armor specialist group, attacking through the magic wall tech at any zerg monster that dares try and break out of the cave entrance. Make sure to place seismic sensors and automated turrets as you go into the entrance of the underground tunnel. Whatever this slime is, our informant is telling us that it's also bad news for us, so you guys need to remove it in whatever fashion you think is good. Our informant is also advising me that we should set up a magic siege wall early, and send four anti-fiend units with the breaching team. Some of you might have your doubts about manifesting black holes in enclosed spaces, but hey, the emperor has ordered me to use these units now, so that's what I'm going to do. Also, Commander Faddoh has given us a unique blueprint for a new ammo type that can be made at a manifestation altar, so have fun with that. MOVE OUT!]

The empire soldiers were quick to readjust their strategies and tactics. The soldiers lined up at the manifestation altars to swap out their ammo for something much more lethal. What that ammo might have been, Kay wouldn't have known what it was. It was obvious at this point that the timeline was irrevocably changed.

The magic armor specialists carried with them impressive shields that seemed to fold away or unfold outward at a command. Their armor had an array of ablative surfaces that was fitted over their protective armor, which was encased by their magic armor technology. Their shields could also produce this magic armor technology as well, which acted similarly to the magic wall tech as it locks and anchors itself into place on the ground. If that didn't make matters worse, the anti-riot robots were also fitted with ablative magic armor plates, which were similar to the plates that the magic armor specialists used with their armor.

The teams filed into the cave entrance and took to their march in a slow procession. The magic shield soldiers would take the lead as the other gilanian soldiers huddled behind them, soon setting up the treaded machines to create that magic siege wall that inched its way forward. An impressive amount of force would have to disrupt the siege wall that slowly traveled down the tunnel system, and many would suffer if the magic siege wall projectors were destroyed, which would invoke great danger in their infiltration mission. The darkness was even darker within the cave, but it was chased away by the lights emitted by the anti-riot bots, and the gilanian soldiers that were right behind them. Behind them all were new soldiers.

Four new kinds of units had been introduced to Kralluf's ranks, and Kay didn't like what he saw when they came into the field of awareness of a creep tumor. There was gilanians that bore plated armor all around their persons, and each held a giant bladed pillar that was carried around by two pairs of mechanical arms, which came out from their torso and back. Their arms and legs were also heavily mechanized, giving the special units support to account for the weight that the extra arms applied. These units was adorned with a finned helm, and walked with mechanical purpose as they strolled to the mouth of the cave, where the cave entrance awaited them as they entered. "If it gets too molty, we'll cover you. We'll take down the big jags."

"Hmm. This bubble looks weird." An armored soldier said as he prodded a creep tumor with his foot before stomping on it. It made a disgusting gushing sound as its flesh was violently disturbed.

"There's another bubble here." Another forceful stomp prompted another end to a creep tumor. When that attack wasn't effective enough, he unloaded a few rounds onto it. "These things are a bit tough. A few shots can pop them easily enough."

"The slime stuff is receding guys. Think these bubble things spreads the stuff?" A stomp made a creep tumor pop again, making the foot that attacked it to become drenched in wet gore.

"It's hard to find these bubble things further in." A magic armor specialist said, prodding the floor with experimental steps. "But if the ground feels muddier than usual, dance on it to find out if there's one of those bubbles under this muck."

"I heard that these jags eats this slime stuff. Sounds disgusting to me." A soldier said, joining in with the other soldiers and bringing down his feet to find out if there was a creep tumor in his path. If his feet couldn't pop the tumor, he would resort to using a melee weapon.

[Cut the chatter unless it's something important, and proceed with your mission.] Commander Kralluf grumbled.

Zerglings were plentiful in their numbers in the underground village. Many of them had been spawned in order to drive away the invading forces, but an ultralisk had also been spawned if the zerglings were unsuccessful to defend their new base. Kay regretted that he had placed the hive too close to the entrance into the underground village, even when several spine and spore crawlers had surrounded the zerg bio-structure. But even so, the zerglings would at least prevent their intrusion into zerg territory for long enough. With but a gesture, Kay pointed at the only entrance into the underground village. "Send the zerglings."

At his command, zerglings trilled and hissed as they sped through the only entrance into the underground village. Many clambered into and through the tunnel entrance, and many more zerglings pushed behind their brothers, eager to fight the Golden Star Empire soldiers for the first time of their lives.

Kay turned toward the ultralisk that was standing by, which looked ready to cause some havoc. Kay sighed as he pointed at the enormous monster. "You." Kay then pointed at the tunnel entrance. "Attack empire gilanians."

The ultralisk roared loudly as it stampeded forward, its Kaiser blades widening the tunnel to allow it room to pass through. 'EMPIRE!' It roared aloud in a telepathic shout that could only be heard to the psionically gifted connected to the zerg hivemind. The zerglings assisted with clearing out any rubble that got in their way, but they continued on as the creep maintained the structural stability of the tunnel corridor.

