Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.
…
Sheldon, no! Apista and various voices in the Buzzing cried out in horror.
"You recognize them?" Nushi asked in surprise.
Sheldon was a slime farmer on one of the first colonies to be destroyed by the Swarm, Apista explained, aghast. I had prayed he was merely dead, not… Assimilated.
Father, why? A voice in the Buzzing, which the Bugrangers immediately recognized as Sheldon's child back in the Hive proper, on one of the planets that had yet to be touched by the war, wailed.
I had hoped we would see each other again, but not like this! Sheldon's mate wept, bombarding them all with waves of sorrow and despair.
"You monster!" A livid Goro shouted, fury stoked by the rage of Sheldon's remaining loved ones burning through the Buzzing. "You would make us fight one of the Queen's own beloved children?!"
"Please, she has trillions of them," Parasitica remarked dismissively. "She could stand to lose a few."
Every single member of the Hive is precious and irreplaceable to me! Apista howled, nearly breaking the minds of the Bugrangers in her anger. But I can hardly expect someone who treats her own subjects as exchangeable, disposable puppets to TRULY understand what it is to be a queen and mother!
"My queen, she can't hear you," Coccinella gently reminded Apista.
Oh, right. Nushi, tell her what I just said! Apista commanded.
Mind swirling from the undercurrent of fury sweeping through the Buzzing, Nushi did just that.
"I know perfectly well what it is to be a mother!" Parasitica retorted furiously. "Or have you forgotten your own niece?"
You mean the abomination you stitched together from MY unborn daughters?! Apista bellowed. Nushi-
"Yes, I know, telling her that," Nushi replied, feeling dizzy.
"This is messed up," Shin growled as Nushi dutifully relayed the Queen's message. "I mean, okay, I suppose I understood in principle we would probably be up against something like this, but…"
"Why does this bother us so much?" Mibojin wondered, genuinely perplexed. "We had no problem striking down the Funghouls, even the ones made from other humans."
"I guess because we didn't know them," Goro suggested. "I mean, technically we don't know Sheldon either, but through the Buzzing…"
Ariel nodded unhappily. "We can see/hear/feel/smell/taste the imprint of his memories, know him the way the people who cherished him did. We never met him, and never will, but we already know his character, and can regret that we never got to experience it for ourselves."
"… Unless…" Nushi murmured. "Ariel, I want to try another experiment."
Ariel frowned, immediately seeing what her leader was getting at. "Are you sure?"
"It's worth a try," Nushi insisted. "His body doesn't look as far gone as the Funghouls did. If there's a chance we can bring him back, no matter how slim, don't we owe it to his family, his friends, and the Queen?"
"There is no bringing him back," Parasitica gloated. "He is mine forever."
Ariel pulled herself up straight, taking that as a challenge. "Let's just see about that, shall we? Jiruma Magi Magiine!"
Her spell struck the transformed Sheldon… And fizzled. "What-"
Parasitica cackled. "I'm afraid whatever you tried won't work. Like I said, he's mine forever!"
"I don't understand," the confused Ariel, looking at her wand in dismay. "Why didn't that work?"
"Maybe we need to beat him up a bit first?" Shin suggested. "Loosen her grip on him?"
"I guess…" She murmured, not sounding very certain.
"At least he shouldn't be that difficult for us to defeat," Goro stated. "He's a snail, so he shouldn't be particularly fast-"
And that's when ShellSlimer rushed towards them, moving much faster than any snail should.
"It would seem you spoke too soon," Formic commented.
Nushi brandished her sword. "Bugrangers, Buzz ou-"
She took one step forward, immediately slipped on the slime covering the ground, and fell flat on her face. "Ow."
"Watch out!" Goro cried, rushing forward to protect her from ShellSlimer, who was almost upon them…
Only for him to also slip and fall in rather comedic fashion, landing right on top of his leader. "Ow," they both said.
