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Chapter 20-Tourists

Prometheus hated the game "rock, paper, scissors". It was a game in which no skill was required, one in which luck was the sole determining factor. And for some unknown reason, he would lose every single game. Anyone with an idea of what probability was might raise an eyebrow at the impossibility. Theo had lost two hundred fifty-four games in a row. Without a single victory or even a draw. He even tried switching opponents but that changed nothing!

As all his friends didn't have opposable thumbs, or fingers at all for that matter, he decided to improvise: He simply took two rocks, two leather-like rags, and two scissors from his toolbox. They would use those to play the game.

I... I hate this game.

Prometheus dropped the items and decided to look at the sky, for no particular reason. The celestial object, namely the black hole, took a fixed point in the canvas of the sky for itself, always refusing to budge. Of course, it was spinning, as its accretion disk showed.

Imagine if we were orbiting around its poles. I bet it would fry us from the radiation in a nanosecond. I kind of want to try it.

He shook his head at the thought. The pterodactyl also noticed how much Influence was truly present in the Black hole. He recoiled immediately, observing the blinding light coming from his Supernality sense.

How did I miss it until now...? As always, doesn't really matter. If it was dangerous, I would be dead already, so I can stay relaxed. Yay!

The shapeshifter got bored of the flying form, so he decided to take on a vintage look. At first, his companions thought he would become an ant like he did so many times, but when his head elongated into a mantis one they studied him curiously. His two front legs got much bigger, becoming the forelegs that mantises were so proud of. His green, leathery skin transformed into a deep, shining blue, resembling sapphire.

I missed this one.

"Woah, that's a new one, isn't it Theo?" Asked Zilch, pleasantly surprised.

"That's right. The last time I took on this form was when I was still on Earth."

"Earth? Is that a country?"

Oh, right. They don't know.

"It's another planet. They have hamburgers and the internet. Pretty cool if you ask me."

"Oh okay." Replied the worm quietly. Its skin started shifting color from its usual white to a very clear purple, eventually becoming a deep, strong tone of the same color.

That's interesting. I can hear his heartbeat getting faster. I didn't know worm puberty lasted so long. I guess the color change from emotion is the chameleon DNA I used for the skin improvement.

"WHAT?" Asked Zilch in an extremely loud mental tone. Being loud in a mental connection was just as annoying as the vocal type. It felt like a stake went through Theo's head. And Theo was unfamiliar with pain, which made it ten times worse.

"DON'T THINK SO LOUDLY!" Reprimanded Prometheus while shouting in turn.

"Sorry." Apologized immediately to the worm after calming down. It shifted uneasily on its spot, clearly waiting for the ant-mantis hybrid to continue the conversation.

"Yeah, I come from Earth. What's so weird about it?" Asked Prometheus while genuinely not understanding the worm's reaction. If there were flying giant snakes that could create pocket dimensions in space filled with flames, moving to another planet would be trivial in his opinion.

"It's just... nothing, sorry." The tiny scout then sulked down, shifting into a blue.

"Sure."

Zilch looked around awkwardly, trying to find their favorite tunnels. It then slowly wormed its way down one, disappearing from his sight. Buzzelina, who heard the conversation like everyone else in their group flew atop his head. He prepared to pet her head when he felt the back of his head being hit by something sharp.

Did she just sting me?

He turned around, feeling clear anger from the little wasp. She flew directly in front of his face, not moving a single centimeter.

"What did you do that for?!" Asked the blue monstrosity, incredulous.

She pointed a single appendage at the tunnel where Zilch had gone into. Not understanding her meaning, Prometheus prodded further. She sent him concepts instead of words.

"What do you mean I should apologize to Zilch?! I did nothing wrong! I never do!" Explained the shapeshifter to the wasp queen.

"Huh? 'It is fragile so you need to talk softly to it'? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

The flying insect stung him again, making him feel offended at the gesture.

"Okay, OKAY, fine, I'll apologize, even though I don't know why I should."

Theo then moved toward the tunnel's entrance, trying to look for the worm, while thinking to himself.

Why the hell should I apologize? He started shouting which was so annoying!

Turning various corners, he continued fuming internally, moving his mandibles erratically. The shapeshifter hated the idea of apologizing, especially when he was sure he was completely in the right. He found Zilch in a corner, playing with some dirt, trying to make mounds out of it.

"Hey, uh, what're you doing there?"

"Nothing." Replied Zilch.

"That's cool. So, sorry, or whatever." he managed to say through some stutterings.

What's wrong with my mouth? I never had any problems speaking. I'll self-diagnose my speech algorithms.