Kay watched the zerg swarming to battle, like how a moth would take to a light source. Kay didn't like it, but he knew well that the zerg thrived on confrontation and war. Fighting an enemy had a chance to develop experience and fortify one's strength, and the zerg searched for every opportunity to evolve past their normal boundaries. But in Kay's opinion, he would rather drop a nuke on a problematic area and be done with it. With the zerg, their usual modus operandi is to simply infest and colonize a world, assimilate useful strains, evolve beneficial mutations, harvest resources and essence, and then repeat steps 1-3 ad infinitum. "Okay Corvurn. How many Shrylisks can we deploy to the central caldera area of Red Mountain?"

Corvurn was overlooking several cocoons that was quickly gestating the new strains that he had invested. "Shrylisk strain requires twenty seconds to spawn. Four more seconds needed."

Kay nodded. "Kay. Have them loaded up with zerglings, roaches, hydralisks, drones and queens. Once our counterattack generates enough biomass, we can start making brutalisks and start taking back our conceded territory. After they have gained some ground, we can over-mutate some brutalisks and remake our cluster on the surface to start spawning air units. Virid and Othafurn are going to need time to make hatcheries and resources on the hexagonal moon, while we need to tough it out right where we are until we can get the resources we need."

Kay thought that he could use zerglings as the main organisms to transform into the brutalisks, since zerglings were so cheap to make. But the side-effect that involves the over-mutation process were too violent for them. When the cocoon formed over the zerglings and attempted to mutate them into brutalisks, their muscles would grow too large and too fast to the point of breaking their bones and carapace apart, crushing their organs and brains like peeled grapes.

However, the zerglings could absorb biomass into their bodies just fine, and are able to receive some of the biomass' effects that were typical to many other strains. Simply put, the zerglings did not acquire increased attack speed, but instead had increased health and energy instead. The problem was reallocating that biomass to another creature when a brutalisk was needed. It would mean that a few zerglings would have to be cannibalized by a stronger zerg strain to make way for a brutalisk. That is if they hadn't processed enough biomass from their enemies, or their dead, in the first place. The same thing would also happen to a baneling, since the weak membrane that contained their acid would cancel out their over-mutation into a brutalisk.

Worse still, the ultralisks were incapable of absorbing biomass into their bodies. Apparently, the ultralisk cavern already had a means to create a type of irradiated and volatile type of biomass, which enabled the zerg larvae to spawn into the ultralisks. Sadly, the method to over-mutate an ultralisk into a brutalisk was sabotaged from the beginning of their established existence, thanks to the ultralisk cavern that enabled their spawning. Of course, an ultralisk could revert back to a larva, spawn into a completely different organism, and THEN turn into a brutalisk with the harvested biomass it collected, but going through that many hoops would be an inefficient use of resources. Not only that, reverting a brutalisk would devolve them into a larvae, which completely forgoes their past morph they once took before they became a brutalisk.

Kay truly thought that every ground organism could turn into a brutalisk, but he was proven wrong by the recent tests. As an aside, he now has two methods of creating leviathans, one that simply requires a flat-yet-expensive cost of bio-matter and accelerant, and the other requiring a zerg air unit to over-mutate into one. There were differences between them, however. One, the naturally spawned leviathans could send sacs filled with developing bio-structures and ground strains to the ground, and is able to spawn mutalisks, brood lords, scourge, and other types of air strains if they had the appropriate bio-structures growing in their bodies. The over-mutated leviathans did not gain the ability to produce sacs or other air units, on the other hand.

However, such details were fleeting when looking over only the best qualities of the mutations he received from the alternate timeline.

Corvurn nodded. "Past timeline held intriguing information. Unusual parallels. However, timeline has changed. Different now."

Kay shook his head. "And it's those changes that has me worried."

Corvurn turned to Kay. "How so?" He asked in a curious tone.

"Well..." Kay said as he recollected his thoughts. "If the Era Agents are behind the changes we are aware of in this new timeline, then what had caused them to warn the empire about us?"

Corvurn paused, but then slowly nodded. "Disturbing. Time travel, dangerous. Adaptations made from past timeline, inefficient. Era agents can adapt to current mutations. Go into past and focus on Swarm weaknesses."

Kay smiled and sighed. "Well if your 'junior' from that other timeline was correct in his calculations, they'll be in for a nasty surprise."

Corvurn clasped his four hands together. "Very unique adaptation. Envious of progeny evolution master's work."

Kay chuckled. "Hah, well eh, if you ever get the chance, you could meet up with him again and trade notes."

