Chapter 7 - Survival
He cracked his eyes open and found himself staring at the clear blue sky. He looked around examining the glider around him. It was made of hard steel, his eyes smarted as he repositioned himself and the sun blasted into his eyes. He turned away and brought himself to his feet.
He clambered over the side of the glider and found himself surrounded by a herd of Mooshrooms cavorting over the purplish mycelium. Looking further, he found a large tree. It stood further away, Just over the line of the Mycelium.
He raised his hand, and tapped the wood. Unlike the Special blocks of the globe, it showed a small crack in it. He smashed through it and quickly smashed the rest of the tree to the ground, retrieving two apples and a sapling.
He chewed on the apple as he formed the basic shape of a crafting table. He formed the wood and waited as the wood bonded together in a flash of light. He picked it up from the ground and looked at it in a sort of wonder.
He held it out and dropped it to the ground. A small pop echoed, and the crafting table grew to a much larger size. Once again amazed at the transformation, he knelt down and felt the sides of the table.
He reached out towards the table and let out a breath as his body and the things in his pockets flashed into being behind his eyes. He felt his mind tense as he moved two blocks of wood into the shape of a rod.
He blinked to avoid the flash and looked back from the table to find four sticks in his hand.
He quickly crafted the sticks and wood into the basic survival implements; Sword, Pick, a and Axe. His apprehensiveness faded as he turned away from the crafting table and found himself face to face with a large spider. He stood there for a minute and looked at it.
It looked amazingly like a Felic, and the barely coherent growl of words that echoed from its mouth to were reminiscent of them.
"Human, Now you die." It hissed.
"Why?" He returned, instinctually supplementing with a small blast of thought. It stopped and looked curiously at him.
"You Speak?" It stepped backwards. He jumped over the crafting table behind him, and backed onto the mycelium.
"Yes." It came up to the mycelium and hissed for a second before rearing back and spitting a green steaming liquid from between its mandibles.
Yelling in surprise, he threw himself to the side. His arm burned and he smelled singed flesh. Gasping, he pulled himself further back into the mycelium biome. The spider stepped forward eyes wide in anticipation, but a couple of steps onto the mycelium it faltered.
His eyes flooded with fluids, and green fluid gushed from its mouth. It tripped and stumbled another foot before dropping to the ground and screeching as the fluidhardened around him holding him to the ground and the green fluid smoked as it ate at his skin.
His eyes gushed again with fuid and the screech shifted to a lower tone as smoke issued from his eyes. After a long minute its screams dropped to a lower state and became silent.
He gazed at the smoking remains of the corpse for a moment before standing up and clutching his arm to his body as he slowly walked over to his crafting table. He grabbed his fallen sticks before picking up the table and walking into the mycelium biome.
He finally descended from the skydome and slowly made his way through the darkened city. Ge
approached his residence and let himself relax. Tomorrow he would finish twisting the minds of his fellow students.
With their brainpower focusing on a central goal he would be almost unstoppable. He turned up the last path and walked up to the door of the house. He slid through the streamers and squinted his eyes at the harsh, pervasive lights that bombarded him.
He unsquinted his eyes after a minute and made out a couple of familiar shapes. The first two he discerned were his foster parents here. The other two were the problem, they were the uptight officers that had been lurking around the school watching a few of his teachers.
Incredulity drifted through his mind. He hadn't seen them talking to teachers not associated with him. He backed away from the group before running as fast as his legs would carry him. He stopped suddenly, suspended in mid air by two large mandibles.
They squeezed on his shell before carrying him back to the house. He looked down and saw appreciative expressions on the faces of the two cognits. He turned his body and found himself staring into the face of a large brute, He spat in disgust as it lowered itself down and the two officers climbed onto it.
It rose carrying him high into the air. With slow long strides it carried him off through the city.
He dragged the glider over the edge of the moat and dropped it on the ground.
He winced as his arm was pulled down by the craft. He turned and walked into his makeshift wooden hut. He sat at a table and pulled out his bug. He tossed it into the air, and flashed into it.
He was falling, the ground reared up to meet him. Just in time he pulled his wings out and soared upwards. He spun in a tight circle before flying through the holes in his door. He flew up and spun in the sunlight.
After a couple of minutes he dropped down into the glider. He spun around inside of it in wonder. It was full of food and supplies. He flew the bug back to his hand and flashed back.
He jumped up from the table and ran outside to the glider. He dropped down to the floorboard of the glider. He winced as he tugged on the floorboard but nothing gave. He finally gave up and reengaged the bug. He dropped down onto the board and to his surprise floated right through.
He flew back up and found that the bug wasn't stopped by it at all. He dropped down and grabbed a piece of food and hauled it up but it stopped in its tracks below him falling out of his grasp.
He tried some of the other containers but the result was always the same. Finally he sat back in the glider and looked over at the sunset. An irittating tree was blocking his view but suddenly it dropped down and he had a perfect view. He turned to get out of the glider to see if another Cognit had shown up.
Instead, he found himself floating high above his house. He turned back into the glider and closed his eyes. He concentrated,
"Down," He whispered "Down." He felt a slight drop and felt the glider touch earth. He opened his eyes and looked around, he was on the ground. He thought for a second, then focused on the floorboard, "Open." The floor eased to the side and revealed a load of food and supplies.
Achilles unsquinted his eyes and felt the acid dissolve his solid barrier. As it dripped down his face he looked up and saw them approach a large city. It felt strangely reminiscent of the city he had been born in. It stood high with crystal towers and seemed to be connected from every angle.
The brutes Mandibles clenched harder and he passed out again.