*(mood song: "Rolling Stones - Paint it Black")

Erik touched Inky's arm and was amazed as the skin was as smooth as glass, with the displayed colors being an almost perfect copy of the other side.

Erik: "Wow... if it wasn't for the clothes it would be hard to even notice you are here"

Inky: "hehe~ what about this then, can you notice~?"

Erik suddenly felt a nibble on his left ear.

Erik: "That tickles haha~" he then turned back to Sarah "Does it have any side effects?" taking the potion and inspecting it.

Sarah: "Well, it doesn't seem like there's any lasting damage so-"

Inky appeared again: "It hurts a lot... like someone ripping your skin off, and if you lose concentration your skin becomes transparent or changes colors randomly... it's a bit annoying actually"

Erik: "It sounds a bit inconvenient, but the benefits do far outweigh the downsides... and it's not my first evolution anyway..." he opened the flask and gulped it down, the salty DNA mixture was hidden by a sharp strawberry flavor "Hmm strawberry flavor, nice"

Sarah: "Yeah, I followed your suggestions and added some drops of Ethyl Methylphenylglycidate to it to make it more palatable"

Erik: "It reminds me of chewing gum, nice" he then laid down on a medical table at the side as his clothes peeled off partially by themselves "So... how long does it take to *ugh...* never mind"

Timberly turned to Sarah: "This mutation does seem quite useful, when will the next doses be ready?"

Sarah pondered: "It should take me about an hour more or less"

Timberly: "Nice, I call dibs on the next one then, invisibility... I have a lot of ideas already~"

Jennifer looked at her sister suspiciously: "Is that so... then I guess I shall need a dose not to be included in those ideas of yours..."

Sarah nodded while looking at Erik at the side, cracks appeared all over his skin as blood seeped through, quickly healing to reveal the colors of the table below, as if he was slowly disappearing. At the same time, you could hear Erik's teeth loudly grinding against each other as he tightened his jaw due to the intense pain.

Sarah: "Are you okay-" She wanted to approach but Inky held her shoulder.

Inky shook her head: "Leave Erik be, it will be over soon, you saw it with me, and you should have experienced something similar too"

Sarah: "...I... what about something for the pain?"

Erik: "It's... fine... almost... over... can... feel... it" gritting his teeth with every word.

Slowly but surely Erik's body disappeared until only patches of blood were left floating over a transparent barely clothed shape.

Two wet splashes sounded on the floor as Erik stood up.

Erik: "I need a shower" his body appeared again as his skin flashed on multiple colors from the surroundings randomly.

Sarah: "Good thing no epileptic people are around..."

Erik: "What?" he looked at his hands and chest flashing in different colors "Oh, it's harder than I thought..."

Inky: "Want me to help you?"

Erik: "It's fine, I think I got it.... done, kind of?" his skin now a slightly blue gray, Erik shrugged "Meh, good enough, gotta take a shower though" and he went away to his private bathroom to wash all the grime and dry blood away.

Inky: "Wait for me~!" with Inky following after him.

Sarah wanted to go too, but seeing the expecting Timberly towering over her with a wide sharp smile, she just sighed and got to work on the next DNA vial.

Timberly: "So... how long will it take?"

Sarah: "Well I depend a lot on how fast the slugs regrow their tissue, but it should take at least thirty minutes more..."

Timberly: "Perfect, can't wait~" as a smile started to appear on her face.

Erik entered his room and kissed the foreheads of his sleeping daughters, with Inky doing the same, and they both went inside the bathroom.

When they entered Erik saw it was full of the Yaksha that were playing around, fucking or just floating on the hot water of Erik's huge bathtub.

Erik sighed: "Out, we wanna bathe"

The Yaksha were startled and quickly scurried to exit the bathtub and slither away with their tentacles.

Erik then looked at the dirty water of the bathtub, now full of slime and tiny marble sized eggs floating around.

Erik: [Rose, can you change the water in my bathtub, it's... filthy]

Rose: [right now?]

Erik: [yes, is there a problem?]

Rose: [well, you might not have noticed but... we are going at quite the depth to avoid being noticed by lizardmen or surface predators, releasing scent right now could attract abyssal predators..., in fact... there are quite a bit of them in the area]

Erik sighed: [guess I will just shower then]

Erik: "Apparently she can't change the water right now... it's dangerous"

Inky shrugged: "I don't mind" getting in the water as the accumulated blood and dead skin over her were added to the bathtub water as she scrubbed herself.

