Umm... yeah... there's some very, very mild blood and violence. Not much, but I just thought I'd warn you.

Calhoun's near-permanent frown deepened slightly when she saw Jean's worried expression. The scientist had just finished up checking her little pet experiment, and whenever she came back looking worried, it was a sure sign something was up.

"What's wrong?" Calhoun asked. "Oda refusing to eat or something?"

Jean simply nodded. "That, and she's suddenly become aggressive. I don't know what's wrong with her."

The frown on Tamora's face morphed into a scowl. "Aggressive as in..?"

"She's giving warning signs. The ones you'd usually expect; hissing, clicking of the mandibles, flicking her tail around and backing up against the wall. It's as if we've become a threat to her."

"We?"

"Me and the other handlers."

"Oh. Do you think she could be... um…? You know..?"

"Getting ready to reproduce? I honestly have no idea. It's a possibility, but from previous tests, we've gained knowledge that she's most likely sterile, meaning she can't breed. Ever" Jean sighed resignedly, her shoulders slumping. "But then again it could just be because she's not mature enough."

"It's probably a phase," Tamora suggested. "I know it sounds crazy coming from me, but the chances of Oda attacking a human, particularly one she's grown to trust, are pretty slim."

Jean looked up hopefully. "You sure?"

"Pretty sure. I'll come with you next time you check on her."

"Thanks, Tam. You're a real good help. If you trust her, then I won't go against your judgement."

The next day

Tamora's long strides matched Jean's almost perfectly as they made their way to the enclosure that Oda was kept in. Both women had high hopes for the Cy-Bug's behaviour.

"Look, if she does something really, really bad then please; don't. Shoot. Her." Jean instructed as she approached the small group at the enclosure door, made up of three powerfully built men wearing padded, almost armoured clothing. It was like the clothing worn in dog training areas that Tamora had come across in some cop game a few weeks ago. The trainers programmed into the game had worn thick, padded sleeves when training the particularly vicious-looking German Shepherds in the game.

"I see you're not taking any chances," Tamora remarked in approval. "When was the armour called for?"

"Yesterday, after Oda was acting hostile," Jean explained. "She may be tame, but I don't want to take any chances at the moment."

Tamora nodded, knowing that although Jean was eager and rather happy-go-lucky, she always used caution when it was called for.

"Let's go and check on her."

Jean nodded, looked at the men, and opened the door.

The room was reasonably bright, illuminated by a green glow. There wasn't much in the room because Oda didn't spend much time in there or require all that much. Said Cy-Bug was backed up into the corner, a low hiss emanating from her mandibles. Her golden eyes were narrowed in suspicion, and there was an obvious tension in her six sharp, purple limbs. Something was definitely off about her.

"I see what you mean," Tamora mumbled.

"Oda, it's me," Jean crooned softly, trying to calm the Cy-Bug down. "Calm down, I won't hurt you."

Oda snarled gently, rapid clicks being produced from her mandibles. She didn't feel safe. Why were these big, strange-smelling men here? Why did she feel hostility radiating off of Aunt Tamora?

"Careful, Professor," one of the men warned. "She's getting edgy."

To prove the man's point, Oda arched her back threateningly, her massive size seeming to almost double itself. She was much, much more than just edgy.

In an attempt to calm the distressed creature down, Jean made some of her own clicking noises in the back of her throat and a few high-pitched purrs and crouched down to make herself look less threatening. It would have worked had the men in the suits not been there. Still not feeling overly trusting, Oda snapped her jaws and jerked her head forward, warning that she wasn't taking any chances with any of the humans; friendly or not.

Sadly, that small jerk of the head was a bad move.

"Professor!"

One of the men, who had been pretty worked up about the ordeal anyway, suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Jean's right arm. Mistaking the action for an attack, Oda herself rushed forward and clamped her mandibles over Jean's other arm, cleanly severing it off from the elbow and swallowing the limb whole.

Tamora gaped in horror as Jean ripped her intact arm from the armoured man's grip and hastily tried to pull the fabric of her lab coat sleeve over the bloodied stump that her left arm had occupied just moments prior. With her face screwed up in pain, Oda hissing softly in the corner and the man who'd intervened panicking a good deal, it was obvious that things had fallen into a disaster.

"Everybody out!" Tamora ordered, shooting an icy glare in the direction of the man who had caused the panic in the first place. "Now!"

The men wasted no time in making a hasty departure from the room. Jean stumbled after them, casting a glance in Jean's direction with an all too clear message in her eyes.

"I won't hurt her," Tamora promised. Jean nodded in acknowledgement and left Tamora with the long, dark purple Cy-Bug.

"What's gotten you so worked up?" Tamora asked, not expecting an answer. Oda responded by curling up in the corner and chirping ruefully. It was obvious that she hadn't wanted to hurt the closest thing she'd had to a mother.

After a few minutes of staring, Sergeant Calhoun began to notice that something else was wrong with Oda. The gleaming dark purple plates of chitin on her back were extremely dull, the neon rose highlights on them looking washed out and grey. A strange, sickly green liquid was seeping from the cracks between her armoured carapace shells too. This was something Jean needed to know about.

Without a word, Tamora left the room, closing the door and locking it. From the other end of the corridor, she could hear Jean shrieking insults and curses, presumably at the idiot who'd messed up. Judging from the fact that Tamora couldn't hear anyone arguing back, it was a bad one, even worse than Tamora's rants.

Tamora shook her head with worry. Worry for Jean's stability, worry for Oda…

Just… worry…

Told you...

Don't worry, I have no intention of killing off Oda or seriously harming her.