The worm didn't reply, instead ignoring him to focus on the dirt mound. It looked like Zilch was trying to make it have a longer and twisting shape, almost in the shape of the worm itself.

Prometheus quietly moved to the worm's side, helping it make a better-looking dirt figure.

"Is that yourself you're trying to make?"

"No. that's my mom."

Mom? Zilch told me briefly about its parents some time ago, but I just assumed they were two asexual worms. Worms usually don't have genders, at least not ones from Earth. Does that mean Zilch also has a gender?

"Ah, I see. I didn't know worms had genders, by the way. So are you a male or female?"

"Male." Replied the worm immediately.

Huh. I guess I gotta stop thinking of Zilch as an it, then.

"What was your mom like?" Asked the shapeshifter while focusing on the dirt figure.

"She was the kindest person I've ever known in my life. She always prepared my favorite pie. I remember when I would come back home from playing with my friends. The smell, I can still recall it perfectly." The worm's skin then turned a soft green.

Prometheus nodded, not knowing how to proceed. Why is this so difficult? I swear, even making armor in a cave with no tools would be much easier than what I'm doing here!

"And your dad?" Continued Theo the only way he knew. Buzzelina wouldn't stop pestering him unless he got Zilch feeling better, he was sure of it.

"He... was very stern. He taught me many things, but I rarely reached his expectations. One time, he asked me to show him how fast I could dig through some rough dirt, and he told me it was 'sufficient'. It made me so happy that I could barely contain myself, so I went out and dug through the dirt until I couldn't move from the fatigue. I miss them, sometimes."

Theo nodded, noticing how Zilch was adding another dirt figure to the first, bigger and more menacingly looking. He then used his razor-sharp teeth, which would easily fit in a horror movie about death worms, to carve the details.

After some time, the worm asked in return, "Do you have parents?"

Prometheus thought on the matter to himself. Would the scientists who created me count as my parents?

"Kind of, yes. I have 10 parents, all of them playing some part in my creation."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Zilch turned his head at the mantis-hybrid, clearly in disbelief.

"Ten parents? How would that even work?"

"Each of them made a part of me, and then linked them all together. I don't understand completely how my body works at its fundamental level, but I know enough to use it perfectly."

Zilch nodded, continuing on his work. Prometheus then walked back toward the tunnel entrance, planning to return to his companions. Before passing through the exit, an idea sprung up in his mind.

"Hey, Zilch," Added Prometheus.

The worm simply turned toward him in response, waiting for Theo to continue.

"Wanna have a spar?" asked the shapeshifter while moving his forelegs in a combat stance. Zilch looked at the ground in front of him and processed Theo's words for a couple of seconds. When he turned, he simply nodded, moving to a relatively clear area of the tunnels where they would have enough space for a spar.

They each moved in opposite spots, looking fiercely at each other. The rules were simple: Whoever admitted defeat would lose.

Hopefully, this makes him feel better. I always have a ton of fun fighting.

He took a rock from the ground and launched it into the air. The moment it landed, the fight would start. Theo focused on the arc the small and brown rock was making, preparing his whole body to act swiftly and efficiently. He would make this quick.

He's not gonna go for a head-on approach, I am sure of it. I'll be ready to block his movements the second he tries going anywhere.

The rock almost reached the ground the tension palpable in the air. Zilch slowly lowered himself to the ground, a spring formed by his coiled body. his skin became its neutral white.

Is he planning to go through the ceiling? I won't let him!

The moment the pebble hit the ground, both monsters jumped from their spot. Prometheus, sure of the idea that Zilch would reach for the ceiling to try and dig through it, jumped above the worm's starting position. What he didn't expect was the white monster to lunge directly at him.

What?

Zilch was below him, readying his strike. Theo didn't have enough time to rotate mid-air, so he did his best at defending with his various limbs closed around his middle section. In the meantime, he reinforced that specific spot in which he would get hit. But then, Zilch pulled out a new surprising move.

His Supernality sense screamed at him that the 'wrongness' around him was increasing exponentially, followed by the worm's power activating. This time, only the worm's head became intangible, passing right through his exoskeleton. He then felt a sharp object tearing his insides with precise movements. Zilch had deactivated his intangibility only on his teeth. Theo responded by aiming for Zilch's tangible portion, but it was fruitless as the worm immediately phased through the ground, hiding from him.

He actually managed to damage me?

The damage wasn't anything worrying, but if it had been any regular monster with organs, the internal bleeding would have been a serious wound.

Obviously, Theo could recover from any wound, provided he had biomass, energy, and time. He shook his head at the marvelous attack he had just received.

I didn't think he could deactivate his power for specific portions of his body. Amazing.

Prometheus got into position, having discovered the worm's trick.