Erik frowned slightly and sighed: "Well... I will... just take a shower"

Erik quickly showered and put his adjustable suit back on.

Inky was still floating in the bathtub: "are you going somewhere?"

Erik: "Rose told me we are at abyssal depth, I'm gonna look out the exposition window, wanna come?"

Inky: "To look at a black void?" she tapped a wall and a TV screen appeared "I will just watch a movie or something"

Erik nodded: "Okay, have fun"

Inky: "Sure will~" a show already playing on the TV.

Erik went to the exposition room, filled with samples from different creatures and frozen inside insulated displays to preserve the DNA, at one side of the room there was a dome window that was usually closed, but with a touch at the nearby control panel, the metallic curtain opened like a camera, as Erik dragged a sofa nearby and sat down.

There were some other octopeople already in the room too, quietly reading on screens by themselves or with others, but in silence.

Erik's eyes looked at the bottomless dark abyss, some small lights could be seen, but not much. Then his eyes glowed as he suddenly could see the electricity in the nervous systems of hundreds of thousands of organisms, like a Christmas tree suddenly illuminating the darkness.

Erik: "Wow ~"

*shh*

A nearby octopeople scout that was reading looked at him annoyed, as he was getting excited for what to her was just an empty void.

Erik was a bit surprised, but he calmly turned around, seeing an octopeople scout with a tablet reading a book.

Erik: "Oh sorry, what are you reading?"

scout: "A book about a submarine from Earth so-" It was at that moment when she properly saw his face in the dimly illuminated exposition room "Fifth... elder... *hiccup* I... I'm sorry so-" her face turning scared at the thought of having shushed an elder.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Erik chuckled: "It's fine... don't worry about it" he pointed at the window "You can't see it, but countless organisms are observing this submarine cautiously right now, thinking it's a huge predator, it's quite beautiful in a way their nerves fluctuate"

Scout: "...is.. is that so..."

Erik: "Anyways... what are you reading?"

The scout's face lit up with a smile: "...A book from Earth, twenty thousand leagues under the sea from Jules Verne..." shyly giving him her tablet "Do you know it?"

Erik took it and smiled: "Yes, I remember this book, it was flagged as inaccurate, though since it's really old after all..., so some facts like about sperm whales being vicious hunters are quite exaggerated... do you like his books?"

Scout: "Y-yes, I do like them"

Erik looked at her "Do you have a name?"

Scout: "N-no elder, I do not have one"

Erik: "...what about Julia? Since you like Jules Verne?"

Julia's face reddened: "That sounds like a wonderful name, thank you"

Erik: "Do you like writing Julia?"

Julia: "Well... I've never tried before..."

Erik: "I have a task for you then, what about documenting everything from now on? to be a historian, or just a reporter if you like that more... or you could just write books?"

Julia seemed excited: "To make my own books..." and soon stood up, her tentacles moving frantically as she scurried away.

Erik smiled and went back to looking out the window calmly, the lifeforms outside forming moving constellations in his eyes.

The previously dark abyss now shone like the constellations in the sky, revealing from small fish like beings, to hidden giants that observed the submarine from afar, thankfully the submarine was fast enough, but Erik noticed a creature bolting from the bottom to attack the submarine, *ZHWOOM* but a railgun round suddenly hit it and it stopped pursuing them.

Erik sighed in relief, thankfully Rose was the one manning the submarine, with someone so capable in command he figured he could relax for a while, sitting in a comfortable position as he took a nap while letting his sight drift between the lights of the lives in the abyss, but... even though he closed his eyes, he could still see.

Meanwhile, Sarah had finally finished the next batch, taking her time and making three potions at the same time, it had taken longer to wait for the flesh to grow enough on the slugs, but making a bigger batch was always more efficient than the same process over and over again.

Timberly took one, Jennifer another, and the final flask for Sarah herself.

Timberly licked her lips: "Hehehe can't wait to test this" drinking it in one go before Sarah could say anything.

Timberly: "If we were back at the base we could use the pressure chamber to amplify the mutation but... this will do kekeke~ *ugh*"

The other two observed in horror, as Timberly's skin bulged with veins all over her body and started to rip open as poisonous blood dripped to the ground.

