“YEAH YEAH YEAH, FUCK OFF—YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING, GREAT JOB!”
It was odd. When the monster nurse, trying so hard to be human, barely could get idioms right. Now that her multiple tongues are hanging out of her mouth, she could now clearly speak.
Said series of tongues were layered like bananas growing in a pod. And with her professor’s water whip tying this creature up, these tongues were pressed against its chest. Instantly staining what was once a woman’s wardrobe with its thick drool.
“Oooh,” Mrs. Moses countered without a single word. “You must’ve learned that word from the brain you’ve eaten, you disgusting glutton. Now… Tell me what’s going on here, or I’ll teach my younger kin more anatomy lessons.”
The monster nurse cackled, like the imp that it was. Such weird and off-kilter swagger for, as Calypso assumed, someone’s entire gimmick based on tongues. Just tongues.
“IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER ANYWAYS!” the nurse spoke oh-so-eloquently… Despite having its several tongues not only hanging out of the mouth, but pressed against her chest. Calypso actually wondered at this point… Was acting human, i.e. keeping its tongue in the mouth it’s stolen from a defenseless woman, more trouble for it?
“WE’VE TAKEN OVER THIS DUMP FROM HEAD TO BOTTOM, A SWEET FACTORY FOR OUR NEW TERRORIZER TO MAKE US INTO AWESOME BAT SUBSUMED AND THE HUMANS PRACTICALLY LINE UP FOR US TO JUMP INTO THEIR PITIFUL MEATSACKS! SHIT! YOU CAN’T DO SHIT!”
Mrs. Moses was silent. Taking in her captor’s… String of words. Calypso figured that her professor was completely right, this creature is overjoyed to the point of zeal that it can talk and use human words… No matter how badly it uses them.
“As much as I want to punish that use of grammar alone…” Mrs. Moses adjusted her spectacles. “‘Terrorizer’ is a very, very choice word, there.”
“Aaaand that’s where we come in, actually…” the gnat stepped forward, with her finger arched upwards. Not a point at Mrs. Moses—or at the nurse—or at someone in general, but in the sense of pointing something out. “If I may…”
“Hold on, dear…”
With a flick of her water-coated wrist, Mrs. Moses forced her water whip that tied the nurse up to strangle the creature more, and cause the tip of such to unfurrow and shove itself into the monster’s open mouth. Not digging itself deeper, but staying there.
“Now go on.”
“… I have to remind myself, how I managed to get into this situations—” the gnat was flustered, fumbling at the display of power and what that means for her if she possibly crossed this woman.
She grumbled, stopped briefly to fix her fake wig by using both of her hands. “Here’s the deal—there’s a Symbi-Subsumed named Cassie Morgan that’s trying to invoke Terrortide—we don’t know why but seeing how flippant and… Pardon both my language and the pun, bat-shit crazy she is, it's a massive problem. We all barely survived encountering her—and I was a helper at gunpoint but hey, same deal—and now we’ve decided to try to stop her before she brings about a terrible existence for us all.”
Mrs. Moses was silent, before letting out a long, almost agonized, sigh.
“And here I thought the last attempt I’ve experienced was going to just that: the last…”
“I really don’t like how these things, like, keep happening—” Gale’s perfect response to that.
Mrs. Moses rubbed at her face, clearly conveying a suddenly stressed energy to it. “The thing is, the fools trying to start it normally are too weak to maintain the cost of it, so taking them out is a very doable if not harsh process. The only one w—”
Calypso caught that. She watched as her professor froze in thought, tightening her jaw in subdued anger—likely at herself. Before continuing:
“—I, the only one I had to be concerned over was the one that my arch nemesis tried to start. And that was a long, arduous process that made up most of our encounters. Doing this means planning, skill, and equivalent exchange for an event that might not even start properly if you forget the one detail.”
“So uh, that’s where the ‘bat-shit crazy’ comes into play, ma’am, because she’s doing it regardless and doesn’t care at all,” the gnat explained.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“My word…” Mrs. Moses pinched at the bridge of her nose, pushing her oval-rimmed glasses to her sweating forehead. “I knew that the signs I’ve witnessed couldn’t be coincidence… I had nothing to go on, sans the weird activity that went on here as of late. Hell, it’s the reason why I’d bothered to go to the celebrations later this week: just in case. Who knew that it was going to be this dire…”
Calypso had her professor’s words, “why don’t you tell me things”, echo so loudly within her mind that it battered at the walls withing her skull. Leaving the pain of guilt to nestle in.
Casually, Mrs. Moses let the water gag fall away from the nurse Subsumed’s maw, leaving it to cough in misery.
Only to call off the entire water construction in general seconds later, causing the monster to fall onto the floor. Freed.