Once you've been hit by it, it'll be easy to prevent it. But if that first strike comes unexpectedly, it could easily kill the target.

The little scout appeared from the ground behind him, aiming to attack Theo the same way. The shapeshifter got ready to interlock his insides against Zilch's teeth to hopefully get a chance to hit him. The attack didn't come, as the worm passed through him without deactivating his power. A feint.

Zilch continued his barrage of feints, occasionally hitting Theo's insides. The shapeshifter could see the worm begin to tire, proved by the slower attacks and less precise strikes.

Time to end this. He anticipated the next attack and prepared to use a blunted foreleg to hit Zilch while he was tangible. What he didn't expect was the worm accidentally going through his Core and damaging some internal components. This made Theo stumble, grasping for the ground. Guts and assorted biomass began spewing out of his mouth, his sense of balance totally gone.

The worm, upon realizing what he had done, immediately stopped and asked worriedly, "Oh gods, are you alright Theo!?"

"You really hit me good, fuck... Actually, I think this spar is too dangerous," He coughed once more, a mix of bone and muscle mass leaving him, "You could get seriously hurt, so we should just stop."

"What do you mean 'I' could get hurt? You're vomiting blood!" Protested the worm, whose skin became a mix of a deep red and a yellow.

"I am completely fine, this is nothing. Go back to the others, I'll reach you soon."

His stabilization was absent, as he needed his two mantis forelegs to hold a wall to not fall. His control over some parts of his body was also reduced, as many cells were beginning to die very quickly. Around twenty percent of his biomass was out of commission, he calculated.

Lucky, he got really lucky...

Theo's mind shut down, the self-repair of his Core starting automatically. Most of the mantis monster's mass disappeared, only leaving around fifty kilograms of biomass. The process was slow and gradual, but since the damaged portion wasn't too great like the last time, repairing them also didn't take too long. Most of the procedure involved taking biomass around the Core and synthesizing the necessary materials. The technology to synthesize the wondrous material that the Core was made of, commonly called 'fizzle' for its tendency to degrade into weaker materials, was the reason Theo was valued so much by his scientists, and then, his owner.

The material had been discovered when an asteroid flew somewhat close to a mining outpost on Mars. Initially, it had been expected to contain heavy metals such as platinum and cobalt. What they didn't expect was a semi-organic hive of 'virus-like' beings, shaking the science world. Countless debates among the scientific community evolved from the discovery, as the alien hive barely classified as being alive, resembling viruses much more. The military immediately took advantage of the situation, funding a company to develop and test a bio-weapon, and what they discovered was astounding: These virus-like beings, denominated 'astroviroids', were able to convert almost any type of matter into themselves and the material they used for their hive.

From that discovery, the Chimera project was born, bringing with it Prometheus. The shapeshifter's mind stayed dormant for another half an hour, finishing its last repairs. The Core was partially exposed, showing its reflective surface to the world.

As soon as Theo woke up, he ran a self-diagnosis and noticed that the repairs had gone smoothly. Normally, he would be angry at the loss of biomass, but this time he couldn't muster any. He had completely lost against Zilch. Granted, he was going really easy on him to try and make his companion feel better, but the fact remained that he lost.

Before having a flashback of the ice golem fight, newfound determination rose in the shapeshifter's mind.

I'll do everything I can to develop a resistance to that kind of attack. First, what do I know about his power? I know that it triggers my Supernality sense, which now encompasses both my Soul sense and that 'wrongness' sense. Every time he used his power, that sensation would intensify. Also, now that I think about it, the ambient level of wrongness has increased. Is it because we are getting closer to the Unsafe hours? If so, I need to study it more.

Theo then looked around, noticing all his companions around him. Splash, the water spider, immediately jumped at him and rubbed her body against him, while Lunch walked in front of him and jumped happily. Buzzelina was resting on Zilch's head, anger radiating from her. She pointed at Theo, and the much smaller mantis could sense a mental connection between her and the scout.

Zilch then slithered forward and created a mental connection as well, beginning to speak, "Hi Theo, um, I am really sorry for what I did. I got carried over and, and..."

He raised a foreleg toward him, shaking his head side to side, "Don't worry about it. You did well. I am sorry too for getting mad at you earlier."

The worm heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed his body, tense from anxiety.

"But now I need some more biomass, so we can go and get some outs-"

Before he even finished his sentence, lunch raised his small claw and amputated his massive one, dropping it on the ground in front of Theo. A mental connection from the lobster revealed that Lunch wanted Theo to eat the claw.

They are so nice to me, I am truly lucky to have them as friends.