ShellSlimer slammed into the toppled Bugrangers, sending both of them skidding willy-nilly across the slime-soaked ground, and extended its arms, the limbs stretching out like silly putty as it attempted to punch Shin and Mibojin. Shin attempted to catch the punch, but due to lack of traction he was sent slipping and sliding back across the ground and slammed into a tree, while Mibojin managed to duck – though she wobbled a bit as she struggled to maintain her footing – and slashed at the limb as it passed over her head, only for her blades to slide off harmlessly. "What in the-"
Goro and Nushi struggled to pull each other up, but were now both so covered in slime they kept slipping off of each other and on the ground and eventually wound up falling down again. Frustrated, Goro tried to shoot at ShellSlimer, but while his shot connected it bounced off the monster's body – not the shell, he knew that wouldn't work – and nearly struck a startled Ariel, who of course had managed to avoid the same problems everyone else was having due to riding her Sky Hokie. In addition, the recoil from the blast sent him skidding uncontrollably across the ground, knocking over Mibojin.
"Ow," they both grunted.
"The hell's going on?!" Demanded Shin, who was only managing to stay upright by virtue of clinging rather desperately to the trunk of the tree he'd slammed into.
Nushi drove her sword into the ground and used it to push herself up, legs wobbling as she tried to maintain balance. "The slime… That's it! He must've covered the ground in it to keep us off balance!"
"It's how he's moving so quickly as well," Mibojin realized, carefully watching the snail monster's movements and realizing it wasn't running, but seemed to be gliding across the ground. "He's skating on the slime!"
"Aha! I know what to do!" Ariel cried. "Luuma Gojika!"
She fired an icy blast from the tip of her wand, engulfing the slime on the ground and hardening it into ice.
"And how does that help us?!" Demanded Shin.
"You should be able to get better traction on ice than on slime," Ariel reasoned.
"She's right," Nushi realized. "It's still slippery, but not as much. Okay, team, let's try this again! Buzz out!"
They charged towards ShellSlimer again, though this time, they were more mindful of the reduced friction of the ground. The snail growled, dug the spikes on its feet into the ground to anchor itself, and fired slime globules from its cannons at them, but Ariel and Goro were able to snipe them out of the sky with their projectile attacks, Shin holding Goro and digging his spines into the ice to keep either of them from being pushed back by the recoil.
As the slime bombs burst, energy bullets and magical bursts peppered ShellSlimer's front, but either bounced off or did no damage. Irritated in spite of this, the snail beast extended its arms again, trying to strike Nushi or Mibojin with rapid punches.
Nushi, who had spent a great deal of her youth learning how to skate, expertly bobbed and weaved around the punches, striking at the limbs as she went by, only to be puzzled when her sword slid off them. Mibojin, on the other hand, leapt into the air, landed on top of one of the arms, and slid down its length as if it were a grind rail, lashing out at the creature's eyestalks with her blades.
ShellSlimer quickly retracted its eyes so that her swipe instead struck the snail's shell, the rebound knocking her off its body… Though she managed to slice another blade through the centipede-cable feeding into its left arm cannon as she fell, causing the organic weapon to shriek and spew slime everywhere as it was severed, some of the fluid flying into the monster's eyes and blinding it.
As it roared in pain, Nushi powered up her sword.
"Buzz! BUZZ! BUZZING CHARGE!"
The blade glowing with power, she thrusted it forwards into ShellSlimer's chest…
Only for the point to slide off, and she only had a moment to realize she was in trouble before she slammed right into the monster's chest. It immediately wrapped its flexible arms around her, pinning her to its slimy body, and giving her a very up close and personal look down its throat. "Oh shit!" She cried as ShellSlimer's mouth closed around her head, teeth digging into her helmet.
"Nushi!" Ariel cried in horror. "Goolu Lujuna!"
Magical energy sparkled around Nushi… And fizzled out.
"Again?!" Ariel shouted in disbelief, smacking her wand against the side of her vehicle. "What's wrong with this thing?!"
Somebody get me out of here! Nushi shouted through the Buzzing.
