Grimmjow smirked, turning his gaze from the fallen human soul over to Szayel, who was grinning and laughing insanely. "Record time?"
"Eleven hours. A simple eleven hours, and she's hollowifying! Isn't this magnificent?" The pink-haired man was doubled over, pressing his hands against the desk in an attempt to prop himself up. His body shook with every chuckle, and then he slowly began raising his head, orange eyes staring over the rims of his glasses into the containment area, and he ran his tongue over his teeth. "Now…"
He turned his gaze back to the female. Every last link in the chain had come alive, eating each other up, and now that most of them were gone, the remaining few were chewing into the point they were attached to her chest by, eating a hole through her. He watched as the one who called herself Allina Tsuin bucked, screaming in the suddenly heightened pain before that screaming became a choking sound, and the material that would form her mask came gushing out of her mouth, from her tear ducts… His own grin spread more.
Then he heard footsteps, and Aizen was pulling up a chair at the edge of the glass, back of the chair to their window into where Al was as he sat down. He rested his chin on his arms, which were crossed over the back of the chair. "Will she be ready to start the next series of tests soon?" Eyes on the prize, as always, Sosuke was. Never had he been reluctant to use others for his tests. Even now, he was attempting to Hollowify shinigami, to see if there was not some way to break the boundary between Hollow and Shinigami. He planned on using that ability to further strengthen the Arrancar present and create more, much the same as that maniac of a computer worm was intent on finding a way to create more Vasto Lorde, seeing as how they were so difficult to find out there in Hueco Mundo. The stronger the base creature, the better…so why not start with the best? Pick and choose what gets thrown into the mix, breeding things far stronger than any currently known being? It was ideal.
"I don't see why not." Finally calming, Granz straightened, turned so his back was to the window and leaned against the desk, trailing his fingers through his hair and slowing the closer he got to the tips, staring at the locks. He then turned, hitting a few keys on the board and then flicking the screen, and the window went black. Grimmjow could no longer see the thrashing girl, or hear her screams echoing around them, and he frowned.
Instantly bored, he pushed to his feet, shoved his hands in his pockets and headed for the door, but Ichimaru inched over into his path, head tilted to the side, smiling as always, hands hidden in his sleeves. "Where are you going?"
Grimmjow shouldered by and pushed the door open with more force than necessary. "To find something to do, things just got boring in here." He said it over his shoulder and kicked the door shut before anything more could be called after him, turning and walking down the hall. He'd come back when there was something to see again. The only reason he was even present was because they never kept humans here in Hueco Mundo. It came as a surprise to him that they were doing so now. Aizen, the small boy called Gin, and Tosen would be leaving soon, returning to the Soul Society before anyone realized they were gone. This would of course leave Ulquiorra in charge, as the only one who would bother with the task of running Las Noches, in spite of the fact he was only Fourth. Not that Grimmjow gave a damn.
He was bored. Very bored, and unless he made good on his threat to pound Ulquiorra's face in, he was doomed to stay that way. Of course, to do so was also to invite punishment, and though he didn't mind fighting - hell, he loved it - he did mind the idea of losing his placement.
Grimmjow crouched under the shade of a tree, watching as a group of shinigami emerged from a senkaimon. Well, he'd expected shinigami, but all he saw was a bunch of kids running around in uniforms that were either white and blue, or white and red. They jumped across rooftops and chased mechanical Hollows. Was this how they trained their officers? With fake swords, fake uniforms, and fake enemies, the only thing real being their surroundings? Pathetic.
He then smirked, straightening. Perhaps he'd give them something real to try. Throw some real hollows at them and see if they still wanted to become Shinigami. See if they even survived the event at all, seeing as he didn't see a single black uniform anywhere and not a single one of their spiritual pressures were particularly notable. How many Hollows should he send, as part of his gift? Two? Three? Maybe a few more than that. He opened a garganta, stepping through and simply whistling.
