Author's Note: Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. XD
Anyways, hi again, guys. Me and Toltec Spirit (formerly known as Rapture At Sea) are still together in this story, so yes, this will go on. :D
I'd like to put in more words to say, but I'll just say that at the end of this chapter.
For now, enjoy. :D
After a bit of talking and info sharing with Alex, the three prepared to leave so they could warn more birds of the coming chaos that is Scarlet, and maybe even do some investigating.
"Alright, Alex. Thanks for the time, bro. You stay safe with your son, alright?" Allan said while giving him a pat on his back.
Of course, Alex knew plenty about keeping a low profile and staying safe. At the same time, he wanted to help his friends, but he couldn't risk losing his adopted son.
The eagle breathed in a bit and then said, "Alright. Watch your backs, you three."
"We need to get to the lab. That's where it all started. Maybe we can find some clues there. Only one problem though: The place is guarded by soldiers like me."
"So, how are we gonna deal with that?" Blu asked.
"Well… I guess I'm gonna have to go rogue for now and infiltrate the lab. I'm already disobeying orders, but if it's gonna get us somewhere, then so be it. It's for the good of all life in this jungle."
Going rogue… that's something Allan wouldn't do. But he had to, for the sake of the inhabitants of the jungle. Blu and Eva could see his determination, considering that his friend fell victim to Scarlet.
"There's a designated area for a meet-up with the rest of my team. It's not far from here, and it's also close to the cliff that overlooks a majority of Rio."
Blu knew that cliff area. It was where he and Jewel jumped off in an attempt to fly, only for him to throw away every bit of his courage and fall, bringing Jewel down with him.
"We'll get there. C'mon, Eva," the male macaw said, beckoning with his wing.
As the two separated from Allan, he yelled before they flew out of sight, "Don't get lost! It's almost night time!"
When the two disappeared, Allan shot up to a tree branch and perched there for a while. He shook his head and breathed steadily, trying to get over the tension that grew in him like a young plant.
He was a hardened soldier and it would take more than anxiety to bring him down.
But going against a threat he had never faced, a threat that had dispatched soldiers like him with sickening ease, was very different and much more intense of a feeling.
"Ngh… I just want this to end. No more bloodshed. No more death. No more of that bitch."
After sitting there for a full two minutes, he huffed sharply, marking a rise in confidence, and took flight.
"I'm gonna find you, Scarlet. And when I do, I'm gonna take you down, even if it costs me my life."
Hours had passed since the trio split. Passing by some of the inhabitants of the jungle, Blu and Eva were able to give them advance notice about Scarlet's presence in the area.
Luckily, they had heard about the murders, especially Kipo's death.
Aware of the dire threat she posed, they heeded Blu's and Eva's words without question. The various solo birds and families alike took off mainly to the north, rocketing deep into the uncharted rainforests miles and miles away from Rio.
When early evening came, Eva informed her not-so-sex-hungry companion that she had to return to her hollow and tell her mate and kids to evacuate. She also planned to urge Jewel and their kids to do the same.
Blu insisted that they go together, but Eva refused and told him to go and meet with Allan's team.
"No, Blu. Go there and stay there. I'll follow. I just need to warn our families so that we'll know they'll be out of harm's way. I'll get back with you as soon as I can."
"B-But, Eva, I-I-"
"No 'buts', Blu. I'll handle my end, and you handle yours. Got it?"
Eva stared him down, and he didn't have the heart to refuse.
"I… I got it, I guess. Don't get yourself killed, alright? You're a colorful toucan in a mostly-green environment. Scarlet can spot you without even trying."
"Don't worry about me, Blu. I'd like to see her try."
"Good luck, and please hurry back, so I don't end up as a nervous wreck."
"Yes sir," she answered, and then streaked away on her jet-black wings.
Blu watched her receding form until the foliage swallowed her up, and then sighed depressingly.
He pinpointed his position and where his destination lay, and then set off. He glided low to the ground, maximizing the chances that he would slip stealthily under Scarlet's field-of-view.
"Ugh… I didn't sign up for this. All I wanted was to live peacefully here with my mate and my kids. I guess it's not exactly time to accomplish my happily ever after…" he grumbled.
Allan's team was nowhere to be found when Blu touched down in the designated spot, leading him to think he had arrived early. Of course, it was also possible that Scarlet had slain them, but Blu didn't dwell on that thought for long.
His fright level was higher than when he was trekking through the jungle at night the day he met Jewel. He might have been on edge, but he made it through without getting injured or eaten.