"On it," Goro said, sighting along his barrel and firing a shot at one of ShellSlimer's eyes. The monster retracted its eye, but Goro had anticipated that, and his bullet ricocheted off the surface of the monster's shell and struck the eye from behind, causing it to burst in a shower of viscera.
At the same time, Mibojin blurred into existence on the monster's right side, striking with her blade as she dashed past, severing its other centipede-cable and causing slime to splatter all over its other eye. As ShellSlimer shrieked in agony, Shin rammed into its shell from the side, wrenching it off its feet and causing its grip on Nushi, weakened by the attacks on its eyes, to break completely, allowing her to slide out and land in a rather undignified manner on the ground.
"That," she mumbled, somewhat shell-shocked. "Is not an experience I ever want to repeat."
"Nushi!" Ariel wailed, swooping down, hopping off her Sky Hokie, and embracing her leader in a hug… Or least, she tried to, the slime still on Nushi's body caused her to slip out of her grip. "I'm so sorry! I don't understand why my magic isn't working!"
"I do," Nushi said, coming back to herself. "I was able to scan ShellSlimer's body up close while it was chewing on my helmet. It's the slime covering its body; it's so slippery that all of our attacks slide right off it. That must be why your magic hasn't been working on it, it's too slick for your spells to affect. You probably couldn't teleport me away because of interference from all the slime touching me."
"So my wand ISN'T broken!" Ariel exclaimed in relief.
"Well, it certainly wasn't before you started banging it on your Magitek broom," Lepidoptera pointed out.
"Wait, then why was she able to freeze the slime on the ground?" Goro wondered, tapping the ice beneath their feet.
"Not entirely sure," Nushi pondered. "Maybe the slime has a different chemical reaction when touching ShellSlimer's body? Or maybe the temperature change affected the slime more than the spell?"
"How are we to damage the beast if none of our blows can hit it?" Wondered an annoyed Mibojin.
"Well, I was able to put out one of his eyes," Goro pointed out. "And I bet that mouth is vulnerable to, too."
"Alternatively, we could use fire, and lots of it," Shin suggested.
"You suggested that already," Mibojin pointed out.
"And I stand by it," Shin said firmly. "On the other hand, we could use salt, though Heck if I know where we would get enough to affect something that big."
Ariel smacked her forehead. "Oh, duh! Should have thought of this sooner! Maagi Magiiro!"
And then Ariel was a giant saltshaker.
Everyone stared at her. "… Yeah, this is going to take some getting used to," Goro said finally.
"I keep forgetting that Super Sentai tends to be a bit wackier than Kamen Rider, even the more serious ones," Shin muttered.
"What the… How did you… WHAT?!" A dumbfounded Parasitica demanded.
"For once, a sentiment I can agree with," Mibojin grumbled reluctantly.
"This is my aunt Houka's transformation spell!" The giant saltshaker proclaimed proudly. "Which she rarely used as well as she should have, if I'm going to be honest. Then again, she always has been a bit of an airhead, and not just because that's her element… Wait, shit, she heard that, didn't she…"
"Where did Lepidoptera go?" Wondered an incredulous Coccinella.
"I'm in here," the mechanical butterfly's voice cried from somewhere inside the saltshaker. "Don't ask me where, because I don't have a clue either. This is so weird."
"Shin, Goro, could you two be dears and sprinkle me on ShellSlimer?" Ariel asked sweetly. "I'd do it myself, but I'm a saltshaker, and saltshaker's can't move. That would be ridiculous."
"Right. Because that's where you draw the line," Shin grumbled, but he and Goro were able to lift the giant saltshaker with ease thanks to his own enhanced mutant grasshopper cyborg strength and Goro having the proportional strength of an ant due to his transformation. Together, they started aggressively shaking Ariel in the direction of ShellSlimer.
"I do not know if you are a very lucky or very unlucky woman," Mibojin remarked to Nushi.
"It might be both," Nushi confessed, not sure either.
ShellSlimer howled in agony as the grains of salt made contact with its body. Steam rose from its form, the slime drying out, hardening, and flaking off its body, while its skin started shriveling, blistering, and popping.