A few hollows came running. A few rather large ones, but it would make this just that much better. They launched themselves at him, howling, but he sidestepped and they moved through the enlarging opening between the worlds. To the shinigami trainees, since he was positive that's what they were. Grimmjow then pivoted on his heels to watch the show, but the lucky recipients of his gift hadn't even noticed what was towering over them yet. He shook his head, smirked when the first scream rang out, and closed the garganta, stepping away into the shadows to watch. He saw a trainee in red get skewered, watched the shocked looks on the faces of the others. As the hollows attacked, the trainees bunched together in an increasingly smaller group. Well, until real Shinigami showed up and ruined the show. Captain-class, too…he didn't wait to see how quickly the hollows were dispatched.
Grimmjow walked down the alleyway between two houses, staying in the shadows as an afterthought. He knew who the captain-class officers that descended were, and was well aware now that no shinigami were within Las Noches. The three that were had now appeared here, to put down his hollows. End his fun. Bastards. Not that it would have lasted much longer, anyway. At the end of the alley, the air seemed to be pinching, rolling, and then tearing, opening to reveal endless black. Oh yeah, and Ulquiorra, slight figure seeming even more so in front of the hulking one of Yammy. To intercept him? Probably. Go figure he'd come with backup, since he was weaker than Grimmjow. Ulqui may have been Fourth, but he was still weaker. Less.
He'd prove that one of these days, should the opportunity present itself. Right now, though, he had to behave. Damn it all. Instead of acknowledging either of the Arrancar, he shouldered past them, headed for whatever waited on the other side of this tunnel. Ulquiorra was silent, though Yammy had a mouthful of things to say. A mouthful he grumbled loudly, but Grimmjow didn't listen to. If he had, he might have turned around, eagerly accepting the challenge. Again, what stopped him was the knowledge that he would be punished for that.
He stopped for a moment when he saw what was waiting at the end of the tunnel, though. Grimmjow hadn't expected a person, he'd been expecting for a place to come into view. Instead, the green-haired female Neliel was standing there, gazing at him with a hand on her hip in that calm way. Dispassionate, belittling…his teeth ground together, and he started walking again. "What do you want?"
Her expression betrayed no reaction to his snap. Instead of answering, she pressed her lips together and walked out of view. Annoying woman. Was probably going to lecture him on how he was too violent or too reckless or needed to leave things alone. She constantly had Nnoitra worked up into fits of rage with her too-calm voice, her unwillingness to take a battle seriously, the belittling way she looked at people. He had no idea how she was number three. Nel was just too motherly, too nice. Gentle. That, in an Arrancar, was wrong. He should crush her anyway, just to put her out of her misery. She'd never have to see another violent thing again. That should please the stupid woman.
His gaze landed on pale sands and sunny skies as he stepped out of the garganta, and he looked around. Structures more closely resembling candlesticks sticking out of the ground than buildings greeted his eyes, an Espada palace. Neliel over near Nnoitra, more than likely pissing him off again with words alone. As was what seemed to be her favorite pastime. Bitch.
"The girl is now a Hollow." Ulquiorra's voice, behind him. Aizen's wannabe butler stepped out beside, and then a little bit ahead of him, before turning to look at him. "Seems like information that would interest you."
Grimmjow grinned. Sure, it was interesting. He could actually watch a soul go through all the processes of becoming one of them. And so quickly? Every time he visited, he got to see something new. He just wished that Szayel would let him fight the girl, but every time he made the demand, he got the same story. She's too weak. I need her stronger, not dead. She's part of this experiment. He'd said to make her strong enough if she wasn't already, but that demand was met with silence. He'd resisted the urge to crush the numerous's skull then and there, merely because he was for once interested in the results of this experiment of his. To kill the mad scientist was to ensure he'd never see them. And then, he actually might as well have gone in and crushed the girl as well.
He just didn't like the way Ulquiorra said it. The tone of his voice… "Are you implying something, Four?"
Again, silence surrounded them. Well, aside from Yammy's grumbling, and the sound of him scratching the back of his neck, undoubtedly looking in the direction of Nel and Nnoitra. He looked too, and saw that Nnoitra was in mid-swing with his scythe, attacking the pale green-haired woman. Well, well, look who lost his cool. Not that he really had any. Serves Neliel right. Grimmjow hoped he cut her in half.
"Aren't you going to see? No telling how long she'll be like this for." Ulquiorra, again. Was he still here? Grimmjow's head swiveled around and he glared at him. Again, there'd been implications in his voice when he'd asked if Grim was going to watch the experiment. Because he'd been such a frequent visitor?
