'Seriously?' Bath thought to himself as the magma pressed on him from all sides. He plated his exterior in metal, actually borrowing from some of the anatomy of creatures on Magnet Planet. From the outside, he looked like a metal centipede. He lined the metal exterior with fat and naturally insulating biological matter. However, he knew that he needed to exit this magma quickly. Even with these measures, he didn't expect Lisa and Lepochim to last very long in the extreme heat. Even his form was breaking down at what would soon be an unsustainable rate.

In the manner of a Magnet Planet native, Bath quickly located the core of the planet and started moving in the opposite direction toward the planet's surface. After about twelve seconds of rapid sprinting, Bath finally breached the magma and entered open air.

He quickly shifted form, repurposing his long centipede body into short, powerful wings. Now he looked like a dragonfly from Earth.

The world around him was still incredibly hot from the magma below. The rock around him was black and brown. He recognized almost immediately that he was now above the caldera of an active volcano.

"Well, we're here," Bath muttered. Traveling was clearly some dangerous business. He thought back to the slug-men on Lime World and their complete lack of warning with regards to the dangerous conditions on this side of Lime World's exit gate.

Screw what he'd said before about entertaining them as guests. If they came to Earth, well. They would certainly have a 'warm' welcome.

Bath pumped his wings and sped off in a random direction away from the volcano. He stopped when he found a rock overlooking a valley of bones that seemed relatively cool and peaceful. Since a few minutes had passed, Bath had already made sure Lisa's body could handle this planet's conditions, and released her from his body.

"Wow, it's dark," she noted. The sky was covered in gray clouds that blocked out any sunlight.

"Lepochim," Bath said slowly. "I'm going to let you out."

No reply. Bath expelled Lepochim, then waited for the deepthink to speak. For a moment, the alien lay motionless on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Then: "Fuck 39981." Lepochim stumbled to his feet. "Damn." He shook out his limbs, then gave Bath a hard look. "I feel like I should be really upset after you tortured me, especially since I wasn't in my right mind, but I'll let it pass."

"Wait, what?" Lisa interjected. "Okay, so you actually were crazy on Lime World."

"You only seemed crazy toward the end," Bath noted, his voice laced with unconcealed suspicion. "Are you suggesting that you were crazy the entire time?"

"Yes," Lepochim sighed. "You know how my body adjusts to each planet we arrive on?"

"Yeah," Lisa said. "We've noticed."

"Even when you're internally inside my body?" Bath glared. Lepochim had been inside Bath's body when he'd seemingly rebelled against him.

"Not usually, but..."

"Please, explain your behavior in its entirety, then," Bath invited, his voice mocking.

Lepochim closed his eyes as he took a breath. "I'm sure you noticed that the atmosphere on that world had a few heavy elements in it," Lepochim began. "Even inside your body, because of my GPS tracker, my body began to overcompensate for what it was told the atmospheric conditions should be. I'm not exactly sure of the specifics, but in the end, my brain was messed up. I became delusional."

"Wait wait wait," Lisa said. "Explain this GPS tracking stuff. You have a GPS tracker that changes your body?"

Lepochim sighed. "It's more complicated than that."

"Sure," Lisa rolled her eyes. Lepochim's explanation alone was almost indecipherable. Bodily over-compensation for atmospheric conditions based on information from a GPS tracker? Which lead to insanity? It all seemed outlandish.

"Why didn't you say anything once you realized what was happening? Clearly, you didn't instantly go crazy once we came over to Lime World. I'm not convinced by your explanation," Bath fumed.

"I'm not sure what happened either, to be honest," Lepochim frowned. "Like I said, until I left your body, even with the GPS implant, my body should've assumed I was housed in an insulating vehicle of some sort. I shouldn't have undergone physiological changes. I didn't know that this would happen since on Magnet Planet--planet 39789--I was exposed to the planet from the beginning."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"You know what, fine," Bath interrupted, his voice cutting through the dark, windless clearing like a knife's edge. "I'll take you at your word that you were insane on Lime World. All the same, I don't trust you, for everything that you've withheld from us.

"Though I invited you to become my companion, unless you inform Lisa and I about your actual capabilities, I'm going to devour you," Bath said solemnly.

"An ultimatum?" Lepochim's face paled.

"Bath, on our way here, I was looking into more deepthink species details. Something I found might be of interest to you," she offered with a smile. "You can tell if they're lying based on their blood pressure. Er, well, it isn't blood, I guess, but that's the given translation."

"Oh?" Bath smiled back, giving Lepochim an impression of incalculable evil. "Wonderful." Without any hesitation, Bath's essence swarmed into Lepochim through his mouth and nose. The deepthink gave Bath a horrified look. Bath was now able to sense the pulsing of Lepochim's blood-like equivalent as it circulated through his body. He felt the tension in the walls of the vessels that coiled through Lepochim's body.