"How are you people doing this?!" Parasitica shrieked.
"Magic!" Ariel replied.
"It's working!" Shin cried excitedly.
"It's also really gross," said a disgusted Goro.
Nushi turned to Ariel's phone, which was still streaming the battle around the world. "Incidentally, the reason salt kills snails and slugs is because salt crystals bind moisture. When sprinkled on mollusks, they mix with the slime on their skin to create a highly saline solution which rapidly sucks all the water out of their body by osmosis, causing them to bubble, shrivel, and die of dehydration."
"What are you doing?" Asked a baffled Mibojin.
"If we're going to be streaming our battles, I might as well make them educational," Nushi reasoned.
Nushi, this is rather unpleasant to watch, a revolted Apista spoke up, shock and disgust from other similar gastropodal members of the Hive filling the Buzzing. If Sheldon were still alive, you would just have committed a heinous war crime. Please put him out of his misery quickly.
It's bad enough we have to see him like this, but watching him suffer in such a manner will haunt us for the rest of our days, Sheldon's mate agreed.
Father… Sheldon's child whimpered. You're supposed to be heroes. Why are you making him suffer so?
Nushi winced, feeling similar sentiments from all the other snail-type members of the Hive. "Right. Sure thing. Ariel, that's enough! I think it's time to try that experiment of mine again!"
"Okay," Ariel replied, returning to her true form in a flash of light. Still supported by Goro and Shin, who stumbled slightly at the sudden change of weight but recovered quickly, she pointed her wand at the screaming ShellSlimer and cast, "Jiruma Magi Magiine!"
"What-" Parasitica started, only to be cut off mid-sentence.
ShellSlimer stiffened for a moment, then slouched, arms hanging limply at its sides, no longer seeming to notice how its skin was melting.
"It looks like your exorcism spell worked, Ariel," Mibojin noted. "Parasitica is no longer controlling ShellSlimer."
"Now we need to see if there's anything of Sheldon left in there," Goro stated.
Nushi cautiously took a step forward. "Sheldon? Are you in there?"
There was a pause. ShellSlimer's remaining eye stared at her and blinked slowly.
"My name is Nushi Cheng. I'm the current leader of the Bugrangers, chosen by Queen Apista. You remember her, right?" Nushi pressed.
ShellSlimer didn't react.
"Your family is watching all this through the Buzzing. They miss you very much," Nushi continued, starting to feel uneasy. "Won't you come back to them, Sheldon?"
ShellSlimer still did nothing.
"Maybe he really is gone," Shin said sadly.
No… Your Majesty! Please, there must be something you can do! Sheldon's mate pleaded desperately.
I will try, Apista replied, though they could all sense she wasn't confident this would work.
The minds of the Bugrangers tingled as the Buzzing reached out, the Queen pushing her will into ShellSlimer…
And screamed in horror and agony, the entire Hive screaming with her. There's nothing! She shouted. THERE'S NOTHING THERE!
The Bugrangers staggered, reeling from the echoes of pain and terror reverberating through the Buzzing, as well as the fleeting sensation they had felt from Apista's brief contact with ShellSlimer's mind, the yawning emptiness which threatened to devour the stars themselves, a primal horror that left even Mibojin trembling in her boots.
"Well," Goro gasped, the first to regain some measure of his bearing. "I guess that settles that issue once and for all."
"He's gone," Ariel whimpered, and if Nushi weren't shaking so hard herself, she would have gone over and hugged the fox. "No, not gone, it's like he never existed in the first place. That void… Darker than the blackest pits of Infershia… I never want to feel anything like that ever again!"
"Killing this creature might practically be mercy," Mibojin stated, managing to raise her blades as she struggled to regain control of her emotions. "I cannot fathom how something can exist like that without going mad."
"I think it already is," Shin observed as ShellSlimer suddenly started screaming and wildly thrashing about, flailing its stretchy arms all over the place, smashing them repeatedly against the frozen ground, cracking it, and swinging them at them like cudgels almost as an afterthought, barely even seeming to be aware they were there. "Without Parasitica controlling it, it's going berserk!"