Jennifer gulped saliva, looking at the flask on her hand in doubt: "Can't it... be diluted?"

Sarah nodded: "that will be for the best... divide between four doses and taken over a forty eight hour period"

Jennifer nodded: "Whatever you say" pointing at the cackling and bleeding Timberly "I just don't want that... I don't like pain"

Sarah agreed: "Yeah, me neither..."

Timberly cackled madly to the side as patches of her skin slowly started disappearing: "This is too slow..." she turned around and snatched Jennifer's flask "If you won't drink it~" and drank it too.

Her body pulsated even harder as Timberly fell to her knees, momentarily losing consciousness from the pain.

Timberly: "ye...ah... this...is...IT!!!! HAHAHA!" ripping off her clothes as her entire body started fluctuating in different colors and textures and finally became invisible "HAHAHA NEED TO TRY THIS!"

Loud steps could be heard going away as Timberly exited the armory in a hurry.

Jennifer massaged her temple: "Ah... please don't make a mess..."

Timberly meanwhile saw a scout and started slowly walking around her. The scout seemed confused as she sniffed around, but not seeing anything she continued on her way.

Timberly: "Yes... I've dreamt about this since I was young... the ultimate freedom! I could even hunt anyone and anything like this~"

Her naked body bounced up and down as she ran as silently as she could, finally reaching the exposition room as she looked around at the obliviously resting octopeople in glee. But then she noticed Erik sleeping on a chair facing an open window, just darkness at the other side of it.

Some octopeople in the room were even stealing glances at the sleeping beauty from time to time.

Timberly was confused, but she soon smiled, whispering to herself: "don't know what you are trying to see, but this will be a good prank~"

Timberly tiptoed as she got closer and closer, about to pinch the side of Erik's left boob with her right hand, when suddenly.

Erik opened his eyes and grabbed her hand, twisting Timberly's left nipple: "not funny"

Timberly: "Kyaaaargh!!!" Timberly's colors started fluctuating as she appeared there naked for all to see. She looked around and tried to turn invisible again but she was still surprised.

Erik: "Relax, breathe deeply, and sit down"

Timberly slapped his hand away as she massaged her hurt nipple, turning invisible again and sitting down next to Erik: "H-how did you see me?"

Erik shrugged: "My eyes can see living beings"

Timberly: "But... your eyes were closed?"

Erik: "I can see electric systems through my eyelids, also... since my skin mutated I can slightly see through my skin too..."

Timberly: "Well now that you mentioned... I can kinda see a blurry image of what's around me... cool"

By now all the octopeople around knew an invisible Timberly was there somewhere, and they all quickly went away to their rooms, the thought of being caught by her was still vivid in the memories of some.

Erik: "Wow, they avoid you like a plague~"

Timberly reappeared since they were alone, her naked body leaning close to Erik.

Timberly: "What can I do~ I have a lot of... vitality to give~" her lower member quickly hardening as memories flew to her head.

Erik laughed as he shook his head, and suddenly disappeared.

Timberly touched the chair, but he wasn't there anymore, she couldn't hear anything as he seemed to have just vanished.

Timberly then heard a voice from behind her.

Erik: "I can find you, but you can't find me~"

Timberly was extremely disappointed: "Ehhh... wouldn't it be fun to fuck while being invisible? the people around not suspecting anything... hehehe~"

Erik: "...sure, if those are your fantasies, not my kind of thing to expose myself though"

Timberly: "...what about some gym bonding? at least that should be fine right?"

A sigh was heard.

Erik: "No sex okay? my head is kinda hurting"

Timberly: "Hehehe ~ I promise"

Erik reappeared: "Sigh... what I'm gonna do with you, you horny fiend..."

They arrived at the gym which basically was Timberly's room at that point, and Erik closed the door when they were both inside.

He felt a hand try to grab his shoulder and he immediately grabbed it, twisting it as he sidestepped, pushing then forward to throw Timberly away tumbling through the ground, a variation of a move called tenchi nage in aikido.

Timberly: "What was that for?!"

Erik: "We are going to war, you shouldn't be fooling around, if you wanna train then let's train"

Timberly pouted: "I meant sex! I'm strong enough, that's how I train best~"

Erik: "wanna prove it then?"

Timberly lifted an eyebrow: "What? fighting now... won't you get hurt?"

Erik sighed: "I'm going if you are scared..."