Corvurn nodded. "Will attempt. ... Hmm?" The evolution master turned away from Kay to look at a vacant space, near one of the hatcheries.

Kay looked at Corvurn and raised an eyebrow. "Uh... What's got your attention?"

Corvurn stared at the nothingness. "... Saw something. Heard something. Know not what."

Kay looked at the empty space. He then turned to look at Corvurn again. "Uh... I don't see anything there."

"Hmm." Corvurn said. He sent a subtle psionic command to a nearby overseer to fly over to where Corvurn thought he saw something.

Kay furrowed his brows as he noticed the hivemind adjusting to Corvurn's command. "Corvurn buddy, listen. There is nothing but us down here. ...Well, except for a few straggling shryik serpents and-" Kay was suddenly corrected when he saw, from the overseer's point of view, a sneaking gilanian in a black and purple skintight suit, making slow and careful steps towards the center of the underground village. "... uh... her, apparently." He said, surprised.

The sneaking Pyramidal Guard paused as she was addressed. She slowly turned toward Corvurn and Kay for several seconds and paused when her gaze met theirs. She slowly brought her wrist up to her face. "Xaff here. I think I have been detected by the enemy."

[Is your cloak device active?]

"Yes mam. I can confirm that it is active."

[Give us confirmation of your detection, infiltrator Xaff.]

She paused for a few seconds. "Um... How?"

[Wave at them or something. And don't hesitate to escape the area using an emergency MEM shift if you think you are in danger.]

She paused for a few more seconds before she waved at the zerg organisms staring at her. After a few seconds of delay, Kay decided to raise a hand and slowly wave back at the infiltrating gilanian soldier. She slowly brought her wrist to her face again. "I... I can confirm that I have been detected by the enemy. Repeat, I can confirm that I have been detected."

[How in the... Can you continue with your mission?]

"They are staring right at me and I feel as though if I move, I will give them reason to give chase."

[Dammit. E-shift out of there then. We'll have to find another way.]

"E-shifting now." A blur of blue and white static covered over the Pyramidal Guard infiltrator, disappearing seconds later.

Both Corvurn and Kay stared at the empty space blankly. Kay slouched and sighed seconds later. 'Oh fuck me, it's the empire's shadows.'

Corvurn growled. 'Problem. Infiltrators intruding into underground hive cluster. Must evolve overlords into overseer strains.'

'And I'll get a ring of crawlers morphed around the tower. That could be a possible target they might be reaching for. After I get a ring of crawlers morphed around the tower, I'll need a few overseers to accompany me.' Kay said as he started to run for the central tower in the underground village. 'But don't forget that we also have enemies trying to get through the tunnel system!'

Corvurn nodded. 'Understood. Will multitask.' Corvurn replied, turning away and heading toward the zerg hive. It happened to be the only larvae spawning structure that was the closest to the tunnel entrance, and the queens were assisting in the spawning of the zerglings and other zerg organisms. They were quite busy in their larval injection duties.

But as of then, invisible intruders have intruded into the Hidden Water Spring Tribe's underground village.

Several overseers quickly flew to and circled the central tower, leaving little space for the Pyramidal Guard shadows to slip past and enter into the tower and discover Kragnon living within it. Several drones had been commanded to quickly move to the central tower and form cocoons around themselves, forming a ring of taught embryonic sacs. Once the ring of spine crawlers and spore crawlers formed, it would make any attempt to infiltrate the tower next to impossible. A small swarm of zerglings were also commanded to circle around the tower, in case the crawlers didn't gestate in time.

A couple of minutes had passed before anything else had occurred, but such length of time passing had enabled the spine and spore crawlers to take shape from the drones that morphed into them. It was only when the overseers started to expand their search patterns that they began finding the Pyramidal Guard shadows moving in formation.

When an overseer hovered over the group of shadows, they took notice of its presence immediately. "Careful girls. The informant warned that some of these creatures can see through our cloaking ability." "How can they detect us if they don't have light-screen detector equipment?" "No clue. All we know is that only two organisms display this non-technological detection ability. One is the 'barnacle sentries'. And the other is this thing above us. The 'oculars.'" "Are these aggressive?" "No. This thing, and the drifters, are said to be completely incapable of attacking. However, that doesn't mean we should get comfortable just yet." "What do we do now?"

Before long, a swarm of zerglings quickly reached their position. Their trilling became dangerously loud as they speedily came close. Once the zerglings came into their view, one of them was eager to answer the question that one of their fellow shadow sisters posited. "SCATTER!" In that instant, the shadow assassins parted and quickly ran away in random directions. There was only one overseer within the area, but it had elected to chase down one of the female gilanian assassins. The zerglings gave chase to the fleeing assassins, but only one small squad of zerglings were having any luck tracking down and chasing after one of the shadows. "BAD NEWS, GIRLS! I'M BEING TAILED! WHAT'S YOUR STATUS?!"

