*( mood song: " LIKE A STORM - Love The Way You Hate Me")
Hours later Erik abruptly woke up on his bed, he was naked, Timberly and Inky laying down to both sides of his bed, his power armor laying open on the floor, some pieces full of scratches and broken 'they must have taken me from inside and put me on the bed, I need to improve the AI to do this by itself' he had based her on the spaceships "armor, status report" he waited for the response but frowned, not hearing any reply.
[It's fried Erik, it used all its energy to bring you out in time, safety limits exist for a reason, it discarded them and now its control panel is fried, she's dead ¯\_(⌐□_□)_/¯ ]
Erik:[ well, she took me to safety, and that's enough..., I will need to make it a new one once the suit is repaired...] he made a pause [ did you see those visions too?]
[what visions?]
Erik: [The eye... all that...]
[sorry, I didn't see anything (´-﹏-`;) ]
Erik: [It's okay... can you make me a new gills module and other damaged parts so i can fix it later?]
[what about the AI?]
Erik shrugged [i will just copy a simplified version of the code from the one on the spaceship. I still have the black box memory storage on the octopeople city with the other spare parts]
[why not keeping it here?]
Erik sighed [It's pretty obvious that I can't give you orders, and I don't want you to mess with her mind, she saved my life too]
[hmm... do you wanna have 2 voices in your head? isn't that too crazy? just let me absorb her (๑´ڡ`๑)]
Erik: [no]
[what?! you didn't even think about it...]
Erik: [oh right, let's see, let's see.... and... NO]
[what if I don't make those parts?]
Erik: [well, don't you wanna know what's inside that cube too? I still need to go down there again to retrieve it, so... what are you gonna do?]
[...I will make those parts]
Erik: [thanks~]
As he was saying that he felt some movement and saw Inky wake up and look at him with excited eyes.
Inky bolted up and hugged Erik tightly "you were speaking weird things and sweated a lot when we took you out, I was so worried"
Timberly woke up too, giving him a smile saying "glad to see you are okay"
Erik smiled at the two gratefully "thanks to both of you, my suit got damaged when I hit the cave wall, I ran back to get more air, that's all that happened]
Inky asked then with a confused face "what about the eye?"
Erik's hands trembled as he kept a smile on his face "what eye?"
Timberly nodded and said "Erik... when we took you out you mumbled things about an eye covered in darkness according to Inky..."
Erik kept his facade "must have had a weird dream... or nightmare while I was out, don't worry about it, what's important now is going back down as quickly as possible to direct the others"
Both Inky and Timberly nodded to that.
--- hours later ---
Erik had installed all the replacement modules and they had just arrived back down, walking down the tunnels and to the tribe, a commotion waiting for them when they arrived.
Shana lightly smiled at Erik seeing him arrive "glad to have you back, Fifth Elder"
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Erik looked around and could see 3 old restrained hybrid crab women on the ground, surrounded by furious octopeople elites, awaiting orders with cold faces "what happened here?"
Shana erased her smile and talked in a cold tone "those 3 old crabs tried to cornet and eat a scout sniper"
Erik's face instantly went ice cold, gritting his teeth he advanced angrily to the 3 elders, only to feel something grabbing his leg and he looked down, seeing a beaten-up Crabina grabbing to his leg with red eyes "please release the elders! wahh, they are the only family I have!"
Eriks face remained ice-cold as he pushed her aside "sorry, their sin is too big" he looked at a nearby octopeople warrior "take her away and restrain her"
He then came in front of the crab elder women "well, old and cowardly, attacking the weak"
The elder on the middle seemed angered and replied "the weak should nourish the strong!"
Erik "glad you said that" he instantly took out his sword and cut one of her arms off
*GRAAAAHHHH* the middle elder wailed loudly in pain and fainted.
the elder on the left instantly said angered "what the hell are you doing?!"
Erik "oh, this? but I'm stronger right? so I might eat that later"
The one on the right scoffed angrily then "same barbarians! do you expect to earn the allegiance of the others like this?! my tribe will never follow a barbarian like you!"
Erik couldn't stop laughing at that though.
"w-what? why are you laughing?" said the elder angered.