"Then we need to finish it," Nushi resolved, raising her sword. "Now!"
"So his family can gain closure," Goro agreed, brandishing his gun.
ShellSlimer, however, didn't seem inclined on making it easy on them. The monster imploded on itself, it's boneless body collapsing and flowing inside its shell with a sickening slurping noise. The shell clattered to the ground, only for one of ShellSlimer's limbs to briefly poke out and slam into the ground, flipping the shell back into the air, where it started spinning wildly, and when it hit the ground again, it started rolling all over the place like a giant wheel, chaotically zigzagging across the ice.
Everyone quickly scattered to try and avoid getting hit by the giant wheel as it wildly rolled here and there, seemingly without any purpose or direction. "My bullets can't penetrate!" Goro cried in frustration, his shots all ricocheting harmlessly off the shell.
"Nor can our blades," Mibojin cried as she and Nushi struck the shell in the sides as it rolled between them, only for sparks to fly off on impact.
"Should I turn into a saltshaker again?" Ariel wondered.
"I don't think that would be very helpful right now," Nushi replied, attempting to dodge out of the way as the rolling shell surged towards her, only for it to abruptly change directions at the last moment and slam into her, sending her flying.
"Nushi!" Ariel quickly swooped down and grabbed Nushi before she could fly too far. "I've got you this time!"
"My hero," the red ladybug replied, only half-joking.
"All right, I'm gonna take a crack at this thing," Shin resolved, charging towards the rolling shell. "Come on!"
The shell shot towards him. Just before they could collide, Shin thrust his hands out and slammed them onto the sides of the shell, digging his claws into them. Sparks flew as his claws scraped at them with a sound 10 times worse then nails on a chalkboard, causing everyone to flinch. The shell started to push him back, only for his leg spines and clawed toes to dig into the ice, leaving deep scratches behind for several feet before he managed to finally come to a stop. Roaring, muscles trembling, he raised the shell into the air and hurled it over his head as far as he could.
ShellSlimer flew for hundreds of meters before coming down in a large pond, the impact nearly emptying it as water surged out and splashed all over the place.
"Nice going, Shin!" Nushi complimented the Rider, hopping (reluctantly) off of Ariel and back onto the ground.
Shin made a face as he looked at his claws, which had been broken down to nubs. "That shell is something else, though… I'm not sure how we can kill that thing unless we can break it," he commented as his claws grew back.
Suddenly, the surface of the pond erupted as ShellSlimer's shell rocketed out of it, soaking and covered in mud and algae. It landed on the shore and started spinning again…
Only to splatter mud everywhere as its weight and spinning motion caused it to sink into the wet soil. The shell shook angrily and spun faster, but that only caused it to get stuck further and splatter more mud everywhere.
"Looks like someone needs a tow truck," Ariel joked.
Nushi frowned, her enhanced eyes noticing deep grooves had been carved into the sides of the shell. "Shin, I think you did more damage than you thought."
"It's only superficial, though," Shin pointed out. "My claws weren't strong enough to cut through."
"You may not have to," Nushi murmured, an idea formulating in her mind and transmitting to the others. "Ariel?"
The sorceress waved her wand. "Magi Maagi!"
And suddenly, Goro was ridiculously muscular.
"Your wife is really going to like that," Shin remarked in amusement with more than a little envy.
Ariel glanced at her phone. "Goro, sorry to break this to you, but while your wife does like that look… So do millions of other people around the globe."
Goro sighed. "Let's get this over with quickly, please?"
"And now, for my next trick!" Ariel proclaimed. "Gi Gi Gigiru!"
And suddenly Goro had oversized red boxing gloves covering his fists.
"Let me guess, I'm even more popular now?" He asked resignedly, already knowing the answer.
Ariel nodded apologetically. Goro groaned.
"They're going to like you even more once you pull this off," Shin pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah…" The soldier grumbled, racing towards ShellSlimer, who had still made no headway in pulling itself out of the mud. "Fire Screw Upper!"