[I'm no longer being chased.] [The blade hounds are sniffing around for me and sis, but I'm long gone.] [Hidden and safe. Come around south of your position. We'll provide cover fire.]

"COPY THAT! GOING YOUR WAY NOW! DAMN, THESE BLADE HOUNDS ARE FAST!" The fleeing shadow assassin flipped and cartwheeled past several zerglings that did their best to catch up to and wound her, but their attacks amounted to little when she flitted behind an obstacle or vaulted over a large object. But the zerglings came ever so close to her as their slashing claws and piercing fangs tried to rend her flesh.

But their short trek after the shadow assassin was interrupted. The small swarm of zerglings were picked off rapidly as silenced sniper rifles attacked them from unseen positions. When the overseer scanned over the area, it too became under siege by the rifle fire. The remaining zerglings burrowed under the cover of the sand and creep while the overseer retreated in quick fashion. [Picked off a few of the targets before they dug under the slime and sand. We'll need to resort to anti-shryik serpent tactics. The ocular flew away before we could kill it.] [Thanks for saving my ass, girls! Hoh! What's our progress with our second team?]

[Second team here. We noticed that the zerg organisms are fortifying the central tower. We were going to infiltrate the tower, but we noticed that the barnacle sentries surrounded all ground entrances. We're attempting to send cloaked hover-drones past them now.] Seconds later, flying hover-drones were detected by the overseers circling the central tower in the underground village. When the shadow assassins' hover-drones got too close to the underground tower, however, the spore crawlers released their seeking spores against the easily targeted intruders. More overseers were morphed from the overlords that were spawned in the underground chamber, and the underground airspace was quickly populated by corruptors seconds later. [Strange... These creatures adapted to our strategy more quickly than we had anticipated. Slayers and oculars are flying above the barnacle sentries, almost as though they are expecting us to test if the barnacles have a limit to their detection abilities far above themselves.]

[So we can't send our cloaked drones over their defenses?] [Seems like it. Shall I inform our informant about this zerg tactic?] [He will need every piece of information. As of now, we can't proceed further without risking getting mauled or hunted down.] [Reconnaissance is no longer our mission, ladies. We must proceed with plan B, Operation: Bull Boxing.] [I copy that. Where was the bug-man beast-master and that... gross looking slug-thing again?] [Near the entrance of this cavern, I think.] [Don't proceed to our secondary target's position just yet. We need to secure an area for the VIPs that are important to our plan B.] [Understood. Securing an area for the meetup, ETA ten minutes.]

Kay frowned as he heard their transmitted communications between themselves. The overseers and spore crawlers were quick to detect their transmitted radio frequencies, and Kay's prior experience in the other timeline enabled The Swarm within this timeline to intercept their communication frequencies earlier. How the zerg are able to do so was beyond Kay's understanding, but their ability to evolve in such a way not only confounded him, but also every other scientist that tried to study the zerg as well. Still, despite confounding adaptations that the zerg are capable of, this 'plan' of theirs had gotten his attention. 'Corvurn, I think these assassins are up to something.'

'Problem. Zerg commanders became targets. Unacceptable. Must avoid. Must counterattack.' Corvurn growled as he learned about the shadow assassin's current plans.

Kay shook his head and sighed. 'I kinda want to capture one of the assassins to find out what this 'Operation: Bull Boxing' is supposed to be.'

'Find out later. Survival important now.' Corvurn urged, commanding a shrylisk to surface near Kay. Corvurn took his time to slither next to the shrylisk, purposed to leave the hive.

Kay turned to look at the shrylisk strain zerg organism. The underground would prove to be an effective place to retreat into, but he had other concerns. 'What about Kragnon? Are we just going to leave him here?'

'... The Kragnon organism contains unknown commands, activates 'reclamation protocol'. Dangerous variable. Must prevent capture. Is now command organism Kay's task.' Corvurn said, entering into the shrylisk's maw and becoming its passenger.

Kay sighed, but then took off, skating on the creep and heading towards the central tower. 'Once I get Kragnon, I'll put him into a shrylisk's maw and transport him to Citadel Gargantua. Hopefully, my changelisk named 'Johnny' can persuade Baroness Tak to provide a room for one more guest. I also hope that Kragnon doesn't mind being inside of a shrylisk...'

'Should keep mouth, eyes, and wounds covered. Risk of infestation, lessened.'

Kay nodded as he neared the tower. 'Good things to know beforehand.'

'Query. Keeping Kragnon alive, needless effort. Left alive, contains risk of capture. Potential to activate reclamation protocol later. Destroy Kragnon, prevent capture and protocol activation.'