"I doubt Szayel will let me in there at her yet, so it's not like I get to have any fun. Why bother?" Grimmjow shrugged his shoulders, turning and starting to walk off. Oh yes, he would definitely be dropping in on the experiment. He just wasn't going to entertain any of the other Espada with watching him frequent the science lab. Maybe he should've visited more frequently during the other experiments he'd known about, but it had never really intrigued him. It wasn't like any fighting went on, or they kidnapped other races to poke and prod and evolve, like Szayel had done a month ago with this girl. After this, his honest opinion was that they should. But none of the other things they could toy with seemed quite as interesting as this human - not anymore, he had to remind himself - soul. Why? Because this was almost like learning and observing his own beginnings? Well, with a few added twists, like the girl's powers. Odd that Szayel hadn't wanted to research those first. Now, though, they could watch and see if the hollow Allina had become would have those same abilities.
This whole thing could come crashing down to an end, though, when she actually became a Menos. If her will and personality wasn't strong enough, she'd be snuffed out by all the other hollows, and if one of them failed to take control of the entire being…she'd just be a normal, run-of-the-mill Menos and be no good. Though he had a hard time imagining that snippy little girl's spirit could be dominated or forced to blend with others. No matter how calm and quiet she seemed at times, he saw the fire in those eyes. Maybe he was just imagining it. Maybe not.
Grimmjow blinked when he realized where he was at the end of his thoughts. In the lab again. Hollows screamed, writhing inside the room that had once been the oversized home to one small human. They scaled the walls, flew overhead, crowded the floor…Szayel was standing at the window, having a staring contest with one hollow in particular. Well, until it got bitten into by another of the ravenous creatures. Then, with a scream, it spun and smacked at what had bitten it. Hollows closed in on it then, sharks drawn by the smell of fresh blood. "Which one is the kid?"
Granz pointed up silently. Grim walked to the window, gaze turning in the direction indicated. Through thin strands of strange golden light that hollows were getting stuck in, unable to pull free or bite their way loose. Those hollows were being absorbed by these threads that formed what he could only describe as a web. Once caught, the lights branched off into the creature, and he could actually see the power being drawn from them, their bodies breaking down. One of them were withered and reduced to nearly nothing. This hollow glowed a brilliant blue before exploding into nothing but reishi and reiryoku, which the veinlike lights branching off from the strand of 'web' wrapped around and absorbed. He followed the flow of brighter light that was energy being transferred through the web, and saw as it ended in the claws at the top of a large…cocoon?
No, he realized a moment later. Those were wings. He could see long black hair hanging down from the bottom of the creature. As it hung there, the wings pulled back, and he could see that hair was attached to the head of the batlike hollow that was suspended upside-down. Glowing red eyes peered out from behind the mask. Directly at him. Once more, he found himself wondering if reiatsu reached that room, and its inhabitants could sense those on the outside. For that to be true meant the room was not secure, though.
The hollow spread its wings suddenly, mouth opening in a deafening howl. Its claws opened, releasing the webs, which immediately retracted and dropped everything they hadn't absorbed, the rest returning to the creature's body. Halfway drained hollows rained upon the unsuspecting participants of the mayhem on the floor, and the bat-hollow thing swooped down, landing against a wall where a spiderlike one was climbing its way towards it and pinning the hollow. He didn't have to see the Al-hollow biting into the creature, hear the flesh tearing, to know what she was doing. He could tell in how she kept it pinned while clinging to the wall with the claws on her wings. The quick, viper-like darts of her head in, the slow, jerky backward tugs. She dropped the remains of the hollow finally, only to take back to the air and go soaring after another one. Occasionally swoop down and pick off one of the hollows in the crowd below after they'd eaten a large number already, chewing in mid-flight on her way to a wall, where she would again pin the squirming creatures and finish the meal.
Each dead hollow was replaced soon enough, more falling down into the room when a square opened up. A few hollows that were also flighted creatures having to be pushed down into the room, but after that they wasted no time in chasing the bat-like creature. Those that gave chase, Al made a priority to kill first though, a couple times even dropping her 'food' to make room for them in her talons. It seemed this cannibalistic food fest would never end.