He struck the mud-covered shell with a blazing uppercut which not only knocked ShellSlimer free from the mud, but put a serious crack in the shell. The monster tumbled end over end in the air before falling back towards the pond.
"Luuma Gojika!" Ariel cast, freezing the surface of the pond at the exact second ShellSlimer splashed into it, trapping the monster in the ice. The beast vibrated angrily, trying to break free, and from the way the ice around it was cracking, its frozen prison wouldn't hold it for long.
It didn't need to.
"Buzz! BUZZ! BUZZING CHARGE!"
Nushi and Mibojin drove their powered-up blades into the crack Goro had made, fracturing it even more, then backflipped away just as Goro fired a supercharged shot from his gun, impacting the crack and smashing a small hole into the shell.
"Shin! Finish it!" Nushi cried.
Shin crouched low to the ground, the coils on the backs of his legs compressing, then leapt into the air, shattering the ground beneath his feet. "Shin… Sentai… KICK!" He roared as he flipped about and shot down towards ShellSlimer in a flying kick, green energy swirling around his form as he slammed into the broken portion of shell with enough force that even Kuuga in his Ultimate Form might have sat up and taken notice.
With a horrendous, inhuman shriek, the shell exploded, as did the pond, and ShellSlimer's scorched and twisted body was flung from the heart of the explosion, smashing through several trees and rocks before finally coming to an undignified halt at the base of the fountain.
"It still isn't dead?" Asked an amazed Mibojin as the Bugrangers regrouped.
"It will be after this," Nushi resolved, raising her sword. "Weapons, combine! Form Buzz Bomber!"
She held her sword out before her. Goro pulled the grip of his gun back 90 degrees and placed it on top of the sword's handle, the ant legs on the sides of the gun lowering to lock it in place. Ariel inserted her wand into the gun barrel, and Mibojin slid her Shuriken over the point of the sword so that the wand was poking out between two of the blades.
They then expectantly looked at Shin.
The green Bugranger frowned. "Uh, guys, I don't think I have a weapon."
"Yes you do," Caelifer reminded him. "You threw it away the instant you summoned it, claiming you would do better with your bare claws."
"Oh, right," Shin muttered, embarrassed as the others emanated waves of irritation and amusement. "Hang on."
"Take your time," Goro grumbled as ShellSlimer awkwardly tried to pull itself back up, only to fall again. "Not like we're going anywhere."
"I'm almost starting to feel sorry for the poor thing," Ariel confessed.
"I'm not," Mibojin replied bluntly.
"Okay, got it!" Shin shouted as he ran back, hefting a massive green ax with blades resembling grasshopper legs.
"Never lose your weapon again," Nushi chided him.
"I make no promises," he replied, flipping the ax around to hold it by the blades and placed it beneath the other assembled weapon parts, which fit neatly into a groove running down the length of the ax.
Nushi gripped the combined weapon by the shaft of the ax and fit a finger into the trigger of Goro's gun as everyone else grabbed onto her shoulders. She started squeezing the trigger, causing all of the microprocessors on the weapons and on their helmets to light up.
"Buzz! BUZZ! BUZZING OVERCHARGE!"
"Finsecting move: Buzzing Cannon!" The team shouted as Nushi pulled the trigger, causing the weapon to fire a massive beam of swirling multicolored lights. The beam split into five different streams, each tipped with the head of an energy construct resembling their personal insects, which swarmed all over ShellSlimer, who frenziedly tried to swat them out of the air, but they were far too quick. Without warning, they converged to form a massive golden hexagon which smashed down on the monster, enveloping it in blinding light that consumed it utterly.
The Bugrangers dramatically turned around as the monster howled in anguish and fell to the ground, exploding spectacularly.
You did it! Philia cheered, along with what had to be practically the entire Hive. That was amazing! You did so great, you guys!
Indeed. You've done your predecessors proud this day, Apista said warmly. I knew you were the right choices.