Kay shook his head. 'I don't know about doing that, Corvurn. I think there might be several redundancies and countermeasures put in place to prevent or punish anyone from doing significant harm to someone that has these 'command' things in their possession. Unless we know otherwise, we're keeping Kragnon alive.'

'Hmm. Understandable. Risking activation of reclamation protocol, unfavorable. Will refrain from destroying Kragnon.'

Kay rolled his eyes as he vaulted over the wall that surrounded the underground tower once more. It was true that killing kragnon would prevent others from acquiring the warden commands that he was gifted with, but there was no knowing what the aftermath might have been if he truly did die. In theory, keeping Kragnon alive would prevent the inevitable doomsday, preventing everything on Kiln from being destroyed. The power contained in that 'Reclamation Protocol' Warden Command was too great to ignore at any rate, and Kay had a hunch that was telling him that no good would come from his death.

Kay scaled the tower as quickly as he could, passing through several hallways and doors, scaling up many ramps and staircases, until he found the door that lead into the tower's council chamber. Kay knocked onto the door rapidly. "Kragnon! It's me, Kay! I have some urgent news to tell you!"

"Can this wait, Kay? I need to review the eighty years of history that I had missed."

"Review it later! The underground village is under attack by Pyramidal Guard assassins!" Kay urged.

"The what guards what?"

"I need to get you to safety now, or Gollog's soldiers are going to tear down your tower just to get to you!" Kay said through gritted teeth.

"... Ah. Uh... Let me pack some essential items first and I'll be with you shortly."

Kay kicked the door open, making it fall down abruptly as he intruded into the council chamber. "Not enough time! Just wrap a length of cloth across your mouth and... Uh..."

Kay blinked a few times when he saw the screen on the wall depicting several scantily clad gilanian women in several poses. Several seconds of intense staring happened between Kragnon with his arms crossed over his lap, and Kay having intruded into the council chamber. Several more seconds had passed before Kragnon finally sighed. "Maiden, cancel my last search."

[Command detected.] After relaying the command to Maiden, the screen behind Kragnon became blank. Kragnon sighed as though he was embarrassed by something.

Kay raised an eyebrow. "Um... Were you... looking at porn?"

Kragnon scoffed. "No no, I wasn't. I was just um... Testing something."

Kay raised both eyebrows. "Testing something?"

Kragnon paused for a couple seconds. "Well... if you have ever been in a cold-pod for as long as I have, you have to check to make sure that certain... uh... biological functions still work properly. To put it as bluntly as possible... I was checking if my virility was still the same before I entered stasis."

Kay sighed and dismissed Kragnon with a hand-wave. "Okay okay, I get it. Oi... But let me bring this back to the original topic. We need to get you out of here, and we don't have enough time to pack. Just bring a length of cloth that you can wrap over your mouth and nose, get some eye protection, and a hat to cover your ear holes. Do you have any open sores on your scales, or any wounds that need attention?"

"Uh... No, I don't have any sores or wounds." Kragnon answered.

Kay nodded. "Good. Now get those things I told you to wear now, and nothing else. We need to leave NOW!" Kragnon paused for a couple seconds, but he nodded and hurriedly went to the nearest manifestation altar to equip the items that Kay requested for him to wear. And speaking of something to wear. "And put some pants on while you're at it!" Kay shouted. He was going to have a hard time trying to forget the awkward moment that he instigated.

Minutes later, Kay and Kragnon had scaled down the many steps of the underground tower and made their way to the base. Kragnon went to a part of a wall where several different levers were installed into it. After fiddling with the levers on the wall, a staircase folded out of the ground, positioned itself over the wall, and locked itself into place when the end of the stairs softly thudded with a squishing sound on the creep at the other side of the wall. Kragnon sighed when he was done with the staircase controls, then turned to Kay. "So what do I do now?" Kragnon asked, his voice slightly muffled by the long length of cloth that covered his mouth.

Kay leapt over the wall with ease and landed heavily on the other side. "You're going to have to hitch a ride. It's the only safe way out of this chamber, and I wouldn't normally do this if I had no other choice."

Kragnon hurriedly jogged over the stairs and back down them, meeting back with Kay. "Hitch a ride? I didn't know you could drive a dune boat!"

A shrylisk erupted next to Kay, and it opened its maw to Kay and Kragnon. Kay sighed. "I never said that I did."

Kragnon gazed at the unusual beast before him. He didn't know what he was supposed to do with the thing, but when he exchanged glances with Kay's stern gaze, he felt a pang of worry. "... Uh. Kay? What kind of ride am I supposed to hitch into, exactly?"

Kay paused for a few seconds, turned to look at the awaiting shrylisk's maw, turned back to Kragnon with a sigh, and then pointed a thumb towards the shrylisk that was behind him.