Thankfully, Calypso had the gnat to vocalize her shock at this situation.
“Uuuuuh, teach--?”
Mrs. Moses ignored her, wheeling herself forward towards the trembling creature.
“You now understand, how easy it is for me to kill you. I’m letting you go because you’re going to be the only one in here that has the chance of a head start… Go on. Inform your strongest, inform you new master, that we’re here. Because I’m coming for you all and I’m taking back what is my territory.”
The nurse Subsumed sputtered, its confidence gone. It staggered to its stolen feet, and proceeded to run out of the room, still partially transformed.
“N-not doubting your skills, of course,” the gnat’s tone completely betrayed her statement. “But I’m certainly doubting ours—since y’know—we don’t have anything; HOW exactly are we going to take an infested hospital of horrors?”
“That’s the thing,” Mrs. Moses eyes were closed, an odd sense of serenity awash her face. “We’re not.”
“…Then what are we doing--?” Gale tilted her head.
“Figure out what this Cassie is trying to accomplish, and the nature of her tools, anything that aids in rendering her efforts to absolute nil. This is going to be a failure, my dear students, but a beneficial one. We’ll use this confusion to see how they respond to threats, and this suddenness will give away their secrets due to the panic.”
“But that’s still swarms of Subsumed!’ the gnat argued, gesturing her confusion and fear. “We three can barely attack the ones we need at the bare-minimum!”
In the place of Moses’ reply, the girls heard the soft, but hurried pattering of foot falls.
“Ms. Pratchett. Could you be a dear and glance outside for me?”
“O-okie dokie…” Gale separated from the gnat, moving towards the windows of Calypso’s room, peering through the blinders. “Oh man, yeah… It looks liiiike the medical staff is pushing out all of the guests or something like that? Practically screaming at them, a lot of the crowd’s on their phones now—”
“Possibly trying to frame this into a tragedy of some sort,” Mrs. Moses nodded. “A hostage situation, a possible active shooting—something to keep the necessary fear going—”
“Which means cops!” the gnat shrieked, incredulously. “No wonder you and Calypso here are close; you’re basically the same! Both of you—jumping right from the deep end with little care about common sense!”
Calypso quickly shot a sneering grin at her. “Because clearly, you’re the shining example in this room.”
“If this is about my look, it literally works,” the gnat pouted. “I look no different from the folks from Port Acadia—which is excellent because I’m nowhere near there… Or y’know, closer than one thinks—”
“I also like how you’re engaging a skit, when you were the one acting like we’re pressed for them as well—” Calypso immediately batted back.
“Giiiiirls!” Gale intervened. And thankfully, not a moment too soon.
It wasn’t just banging against the door. There were forceful slams, that rocked the wooden creation as it started to break apart due to the strain.
“You’re right to be concerned,” Mrs. Moses was still so eerily calm. “That’s why I’m going to be your distraction. Use the chaos, find what you can, and do anything you must to get out of here with any boon you’ve obtained. But listen to what I’m going to say very, very closely.”
The gnat was going to interrupt, due to the door on the verge of caving in, but Gale reached her hand out forward, shaking her head, before looking at Calypso. The skeletal girl then nodded. If Calypso could feel this change in demeanor, Gale with her “auras” can more than sense their professor’s intentions.
“There’s going to be a decrepit bookstore that will have what you all sorely need on the Main Vein… But I’ll give you an introduction to it’s contents, in the event you do need to fight… The Fates, how they’re especially harsh on our kind—we in response craft special words, incantations that boosts our abilities and direct them effectively. Learning your words can turn the tide of your fates in this unfair game you’ve found yourselves in… A declaration that even the forces that are against you cannot and will not ignore.”
Mrs. Moses brandished her ring by raising her hand, the backside of it facing the door that split open, shadowy claws—tentacles—and wings reaching out towards her… And immediately froze in place.
“I Am Transformed… And I. AM. UNLEASHED!”
There was a quick flash, and their professor lost her human hide. What took its place were lavender scales—Calypso could only see fins, could only see the sharpest claws so far in her journey. Her already stringy hair not only turn teal in color, not only got so long that it virtually covered the entire head—but gained such volume, it was as if she was completely underwater.
All the hints clicked in Calypso’s head, came together. The seafoam color scheme in her home, the scales…
And as if to confirm her suspicions, Calypso’s professor’s legs were completely gone. Merged with one another, creating a long aquatic tail with fins of a lionfish, that spilled out of the wheelchair.
Within an instant, her mermaid Consumed senior flung herself from what could be considered her “shackle”, landing on her belly and began crawling on the floor so fast—the girls blinked and the Subsumed that broke down the door, were nothing more but torn pieces that littered the doorway.