"Let's begin, Lepo," he said darkly. Lepochim gave Bath a furious expression, to which Bath replied, "Are you insane now? Or do you really dare glare at a world devourer?"

"You aren't a world devourer," Lepochim muttered. "There's no way. It's impossible for you to be one with the way you've been acting. Thinking, scheming, manipulating, self-control...impossible."

"Actually, I'm more convinced by the day that I am," Bath admitted. "Even if I wasn't a world devourer, as you claim, does that really matter? I'm in a position of power over you. I expect respect." Bath's eyes narrowed.

Lepochim's face became stony. "I'll concede that point. I apologize for letting my temper get the better of me."

"I understand, considering the fact that you reacted to my gross invasion of privacy," Bath allowed. He certainly wouldn't want someone else's essence flowing through his body. "Moving on: please explain, in detail, what Sigenolf-74 is and what being a special forces operative of Zder means."

"Sigenolf-74 isn't an officially registered planet. It's a planet accessible by a single gate on the very fringes of Zder. It was disovered approximately 500,000 years previous by a high-ranking military conquest official. Since then, it's been a training ground for special forces."

Lepochim sighed. "The penalty for telling all of you this is death, by the way. Anyways: the operatives on Zder are all given a series of implants that alter our bodily compositions on the fly. It's actually quite similar to how you, Bath, manipulate Lisa's body after we enter each planet. The key difference is that the implants have a vast database of each planet's environmental conditions, with particular focus on conditions at the entrance to each gate.

"Of course, there are some planets and gates that render the implants useless, such as the gate we just entered. I would've been incinerated before my body could adapt to the magma. However, for the most part, the implants work very well."

"We're hearing the English word that means Global Positioning System in our translation for your implant. Is there a better description you can give us?" Lisa asked.

"Hmm. That isn't truly accurate," Lepochim admitted. "It isn't like your GPS system on Earth. I can honestly say that I don't have adequate knowledge of the technology. I only know that my implants can accurately find my position and adjust my body according to local environmental conditions."

"You said that if you're in a vehicle, the implants don't adjust your body's conditions. Why is that?" Bath asked.

"It's useful for when we go through a series of gates via high-speed shuttle. Moreover, like I told you, adjusting the body to an expected outside condition when inside of a climate-controlled vehicle is a recipe for disaster. I'm not sure how the implants detect when I'm inside of a vehicle, though clearly they failed at doing so when I was in your body. Perhaps they're deactivated by the shuttles we travel in themselves..."

Bath had a general idea of what was going on. Lepochim was a soldier who specialized in invading other worlds through gates. He would certainly have experience working in a team and would be familiar with high-grade technology.

"Why were you on Earth?" Lisa wondered.

"Technically, I was sent to gather information on the planet," Lepochim grimaced. "In addition, I was supposed to obtain the allegiance of a majority of the planet's kursi. It was an extremely unfortunate assignment," Lepochim smiled bitterly. "Being sent to a backwater world like Earth is a terrible punishment."

"Why?" Lisa frowned.

"The way to Earth from Zder is fairly clear-cut. It only took me two years of travel to arrive. The way back?"

He spread his arms wide. "Just look at this place. There are countless uncivilized, technologically bankrupt planets from here to Zder. Traversing all of them by myself is impossible."

"So you were effectively exiled," Bath snorted. "I think I understand now. That's enough for today," he muttered. In a flash, all of the essence in Lepochim's body streamed out, though this time they did so inconspicuously.

"The essence is gone," Bath said offhandedly. "While I plan to return to Earth within 8 days because Lisa and I have school, I think we can afford to take a much-needed sleeping break." Bath noticed that Lisa could barely keep her eyes open. Though he didn't see clear signs of exhaustion on Lepochim, he figured that the deepthink must also be exhausted.

"School?" Lepochim intoned as though shocked.

"Thanks, Bath," Lisa yawned. Bath made himself into her favorite white-wolf form. Within the next minute, Lisa was already sleeping on his fluffy form.

Lepochim only stared at Bath in silence. "Are you serious about the 8 day thing?"

"Dead serious," Bath replied with a clipped tone.

"I know you don't like me because of everything that's happened, but believe me when I say I withheld information because I wanted to protect you and Lisa. What I told you is top-secret--"

"It's fine," Bath cut him off. "Just sleep."

Lepochim nodded, then lay down on a nearby rock.

Bath looked up at the roiling sky, letting his thoughts wander in the inky dark. Much had happened over the past hours...

He smiled to himself. Lepochim was more interesting than he'd originally thought.