"... Hah... Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA! AH-HAHAHAHA WHAT?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODS-DAMNED MIND?!" Kragnon shouted, laughing as though he was in complete disbelief.

Kay sighed. "I know it's not the most prettiest way to make a getaway, but it's the best I have available. Now get into its mouth."

"HELL NO! I'M NOT ABOUT TO ENTER THAT THING'S MOUTH WHEN I HAVE ONLY MET YOU TODAY!" Kragnon shouted in disgust.

Kay furrowed his eyebrows. "Kragnon, I just revived you from a cold-pod. Can't you understand that I am trying to save your life here?"

"'SAVE MY LIFE' NOTHING! I AM NOT GOING TO GET INTO THE MOUTH OF A BEAST THAT LOOKS LIKE A SHRYIK SERPENT, AND THAT IS FINAL!" He loudly refused.

Kay sighed and palmed his face. "You are being COMPLETELY ridiculous right now. You will come under no harm inside its belly if you keep your hands and feet to yourself, and prevent any fluids from soaking into your crevices."

"AND I SAID 'HELL NO'!" Kragnon complained.

"Am I interrupting something?" As the voice said that, the nearby spore crawlers and spine crawlers suddenly died in an explosion of gore, and the sweet, sharp smell of ozone filled the air quickly. The overseers that were above Kay and Kragnon had also suffered a similar fate as chunks of flesh and splashes of blood fell to the ground in a splatter.

Both Kay and Kragnon looked toward the third party that had intruded into their conversation. To Kay's surprise and contempt, it was a gilanian that wore a black plastic suit that fitted over his body in a snug way. Kay recognized the face, remembering that his past self from the other timeline had encountered this gilanian before. It was the Era Agent that he had nicknamed Bubbles. Immediately after a second of hesitation, Kay used his psionic power to telepathically move Kragnon into the awaiting mouth of the shrylisk. "UAGH~!"

Before Kragnon had the chance to complain further, he was swallowed up by the burrowing organism, and it burrowed deeply into the creep and sand before the Era Agent could intervene. Bubbles sighed as he shook his head and furrowed his scaly brows. "Tch tch tch. Why must you make our work more difficult, Kay?"

Kay turned to Bubbles and sternly fixed his gaze onto him, his intense stare sending waves of anger. "Listen here, Bubbles. I don't care how many times you try to interfere with the timeline to accomplish your half-assed missions, but if you piss off the zerg, then you are going to regret it." He said, pointing at him.

"... Bubbles?" Bubbles said, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head. He then shook his head and hardened his facial expression. "Listen, Kay. The Era Agents and the Era Agency are not your enemies. We are just as against Gollog as you are! But then again, there are very many things that we cannot allow to happen. We have discovered a long time ago that Kragnon's survival is key to our world's existence. If he were to die, as well as any of the reincarnated wardens before or after their cloning, or if by some fated act that the reclamation protocol was activated, OR if some vital systems have been tampered with, then we would be put out of business."

Kay growled. "Then take your damn business elsewhere. Can't you see that I am in the middle of defending my hive cluster?"

Bubbles looked around and nodded. "It is a shame that you have became so aggressive in this timeline too. I'd much prefer to speak to a more docile version of yourself, if possible."

Kay stared at Bubbles for a few seconds. "... You're not making any sense."

Bubbles looked back at Kay and slightly smiled. "There is an infinite number of timelines that exist, each one their own contained universe that is its own dimension of infinite possibilities. Considering that you are not asking about my affiliation, and that you seemed to have... er... nicknamed me, I can only assume that you are aware of my agency. We are but simple practitioners of time travel, but we have developed our skills that we use on a professional basis, and we use our time travel abilities to profit from the timelines that still exist. But you have changed that."

Kay growled. "You're still not making any damn sense, and I am slowly losing patience listening to your drivel. You know what? Fuck it. I'm going to read your mind again and get straight to the point." He said, reaching a hand toward Bubble's face.

Bubbles backed away. "... What?! Again? But... that would mean... NO!" Bubbles shouted, taking out a blade-less hilt that had a button on its side. Once he pressed the button on its side, it produced a thin line of concentrated energy that hummed as it was activated. "ULTRA-SUIT, ACTIVATE COMBAT MODE!" The moment after he had shouted that command, his body was instantly covered by a semi-transparent envelop of warbling energy. Bubbles then took a combative stance as he directed his strange melee weapon toward Kay.

Kay blinked a few times. "... Uh... Kay, this is a unique reaction!"

"Give me a straight answer, Kay." Bubbles growled, hissing and leering at Kay as he talked to him. "Have you time traveled into a new timeline?"

Kay paused for a few seconds, but he shook his head. "I haven't, no."

Bubbles paused. "... Did someone you know time traveled into this new timeline?"

Kay blinked his eyes a few times. "... What are you trying to figure out?"