But now he was wandering the sanctuary… alone… while a demonic bird was on the loose. If they crossed paths, there would be no hope of escape or a second chance at life for Blu.
Scarlet would brutally end him, because her modus operandi was merely kill, kill, kill.
That's when he heard a rustle.
Whirling around, he saw a large fern frond directly behind him swaying back-and-forth, as if it had been disturbed.
"W-who's there?!" Blu demanded in a jittery voice.
The terrified male macaw shivered, searching the canopy and then the bushes to see if he could catch sight of his potential stalker.
He saw nothing or no one, and his ghostly pursuer was nowhere to be found. The light of the afternoon sun was slowly fading away so that the moon and her loyal stars could take over.
"Darn it! Where are they? Oh man I hope we group up soon. I can't deal with this solitude! And ew… what is that smell? Yuck! It smells like… oh no…"
The "clue" that the demon had recently been near that very location was hovering in the air, and Blu picked it up with a sniff.
It came in the form of the foul stench of dead bodies that had decomposed under the twin effects of the humid atmosphere and relentless sun. That very odor was making Blu sick to his stomach, and he had begun to regret accompanying Eva in the first place.
"We can't fight Scarlet anyways. No one can! I shouldn't be trying to locate her… I should be staying away from her. I want to leave, but I can't."
When Blu mentioned Scarlet's name, he heard a small snicker. An evil snicker, that is.
The blue bird felt a cruel chill crawl down his spine. But maybe… it was Eva. Maybe she was playing a trick on him to try and lighten his mood.
"E-Eva?! Is that you? Please , if this is some kind of joke, knock it off! It's not funny anymore!"
He expected to hear her accented voice respond. But all he heard was another snicker… followed by a growl.
The pupils in his eyes shrunk to tiny dots, and poor Blu faced the direction from where the noise had originated. He began taking slow steps in reverse, shivering all the while with his wings wrapped around himself.
"O-Okay, m-maybe you aren't Eva. But if you're a creature who can talk, I would love to know who you are…" he said, gulping as he finished his sentence.
He waited for responsible party's answer, only to be greeted by uncomfortable silence, minus the squawking of distant macaws.
He continued to inch backwards, hoping that he could slip away and find Eva before his unseen pursuer came upon him. However, he abruptly stopped as he bumped into something.
Something soft and feathery.
He assumed it was Eva, and he sighed in relief without thinking.
"You've had your… um... fun… Eva. We need to get out of here, and I mean now. The smell is horrible… and I think we're being followed. Allan's team isn't coming, for whatever reason."
"Oooh, what do we have here? A fancy male macaw, that's what. Are you lost, big guy? Maybe I can help you find your way back home."
Hearing the voice, Blu's eyes widened. His pulse came faster and faster, his heart pumping double-time in his chest. His beak opened partway, but nothing came out.
The demon was standing right behind him.
"Scarlet…"
"Oh, so you know my name, do you? Have you have heard of my great works, hm? Were they friends of yours?"
Her tone was proud and sadistic, and only someone as insane as her could speak in such a way. Allan was right; she was corrupted in both mind and body.
Breathing hard and smitten with dread, he turned around to face the being who would soon steal the life right out of him.
"Please let me go. I… I won't tell anyone… you're here. I promise. Just please… don't kill me…"
"Let you go? Ha ha ha, that's a good one! We just met, so how can I trust you, hm? You'll probably squawk as soon as I'm out of earshot. Your begging won't save you now…. Blu, isn't it? Yeah, I know who you are."
Scarlet leaned in so close that their beaks touched, and she pierced him with a look so intimidating that he was paralyzed with fear.
"I don't let anyone go, you worthless, unfortunate pile of feathers. I'm going to mutilate you so viciously you'll be wishing you died as chick."
With that, she grabbed ahold of his chest with her foot, her claws curling in and drawing blood.
He grunted in pain as she hoisted him off the ground with little effort, his feet dangling in midair.
In a flash, she bashed her skull against his and knocked him dizzy, then whirled around and hurled him across the mini clearing they were in.
He struck the ground belly up and skidded a good foot or so before coming to a stop. He lay there in a daze, a dull moan of pain and confusion escaping his beak.
He eventually lifted his head, trepidation and a sense of impending doom stabbing him right in the heart as he saw Scarlet advancing towards him.
Her stare was malevolent and her footsteps were menacing, and his survival instincts – though futile – took over. He scooted in reverse at a snail's pace while in a sitting position, using his wings to keep him upright while his feet dug into the earth and pushed him further away from her.
"No… I don't want to die… I want to live... please…" he muttered.
She increased her walking speed, closing the distance between them.