Timberly got angry: "W-wait! Let's compete then..." she looked at Erik from up and down and smiled "What does the winner get?"

Erik shook his head: "The winner huh... what about some ice cream?"

Timberly frowned: "Not good enough!"

Erik: "So... I take it you don't want any ice cream?"

Timberly: "I wanna fuck you!"

Erik: "Such honesty... then if I win... you will just train physically until we finish the coming fight, no sex or masturbating~"

Timberly's face paled like someone said something horrible, but she looked at Erik's body again and considered her options, he was smaller and weaker, and he had the weird mechanical armor but...

Timberly nodded solemnly: "Alright, but you can't use the power of your robot parts, just fists"

Erik smiled: "Sure, let's start then~" and disappeared.

Timberly: "W-wait!" Timberly kicked forward with her right leg, but her world suddenly flipped as her left leg was kicked aside.

Timberly fell loudly onto her left side.

Timberly: "Ugh... that hurt..."

Erik: "Do you need help~?"

Timberly suddenly stood up with her arms open, trying to squeeze Erik in a crushing bear hug, but she only received a kick on where a human would have her right kidney, instead, it impacted her internal eggsack, sending Timberly rolling on the floor again.

Timberly held her side in pain as her eyes became bloodshot and she gnashed her teeth.

Timberly: "ughag.... hah... hah... you wanna get serious... then I will get serious too!" instinctively Timberly's skin hardened and the muscles all over her body bulged and tightened, as she waited for Erik's next attack.

Suddenly she felt a chop hit the back of her next, but she gritted her teeth and endured it, quickly grabbing the hand and rotating her entire body, as she sent Erik flying against a wall. Erik wasn't hurt much though, as his body was extremely sturdy.

Erik appeared again and smiled: "good, you are learning"

Timberly gritted her teeth in frustration: "Fine... I will learn your moves and win... and then... hehehe~" her instincts awakening "can't wait..."

Erik: "Hah... how hard is it to get you to train, complacency is a poison, you never know when a stronger rival will appear"

Timberly nodded: "let's continue then"

Hours passed and Timberly slowly got better as Erik barely tired.

Timberly bolted forward and threw quick jabs forward and to the sides, but a palm suddenly hit her jaw, about to send her flying, but this was part of her plan, so instantly kicked back with her left leg and rotated her body as she finally embraced Erik, both falling to the floor.

Timberly laughed like a maniac at her achievement: "HAHAHAHA! FINALLY! I WIN!!!"

Erik: "Good move but..." Erik used his right hand to twist Timberly's left wrist and slid under her arm, he then laid her face first on the ground as he was on his knees beside her, with her twisted arm held against his shoulder and his left hand on her shoulder, and started to slowly bend forward as Timberly's arm got closer and closer to dislocating.

Timberly: "Aaaaahhhh gaaahhhh" she tried to wiggle free, but there was no escape, every movement just increased the pain.

Erik's voice was calm: "Do you surrender?"

Timberly gritted her teeth until her gums bled, but finally gave up: "I surrender" holding her shoulder in pain "So no touching my dick for a month.... well I don't know if I will be able to hold out... can I... fap one last time at least?" her eyes looking at Erik with a mix of sadness and excitement.

Erik massages his forehead: "Don't you get what I... sigh sure, go ahead... do as you want, but we start training from tomorrow morning, I can't allow anyone to get injured like last time..." about to exit the room.

Timberly: "w-wait!"

Erik: "What now?"

Timberly: "I can give you a hand if you need to relax? you sounded so tense~"

Erik shook his head: "No need"

Timberly: "T-then... can you... give ME... a hand?"

Erik was feeling slightly annoyed: "You are relentless aren't you?"

Timberly shrugged with a smile: "Isn't that a good thing?"

Erik: "In war or training... yes it can be, why don't you focus on the coming war, train some more, we will need you focused in the coming battle"

Timberly looked at the floor: "I... this is me... I'm nervous and I don't like thinking about danger, I just charge in to protect my family..."

Erik: "And training will help with that, see how much better you got at grappling in just some hours sparring"

Timberly pouted: "No... you just beat me up for hours... my body hurts... please~"

Erik: "...fine, but we are training the rest of the week"

Timberly: "Of course~" a wide glad smile on her face, her lower lip still bleeding from an elbow hit from Erik, but she just licked her lips "Just one last time... promise~"