Erik abruptly stopped laughing then, grabbing that elder by the neck and lifting her talking to her ear "people who try to eat their saviors, and see my family as food? nonono... I don't need you at all, I could slaughter you all and feel nothing about it, stupid people like you can't even be used as bait... remember this... " he took her closed and shouted at her face "YOU! MEAN! NOTHING!" ending it by grabbing her arm and tearing it off by pure brute strength.
*GRAAAAHHH* this one also fainted.
He then looked at the remaining one that looked at him with a horrified face, trying to put away, only to be pushed back by the surrounding octopeople.
Erik came to her and suddenly smiled as the two others were also waking up, "I will give you a chance, you see, your sisters are missing arms so now they are weaker than you right? I want you to kill and eat them right here and I might let you go~" then looked at the others "or you might restrain her and kill her first and then she will die, who will win I wonder ~"
The 3 old crab women looked at each other warily, the eyes of the unharmed one shining with greed "it shall be done, my lord!"
"traitor!" yelled the other 2 as the uninjured one charged at them.
Erik almost couldn't keep his face straight impressed with their naivety, he, of course, wouldn't spare any of them, at most they would die due to *an accident* and that's it 'maybe as a test subject...'.
The two injured were pretty much on par with the uninjured one, so it was a dogfight as it was obvious they weren't used to fighting at all, they bit each other with their teeth, with the uninjured one grabbing a stone from the floor and then smashing the head from one of them, knocking her out, and then she choked the other one. Turning to Erik with a grin "I'm the strongest indeed"
Erik laughed though, "you haven't eaten them though, I remember telling you to eat them~?"
The old crab woman grit her teeth "yes, Lord" and started eating her sisters.
The unconscious one waking up from the pain of being eaten alive and shouting, only to be bitten in the neck and killed by her long-time sister.
It was a gory spectacle as Erik didn't stop her at all, the elder crabwoman eating until she was inflated and couldn't move.
Erik looked at her with disgust and in their crab language said "this woman represents old values we will eliminate today, from no one, doesn't matter if you are weak or strong, you won't need to fear being eaten alive, from now on, eating fellow tribesmen is punished with death, trying to eat my octopeople family is also punishable with death, that woman has now committed both crimes without a moment of hesitation, she has killed and devoured her own sisters, she's no different than Trutk, once you look away or are weak, she could come and kill you all, that's why she will remain here while we will take you all to a better place" inside thinking 'free workforce'
The crowd cheered as they were taken away, including Crabina, Timberly came close and told Erik whispering "you will really let her live?"
Erik chuckled to that "Nah, I can't let someone that sees my family as food live, they won't see her anymore anyway" he saw that all slaves had been dragged away "she still has some use though as a test subject though, why don't you do the honors dear and rip all of her legs off, it would be a shame if she tried to escape after all"
Timberly gave a huge grin "with pleasure!"
walked to the bloated crabwoman and grabbed her legs.
The old crabwoman looked at Erik with terror, shrieking "N-No! you promised me!"
Erik chuckled "so you want me to believe that someone that agrees so easily to kill and eat her own sisters will remain loyal?" he looked at Timberly "tear them off"
*GRAAAH*
Timberly chuckled and started ripping legs off, asking between pulls "should we take the legs back?"
Erik nodded "yes, we will take back all they have, we should ask for reinforcements too, i want every single bone and floor tile here taken back to base, not a single stone shall remain overturned, no one messes with my family!"
Timberly didn't immediately respond, but looking at Erik's back she could see a bit of her mothers grandeur, the qualities of a ruler "it shall be done"
Erik nodded and walked away, soon coming next to the cave wall, and starting to climb up, reaching the place where he had hidden the cube before, he moved the rocks aside and found the green cube there 'an alien device and maybe last message... interesting' the corners were slightly rounded and felt slightly warm to the touch, he then picked it up and stored it on a pocket on the power armors chest, preparing to go up to see what it contains while the octopeople carry back the spoils, test subjects, and fresh meat 'hehe~ can't wait to have some crab legs with some nice mayonnaise and garlic' he was especially looking forward to tasting Trutk's claw.