"You said that you would read my mind again. The lockdown of that particular timeline must have been your doing. And the fact that you have stated you have done this prior means that there is some time traveling variables that the Era Agency has failed to detect in time. I am only now beginning to understand how much of a threat you, and the zerg organisms, truly are. ... With that said, it's obvious to me that your psionic abilities not only connects you to your zerg organisms, but it can also access memories, knowledge, and experiences of non-zerg organisms. This telepathic exchange seems to be doable with but simple physical contact, and yet, it has done so much damage already." Bubbles said as he slowly circled Kay.

Kay stared at Bubbles for a few seconds before he sighed. "Are... Are you going to try and kill me just because I already read your mind once before? Huh. Seems like Zagion is very strict with your time travel policies. Maybe he shouldn't be beating you as your normal form of punishment? I'm beginning to think that those beatings left you with post traumatic stress disorder?"

Bubbles breathed deeply. "You know too much. You need to be eliminated from existence itself, and now." He said, brandishing his strange laser sword and-

PANIC!

Bubble's laser sword was suddenly embedded into Kay's torso, stabbing straight through his left pectoral muscle. "Hrk..." The laser sword was pulled out of Kay's torso, which made the air smell like ozone and boiling blood. Kay fell to the ground in a kneeling position, feeling weakness taking over his body as he became suddenly lightheaded.

Bubbles positioned the laser sword across Kay's neck, its light greatly blinding his vision. "It has to be this way, Kay. In time, you and your monsters will be forgotten. All of you will now know oblivion."

"... R~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~A~U~G~H~!~!~!" Kay unleashed a massive shockwave of psionic energy in an unrelenting explosion of destructive power. The force of the blast was enough to send Bubbles flying through the air several meters away, making him crash into the side of one of the bigger housings within the underground tower. The weapon that had pierced into Kay's carapace was destroyed after the attack, its hilt shattering into thousands of pieces and its blade fazing out of existence at the very moment of its destruction.

The Era Agent fell out of the crumbled indentation that he crashed into and flopped onto the creep. The energy envelop that surrounded his body flickered violently before shorting out completely. Several seconds later, a pained groan escaped the lungs of the launched Era Agent. Bubbles shakily got onto his hands and feet, and then struggled to stand. "U-uhhh... Oh, whah... What the hell..."

A stabbing pain entered into his ribs as sharp claws dug through his 'ultra suit'. He yelped as he registered pain entering his body, even when he has suffered from severe whiplash from Kay's last attack. He was then dragged away by slicing claws, but Bubbles knew not where to. It was after several seconds of hazy recovery, even as he was being dragged, that Bubbles saw that he was being pulled to a nearby hatchery by a zergling. A drone intercepted the zergling and took over its task, clasping onto Bubble's shoulders and continuing to move the Era Agent to the hatchery.

Bubbles knew that he was in danger. "Shadows... This is Agent Bulschtein. I'm in trouble. My armor is... malfunctioning. I need immediate evacuation... To your facility. I'm being dragged to the zerg nest... by a floater. Send help... Quickly."

[Copy that, Bulschtein. Team two, try to breach and retrieve any information or important items. Team one will be retrieving the asset.]

In scant seconds, several silenced sniper shots riddled the zerg drone's carapace, rending both of its pincer claws from its body and forcing it to drop Bubbles onto the wet, creep covered ground. Several zerglings were summoned to surround the crippled Era Agent, and they were soon joined by two spine crawlers and two spore crawlers. They began rooting themselves into the ground as the zerglings patrolled around Bubbles. An overseer flew over the assembled zergling patrol and began to hover right above the incapacitated era agent.

The zerglings dwindled in their numbers as they were shot at by silenced sniper rifles, but the missing patrol members were easily replaced by the zerglings that were constantly spawning from the many hatcheries that were tended by the queens and their injection duties. [This is getting us nowhere. We're going to run out of power for our weapons and invisibility if this keeps up any longer.] [The sentries have hunkered near out extraction target, and an ocular is also assisting them. This is a problem.] [I have an idea. Focus your fire on the barnacle sentries and the oculars.] [Mam, why do you need only them terminated?] [I have a plan that will get me close, but it has to be done quick.] [We copy that, but we also want an explanation.] [Bulschtein is wearing that ultra-armor, remember?] [Oh! I copy that. Focus-firing on targets now.]