"You're so pathetic, so weak, so pitiful. All the more reason I'm going to slaughter you now," she said scathingly.
She caught up to him three seconds later, stomping on his tail with her left foot as she brandished a hateful frown of irritation.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be. I'm warning you, Blu."
Blu's feet scrabbled and carved furrows into the turf, but he was unable to move any longer. In an act of desperation, he kicked at her left leg. His claws swiped across her skin, but it was thickened due to her transformation and didn't suffer even a scratch.
But that was all it took to provoke her.
"I warned you to stop resisting, and you didn't. And so begins your punishment," she said, her tone as cold as polar ice.
She balled up her right foot and landed a nasty kick directly to his exposed cloaca.
His back arched as if he was being electrocuted, and from his beak erupted a feral scream of crippling agony.
"AHHHH! AHHHH!"
The volume of his scream made the air vibrate, and if other avian creatures took notice and tracked it down, they would be a definite distraction.
As he let loose a third yell, she slammed her right foot down upon his throat and crushed it, silencing him immediately.
His wings grabbed at her immovable limb as he was deprived of oxygen, his body weakly flopping around to try and dislodge her. It wasn't working, and he choked madly for air as the whites of his eyes faded to a pale blue color.
"You see what happens when you piss me off? I put you through a living hell!" she said in a biting whisper.
His wings fell away and his eyes briefly rolled back in his head moments later, and she realized he was on the verge of passing out. If he did, she would have to wait until he regained consciousness to torture and ultimately kill him.
Applying a dose of common sense, she jerked her foot away and set it down on the right side of his tail, now standing over it.
He gasped and spluttered as his airway flew open once more, his intense exhalations and exhalations hoarse and labored.
"Now do you feel hopeless? Like you're a dead bird walking? It's the worst feeling in the world, isn't it? Even worse than the pain of getting kicked right between your legs, huh?"
A defeated Blu did not respond, laying there with his half-conscious gaze glued to the treetops as his chest heaved in and out.
"You do not deserve to exist on this planet. Your purpose now is to give me the satisfaction of watching you die."
"You… you can't… do this. I… have a… family. Unh… go away… and leave me be… you sick… twisted… thing…urgh…"
"Oh, you have a family? So some deluded female thought you were hot stuff and decided to let you squirt some cream into her doughnut? Aww, that's just too bad. I hope she finds your lifeless shell, so that she gets a firsthand look at what's going to happen to her when I find her. That's right, I said when I find her."
One of Blu's wings slid down to press against his bruised cloaca, and he used the other to force his upper body off the ground.
"Don't you… dare… lay a claw… on her. I swear… I will haunt you… for the… rest… of your sinful… life…"
"Oh ho ho, brave words for someone who's about to get exterminated. Ghosts aren't even real, you moronic bastard, and even if they were, I wouldn't be scared of you. You're finished, Blu. I'm the dominant bird in this food chain, and you're nothing but a meal to satisfy my hunger for carnage.
She secured an unbreakable hold on his chest and chucked him at a nearby tree, hearing his spine meet the bark with a dull crack.
With that last jarring impact, every last shred of hope was knocked clean out of Blu. He was going to perish and be yet another victim of Scarlet's rampage, and no one was capable of saving him from his grisly fate.
The scared macaw slumped where he sat, infinite despair wracking him from head to tail. Scarlet came over and towered over him, casting a black shadow over his body that chilled him to the core.
"This jungle is mine now, do you understand? I'm going to tear apart every bird, reptile, and human that gets in my way. That is my final lesson to you."
She squinted her eyes, and a fleshy pink tentacle emerged from the middle of her back. It weaved through the air and coiled once around Blu's chest, the pulsing blood vessels on its surface providing oxygen to the rippling muscles beneath.
"I'm going to savor these final moments as I squeeze the life out of you, so you should savor them too, Blu."
The alien appendage constricted, and Blu's lungs burned as they were denied the ability to expand all the way.
"Scarlet… please… spare me… oh God… please!"
"That's a no-can-do, Blu. Do you want me to whip out another tentacle and use it to hold your beak shut?"
Blu did not communicate an answer either way, and the sticky rope contracted even tighter. Blu's bones could not hold back the pressure, and no matter how hard Blu willed his muscles to relax so he could inhale, they couldn't obey.
"S-stop… no… I can't… b-breathe… unh… ack… stop… please…"
Blu's pupils dilated to pinpoints as he consumed all his available of oxygen, and his hold on consciousness was weakening by the second.
In a last-ditch maneuver, he let his head droop forwards. He latched his beak onto the living vine and bit down as hard as he possibly could.