Bugrangers… Thank you for laying Sheldon to rest, Sheldon's mate said quietly, radiating a complex mix of grief and sorrow and relief.
"We're sorry we couldn't bring him back to you," Nushi apologized, the high from their victory immediately fading.
It's all right. Thank you for trying, Sheldon's mate told her. It meant a great deal to us.
"We promise to do the same for each and every other former member of the Hive Parasitica throws at us," Goro vowed. "Until she's taken down, and the Swarm is exterminated forever."
We know you will, the Hive responded with confidence and hope and gratitude.
"Hey, guys, I don't mean to bring the mood down further, but isn't this usually the part where the monster is suddenly resurrected as a giant?" Shin pointed out. "Or are we supposed to act completely surprised when it happens, as if that sort of thing doesn't happen all the time?"
"He's right, it's about that time," Ariel realized. "Everyone, be on your guard!"
"But how is Parasitica supposed to bring him back as a giant?" Mibojin wondered as everyone tensed in anticipation of another battle. "The planetary barrier is still keeping her and her forces out, and Ariel's seal should keep her from sending anything through the fungus patch, so unless these Fungal Beasts have a particular biological quirk that revives them as giants…"
Everyone stared at the smoldering remains of ShellSlimer, which failed to transform into a giant monster.
"I guess we're in the clear then," Goro commented after several moments of the smoldering remains continuing to fail to turn into a giant monster.
"Well… The first monster a Sentai faces doesn't always come back giant," Ariel admitted, though from the doubt she was radiating it was clear that she felt this was too easy.
Traditionally, the Swarm has had no way to turn Fungal Beasts into giant monsters, though they do have giant beasts of their own and I fully admit that it's possible my sister has come up with some way to do that while on her way here, Apista spoke up. For the time being, however, it would seem as if you have resolved this crisis. Bugrangers, eliminate the remaining fungus quickly, and be sure to obtain as many samples as you can. We must not allow something with this to happen again.
Nushi nodded. "Right. Okay, team, let's-"
She stiffened, Mibojin's words coming back to her. Ariel's seal should keep her from sending anything through the fungus patch…
"Ariel," Nushi asked slowly. "Have you checked on the status of your seal recently?"
None of them needed to see under her helmet to know that the fox had turned very pale, absolute horror emanating from her. She raised her wand, opening her mouth to form the first syllable of her spell to re-energize the seal…
And the barrier, which had been growing steadily weaker over time as Ariel's focus on it waned and the fungus kept pushing itself against its cage, shattered, the foul mold surging out at a truly horrendous rate, as if trying to make up for lost time.
Within moments, it enveloped the rest of the park, the streets beyond, and everything up to the edge of the honeycomb barrier generated by the drones to keep the rest of Munich safe. The Bugrangers didn't even have a moment to cry out before they got swept up in the fungal surge as well.
Bugrangers? Bugrangers! NO! Apista cried in horror as her champions were engulfed by the fungus. No… Not again… Not again!
…
Parasitica sat in her throne, heaving and shaking.
Every Funghoul in the room, and several of the closest rooms, had collapsed, the sheer fury that swept through their crude hive mind snuffing out what little facsimile of life remained in them. Vespi was the only other creature still alive – well, animate – in the chamber, and the sickly sense/sound/taste/feel of fear cut through the Swarm Queen's rage, extinguishing it in an instant.
"Vespi, it's all right," Parasitica tried to reassure her daughter, forcing as much apology and love through their connection as she could. "I'm sorry you had to feel that. I'm not angry at you, sweetheart. I could never be that angry at you."
Cautiously, Vespi took a few steps closer to her mother, and Parasitica felt a deep stab of guilt that her offspring was still scared of her. She never wanted her daughter to look at her with fear in her eyes. Everyone else in the universe, yes, but not her. Never her.
"You were… really angry," Vespi whimpered, concern warring with fear. "Not even thinking about Aunt Apista makes you that angry."
"The pain you felt when that mammal forcibly severed us from ShellSlimer," Parasitica said as gently as she could, radiating sympathy and understanding. "It's worse than anything you've ever felt before, isn't it?"