The spore crawlers and overseers were targeted by the shadow assassins, and they were merciless in their deadly skill. The overseer was ended very quickly as hyper-sonic armor-piercing sniper rounds struck hard into them and passed through their carapaced flesh. The overseer died quickly, but the spore crawlers were slightly tougher to kill. That had bought the spore crawlers enough time for the defilers to arrive and help. They belched forth a dark swarm of insects that covered the zerglings and crawlers that protected the weakened Era Agent. Somehow, the dark swarm made it infinitely difficult for them to kill the spore crawlers. [Shots are having no effect. Coughers are creating some kind of defense around our targets.] [I think it belched insects around him?] [How can insects that small block high caliber precision rifles?] [What we should be asking is how long is that cloud going to remain?] [No time. Sending out incendiary grenades around our VIP. Focus fire on the oculars instead.]

Several grenades were launched into the zergling masses, resulting in an explosion of fire that quickly wiped them out. The defiler that tried to protect them and their prisoner had to retreat in order to save its own hide. The spore crawlers quickly died as their remaining health was depleted after that bombardment. The flames nearly came close to licking at Bubbles with its volatile touch, but his rescuers came when the fires finally started dying down. One of them leaned down to inspect Bubbles' body. "Bad news, girls. VIP is wounded."

[What? I thought the Era Agents' ultra-suits were supposed to be indestructible?]

"Well I can see the damage on him, and I'm telling you that the indestructible ultra-suit myth has been debunked."

[Can he still be moved?]

"I believe so. Applying the refractive mesh to his suit's systems now."

"Gck. What happened to... Kay?" Bubbles asked the shadow assassin hovering over him, even when she began applying her 'refractive mesh' onto his armor. It looked very much like a fishing net that glowed several hues of a fluorescent greenish yellow-purple.

"No talking. You requested to be evacuated from this area, so that is what we're going to do. Can you walk?" She asked, offering him a hand.

Bubbles slowly got up, straining as he got onto his feet with the shadow assassin's help. "Answer the damn question. What happened to... his body. I need to know."

"We saw you stab the bug-man beast-master in his chest. Your Era Agent ultra-sword had the unfortunate side-effect of creating an explosion that seemed to have disintegrated his body. We found no traces."

"You fuckers..." Bubbles and the shadow assassin stopped breathing in that instant. They slowly turned toward the intimidating voice to see Kay, who had emerged from the hive bio-structure with no wounds on his chest. He had an aura of psionic energy glowing around him as he power-walked toward the shadow assassin and Bubbles. Raging light made his eyes glow with an intense power, and his palms glowed with dangerous electricity. "... Are going to forever regret pissing me off."

"... HOW?! I THOUGHT HE KILLED YOU!"" The shadow assassin blurted out as her expression changed to bewilderment. She was given her answer in the form of a kinetic blast that removed her upper torso from the rest of her body, which then turned into unrecognizable gore that splattered all over the creep in a red arc. Her arms, head, and lower torso fell to the ground unceremoniously, making her the first ever death that Kay had killed out of rage.

Bubbles fell onto the ground and crawled away from the approaching Kay, even though he knew that he couldn't escape. But Kay reached for Bubbles and picked him up from his throat, hoisting him into the air and strangling him. What seemed like raw anger seeped out of his eyes as he faced Bubbles, his intent heavily implying that he intended to do some major harm to the Era Agent. Bubbles could feel that his life was in danger. "Ghk... Kay... You're going... to fail."

"That was a nasty trick, using your time-stop ability on my zerg and me. If you think about activating it again, I will end you permanently." Kay said, tightening his grip around Bubbles' neck. "Now be a good Era Agent and let me read your mind." Kay raised his hand and forcefully placed it onto Bubbles' head and giving Bubbles no time to finish what he was going to say.

Bubbles found it harder to breath or talk, but he knew he had to act fast or more information would leak and make matters worse for the Era Agency. "Take... the... shot."

[Sir, you will be caught in the attack.]

"Ultra-suit... has redundancies. I... will be fine. Do it... now." Bubbles managed to say before his throat completely collapsed under Kay's clawed grip. In that moment, his mind became open to Kay.

Kay narrowed his glowing eyes at Bubbles as he searched through his thoughts. "What are you-" Before Kay could ask his question, Kay's vision was filled with intense white light, followed by blackness and a high pitched ring. Kay felt his grasp on Bubbles' neck loosen as he was subjected to the gilanian equivalent of a flashbang grenade, which resulted in him releasing the Era Agent. After that, Kay felt several simultaneous blows push him backwards, forcing him to be launched into the air and land onto the side of a nearby hatchery. Dazed and confused, he got up and tried to look around, even though he was temporarily blinded. However, the rest of the zerg swarm wasn't as blind as him, enabling him to see the world through the eyes of his zerg minions.

He could see Bubbles fetching out a device from his person and limply throwing the item at Kay, which then unfolded and looped around Kay's waist in some kind of automatic fashion. "Set for eternity till all life signs have dissipated! Activate temporal tomb!" Bubbles shouted after throwing the device.

It was then that Kay experienced complete darkness.

A/N: Alright, that's enough of the Déjà Vu Wars.