Scarlet felt the tiniest of twinges, but his actions surprised her so much that she loosened the tentacle's grip.
He fell into a coughing fit as she said, "My, aren't you a devoted one? You're truly not going to give up until you're dead, are you? For not having any guns or knives or grenades like those soldiers had, you sure got some balls to stand up to me like that."
She retracted the tentacle and held it in the air while staring at Blu's squirming form thoughtfully.
"You know… I think I can put your courage to good use. I've always wanted to create a partner in crime, but none of the others I've maimed were worth it. But you… I think you are worth it."
The tentacle retreated into her back, and she held her wings against her stomach as if she was feeling for eggs.
There was a pause, and then a sinister grin surfaced on her beak.
"Ahhh… there it is. It's finally ready for a suitable host. And that host just happens to be you, Blu."
Scarlet squished her body up against Blu's and unfurled her wings, placing them against the bark on either side of his neck.
"I have a parting gift to give you, Blu. It's something I've never shared with anyone else. "
She leaned in close, blowing a cloud of her abhorrent breath all over Blu's face.
"I'm going to make you turn out just like me, Blu. Open wide…"
The horror of it all was too much for Blu, and inadvertently, his beak halves separated, just as she wanted them to.
She rammed her beak against his and turned it perpendicular to his, giving her maximum access to his oral cavity. Her tongue extended to its full length and dove two inches down his throat, holding it open.
He began gagging and thrashing around, but she was a statue who could not be moved with any amount of physical force.
"Mmm! Mmm! MMM!" was all he could say, violated by the feeling of being deep-throated by the tongue of the demon herself.
Scarlet's throat then contracted in reverse, a series of ripples going up her neck that ferried the parasite she was carrying up her throat and into her beak. The slug-like thing used her tongue as a guide and wormed its way along, leaving her beak behind and entering his.
It deliberately allowed its saliva-and-goo-covered body to slide off of the tip of her taste organ, plunging down through the tube that led to Blu's stomach.
She extracted her tongue and took a step back, wiping the saliva off her beak and crossing her wings.
The visible bulge beneath Blu's skin traveled ever-downwards, and he strangled himself with his wings to try and halt its progress.
But he did not succeed, and it passed by his wings unabated. The bulge diminished and then disappeared as the slug arrived at its destination, and Blu's wings fell to his sides.
Scarlet let out a sigh and said, "Well, my work here is done. You'll enjoy what that has in store for you. Once it gets into your brain, it'll be game over for you. You'll be nothing but a bloodthirsty savage who will kill the animals he comes across and dine on their warm flesh. After you've spilled some blood, preferably the blood of your mate and your children, come and see me, won't you? I'll be waiting, angel-turned-accomplice of mine…"
With that, she spun around and blasted off into the forest, cutting through the foliage like a blade and vanishing in three seconds flat.
The slug writhed in the stomach of its host, unharmed by the digestive juices thanks to the slimy ooze it secreted from its smooth body. Once it made sense of its surroundings, it would spring into action and fulfill its penultimate duty.
Blu himself was silent and unmoving, in utter, immobilizing shock after being orally raped and having something injected into him. His beak hung open, drool spilling from it constantly and dribbling onto his chest, then snaking through his plumage like rivers of gel.
His stare was vacant and his mind was blank, wiped clean by the nightmarish things Scarlet had done to him. His throat was raw and unbelievably sore, and his chest ached immensely with every too-slow breath.
His mortal body was incapable of coping with the onslaught, and his system collapsed and went into shut down mode.
"H-help me…" he moaned to no one but himself.
He coughed one last time, ejecting a blob of clear saliva that splattered on the earth. His eyelids fell down over his eyes, and he sank to the ground until he was reclined on his back, his wings sprawled out on either side of him.
He went into a dead faint right then and there, his shuddering chest the only sign that he was even alive.
The sun beat down on his battered body, heedless of his plight as his plumage sparkled under the influence of his rays.
Blu was enveloped in total silence, the faraway macaws no longer squawking and stimulating his ears. He lay there like a zombie as the slug heeded the call of its biological destiny, preparing to set out on a journey through Blu's body.
Saliva piled up in his beak and streamed down the sides, and he began to soak in the pool that formed behind his head and spread outwards in all directions.
Author's Note: So, this concludes the end of Chapter 6. Hope you like it. :D
I'm not sure if the same readers who read this are still connected to it, even after my long hiatus. But even though, I'd like to give my thanks to you readers, and very much with Toltec for helping me out with this.
Anyways, see you all in the next chapter! :D