Vespi shuddered, her reticence fading as she allowed her mother to pick her up and place her on her lap, clutching her doll tightly. "It was. I don't understand why. I've felt Funghouls and Funghoul Beasts die by the millions, but none of them ever felt like that."
"There is a difference between losing a member of the Swarm to death," Parasitica explained. "And having your mind forcibly severed from theirs while they still function. There's nothing clean about it; it is an ugly, brutal, wound on one's psyche, one that is difficult to recover from."
Her eyes hardened. "I have not felt anything like this since your grandmother cut me off from the Buzzing. Now that… That was true agony. One moment, you are sharing the thoughts and feelings of trillions of insects across multiple galaxies. You share in their hopes and dreams, and commiserate with them when they are suffering. No matter where you go, you are always embraced by love."
One of her claws gripped an armrest so hard it started cracking. "And then, in an instant, it was all gone. The Buzzing, the song and living history which has united the Hive since the dawn of time, was denied to me forever. I found myself alone. So very, very alone…"
She stared off into the distance for a moment, remembering – no matter how much she wished otherwise – the most horrifying moment of her life, soon to be eclipsed by the even more horrifying centuries following that she spent wandering in the darkness between the stars, with nothing but her own thoughts for company, alone even when surrounded by many.
Vespi hugged her mother. "You're not alone anymore, Mama," she reassured the Queen, forcing as much love into their connection as she could muster. "You've got me, and the rest of the Swarm!"
Parasitica found herself smiling, returning her daughter's love. "That I do," she agreed. "Now, why don't we show those mammals the price for daring to harm me so? I do believe that enough fungus has grown to allow us to send down a Fungigas."
Vespi's eyes lit up in delight, joy and eagerness pulsing off of her in brilliant waves. "Oh! Oh! Can I pick one out? Can I, Mama? Pleeeeeeeeeease?"
Parasitica laughed. "But of course, my little corpse fly. Come. Let us go to the nest."
The two of them dissolved into centipedes, flowing into the fungus covering the throne and disappearing.
They reappeared moments later in another portion of the ship, a massive hollow chamber that the entirety of Hive City, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York could probably have all comfortably fit in with room to spare. Suspended from the ceiling was the rotting, desiccated corpse of some ancient Leviathan with thousands of skyscraper-sized wriggling eggs sprouting from its decaying flesh. The floor of the chamber was carpeted in an especially thick mass of fungus, churning and roiling and feeding upon itself as if it were a vast living ocean of corruption.
Parasitica nodded at her daughter, who looked at the egg-riddled corpse in awe. "Go on. Pick one."
An adorable look of determination on her asymmetrical face, Vespi spread her mismatched wings and flew up towards the mammoth body overhead. She darted from egg to egg, regarding each of them and the dark contents within with an intense focus and concentration that Parasitica could not help but admire, examining each of them for something that not even she seemed to know.
And then Vespi paused beside an especially large egg. "This one!" She decided, pointing at it and shooting her mother a look, anticipation and worry and need swirling around her. The poor thing was trying very hard to impress her, wasn't she?
Parasitica nodded, sending her feelings of acceptance and approval and pride. Emboldened, Vespi drew back and pierced the surface of the egg with her stinger.
The egg burst, noxious ooze splattering everywhere like an overripe cantaloupe smashed by a very large hammer. A dark, malformed figure tumbled from the broken egg and fell into the fungal sea below, causing waves of fungal matter to splash against the sides of the massive chamber as it broke down into massive centipedes and vanished beneath the surface.
Vespi blew the departing creature a kiss. "Have fun! And make those Bugrangers suffer, won't you?" A positively deranged grin stretched across her face. "They're gonna regret ever hurting my Mama."
Parasitica smiled, beaming with maternal love and pride. Her daughter would make a magnificent queen one day. The Bugrangers didn't know what was about to hit them. Soon they, and her sister, would be exterminated, and at long last, the Hive would be hers for the taking.
Just as it always should've been.