I have no idea how long I have been waiting but everyone has finally left. I kept hiding under my ant friend and passed the time observing some of the tests they were doing. It all seemed oddly familiar to me. I recognized a lot of the tests they were doing and the methods they were using. Every now and then someone would come over and take a couple of the ants out of the tank and conduct the tests on them. The last one to leave put a lid on the tank we were in and locked the door. But that shouldn’t be a problem for a shapeshifter.

Leaving behind my ant friend I stretched a tentacle up to the lid and pushed a little bit. The lid didn’t budge even a little bit, so I applied a bit more pressure. Shifting about 80% of my mass into a large muscle to push the lid up a little. Turns out it wasn’t connected to the tank at all. It was just a weighted piece of glass. Sadly, I didn’t realize this until I shoved a little harder and the glass lid slipped out of my grip and slid off to crash onto the floor. I cringed at the noise and jumped out of the tank and returned to my normal form. The form I woke up in, A large blob with little tentacles. I didn’t give up my two eyes though, I just got used to it.

The tank was on a table at the far end of the lab away from the door. Between me and the door were various long tables covered in scientific equipment and weird machines that I don’t know the use for. I climbed off the table and ran along the floor. As soon as I touched the floor though I got a weird feeling and something was bugging my eyes. It felt like there was a dim light shining in my eye, it was annoying but didn’t actually hurt. I looked around but I couldn’t see anything other than the boring walls. I kept moving towards the door but kept my eyes open for anything weird. I shifted my eyes around my body, but no matter where on my body I moved them the feeling was still there.

I saw something on one of the desks so I climbed up to get a closer look. On my way up I noticed that the feeling in my eyes lessened the farther from the floor I got.

Turns out I found the device that was in the anthill. The device was in pieces, it looked like they were making some adjustments to it. There were some papers underneath it and I got closer so I could read it.

CAUTION – DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MODIFY THE DEVICE IN ANY WAY.

Clearly the guy working on this decided to not read this bit.

BEFORE SERVICING DEVICE, REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE VIAL CONTAINING ◊◊◊◊◊◊ AND STORE IN THE IDEAL CONDITIONS MENTIONED IN YOUR BREIFING ON THE SUBSTANCE.

IF THE SUBSTANCE TOUCHES YOUR SKIN THE EFFECTED AREA MUST BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY AND QUARENTINED

THE INFECTED MUST BE QUARENTINED OR “SANITIZED”

‘Damn, this stuff must be serious.”

I look at the device again, now that its not in the ground and it is half disassembled it looks like half a beach ball that has been stuffed with tech. I spot something interesting though. Next to a small tube there is a robotic arm that has a tiny razor attached to it.

I cant make my exterior very hard at the moment. My only methods of attack are crushing my opponents or trying to pierce them with my tentacles. I can harden my tentacles to some extent to enable them to pierce things. But I cant seem to make any weapons with my body. It seems that even though I can shapeshift, my abilities are still limited. So having a weapon like that will help immensely. I wrap a couple tentacles around the robot arm and forcefully readjust it so that it is straight. The arm is firmly secured to the device. The blade on the end however seems to be attached like a dolls arm. I stood between the device and the robot arm and firmly grabbed the knife and the arm. I pulled as hard as I could, until I heard a *POP*.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I pulled so hard that when the knife came out, the momentum caused me to pierce the tank next to the robot arm.

‘Shit!’

I got the knife off of the arm, but now its stuck in the tank. I do need the knife, but I don’t really know what I just stabbed. It could be the tank filled with that weird substance these guys were messing with. I don’t really want to be covered in that stuff. I took a moment to think and came up with an idea. I backed away from the device and rummaged around through the parts scattered around the desk till I found one I could use and came back.

I had a large piece of the outer shell of the device. I planned to use it as a shield while I pulled the knife out. So if some of the substance came out it would hit the shield instead of me.

I took a second to prepare myself to jump away just in case and pulled on the knife.

Turns out I was right, the container was filled with that weird stuff and it shot out as soon as the knife was free. Luckily it hit my shield instead of me, but because of that it was still pooling at my feet so I backed away slowly to avoid getting into contact with it. I made sure I was a safe distance away before I admired my prize.

It was a very small knife. It looked like someone took a piece of a box cutter and gave it a even smaller handle. It was extremely sharp though, so It will work fine for me.

Leaving behind my shield and a small puddle on the desk I climbed back down to make my escape. The feeling in my eyes came back as soon as I got close to the floor. Just in case I had my weapon ready. To make it easier to use I sunk the handle into one of my tentacles and decided to use it that way. Now I have about 7 normal tentacles and one that ends with a knife.

I touched the floor and was going to start crawling along but as soon as I brought the knife closer to the floor the feeling in my eyes intensified. Then disappeared all of a sudden. I cant think of any reason for this but I don’t like the feeling im getting. I start heading back towards the door again, faster this time though.

A machine whirring to life startles me and I jump behind the nearest table leg and hide. I spread my tentacles out and move my eyes around to try and figure out where the sound is coming from. It didn’t take me long to spot an opening in the otherwise solid brick wall. The sound was definitely coming from there. As soon as I had identified the source of the sound my problems had grown bigger.

Out from the opening in the wall shot two large black disks that skid along the floor like they were hovering and they were both coming straight for me. My first thought was to climb the table leg I was hiding behind and get above them. As soon as I started though they were next to me. That feeling in my eyes came back although stronger this time. I finally realize what that feeling was now. They were looking at me.

I barely made it up halfway before the weird black pucks spit out some even smaller black pucks. That started floating up to me, sporting mechanical arms and a shredder-like mouth.

‘What the hell? It gave birth?’

I jumped down right before the two baby disks swipe past the space I was just occupying with their claws. As soon as I hit the floor the bigger disks grew arms and shredder mouths of their own and started frantically grabbing at me. I spent the next ten minutes dodging their claws. I was surprised at how the smaller ones didn’t attack again after I climbed back down to the floor. It wasn’t long before I found them. I caught a glimpse of them buzzing around something on the desk where I got my blade. My line of thinking was interrupted by another one of my tentacles almost getting ripped off. I just let go of the piece that it had grabbed before It could rip the whole thing off.

My new blade was not enough to do any damage to these things other than scratches. I saw some cords running along the length of their mechanical arms. I tried to sever those but they were also made of something really strong. Nothing I could do would hurt them, I even tried to shrink down and climb inside one of them. But they were sealed tight, I couldn’t find a way in. Until I had an idea, a very terrible and painful idea. But it was all I had.

I shrank down as much as I could and made my exterior as hard as I could despite my lack of skill. Then I let one eat me.