Theo threw himself on the claw, thanking Lunch many times. The lobster seemed delighted to make his friend happy. The sense of joy and positivity was contagious and spread among all five of them, raising their overall mood.

After Theo regained a good chunk of weight, he shifted into a massive lobster, to show appreciation to his friend. He made some slight adjustments to his physical appearance, such as the golden exoskeleton and the shining feathers.

The feathered monster was jumping around in happiness at the sight, which Theo really liked.

I like it when my friends are happy.

Just as they went through the tunnel exit, loud noises traveled through the entire clearing. A good chunk of the monsters were missing, he noticed. They probably gave up, thought Theo to himself. After all, the elimination of the candidates should happen after all of the five trials have been completed by everyone.

A small crowd formed on the edge of the clearing, which piqued Theo's curiosity. Upon closer inspection, a fight was clearly happening.

Didn't the Major say we couldn't fight with each other?

A mental connection sneakily snapped in his mind, "As long as they are duels and don't cause the death of anyone, it's fine. That's why I allowed you kids to play in those tunnels," said the Major through the spell. He turned around, the massive snake right behind them. Prometheus hissed in annoyance at being taken by surprise again.

"Plus, the two fighting now are very special monsters. You see, plants very rarely develop their intelligence, so when that happens... it means something unusual happened. Look at the duel, kid," Continued the flaming snake while pointing at the center of the crowd with his tail. Theo elongated his neck until he could see the two fighters. The figure on the left was a big toad, with light green skin. Its legs were much longer than usual, and its tongue had many spiky barbs. It was circling its opponent, whose appearance confused him to no end.

It was wearing a sun hat white having a sword equipped in its right hand. A belt on its waist was holding the sword's sheathe.

No... that is a japanese katana.

The most perplexing feature was the fact that, even though the creature was vaguely humanoid with two legs and two arms, its overall body was all but.

This reminds me of those fast cacti from one of those games the scientists played.

The samurai's body was totally made of bamboo. Theo checked his visual cortex to be sure there were no hallucinations or bugs. Its head was connected to the torso without a neck.

Actually, does it even have a head if its eyes are on the torso? The arms start from below the eyes, so I guess it has a torso and a head linked together.

Its limbs were simple but effective. Two four-digit hands were tightly gripped around the katana, determined gaze fixed on the toad. Influence gathered on the sword, coating it like flames in Theo's eyes.

What is it doing?

He sensed more influence gather on its leg, which it used to move at an incredibly fast rate toward the green amphibious monster.

The toad did not stay idle; Its tongue flew forward aiming to grasp the green warrior. At last, the bamboo samurai came out on top: A single slash from above cut off the toad's tongue, finishing the fight.

"Usually, tier one monsters don't have such precise control over their Influence. Kids these days getting crazier and crazier," Finished Major Fuoco while chuckling and slithering away, probably to read that stone newspaper, guessed Theo.

The samurai bowed to its opponent, moving to walk away. After the toad was escorted by one of the flaming guardians at the perimeter of the clearing to another location, Prometheus retold the fight to his companions who couldn't see the fight, except Buzzelina.

The crowd split to allow the bamboo samurai to walk through, who was walking toward the stone platform, probably ready to tackle the trials. Prometheus intercepted the warrior, stepping in front of its path. It moved to the side but Theo moved in sync. It locked eyes with him, not breaking eye contact. Two almond-shaped black spots looked at him. After a couple of seconds, it smoothly created a mental connection, "I need to pass. Please move to the side" The calmness in its mental voice surprised Theo.

"Of course. Before that, how did you focus influence on your sword and your body? I can barely move it where I want to, much less use it to enhance things." Asked the shapeshifter with a curious tone.

"It is my secret to keep. Please move to the side, I will not repeat myself again," Its hand went to the pommel of the katana.

Does it need to rest its arm on the sword? Well, it just finished a fight so maybe its arm is tired.

Theo grew wings and floated upwards. He did this so he would be able to let the samurai pass without 'moving to the side'. He wasn't a fan of receiving orders from strangers.

The bamboo creature moved quietly through the clearing, aiming for the stone platform where it climbed up and started a trial. Theo then turned around toward his companions and asked, "What do you think of that samurai?"

The opinions were diverse, but Zilch thought it was cool, Buzzelina didn't pay much attention and Splash and Lunch were scared.

---

The group spent the rest of the day playing as usual and training, as Prometheus believed that despite the genetic improvements they all had, they still needed serious training to achieve their potential, so he started training them with runs, weight lifting, and combat practice.

A couple of hours before the Unsafe hours, movement slowed down in the monster camp and everyone slowly started going to sleep.

The wrongness levels are rising.

In the morning, Prometheus would check if his theory about the correlation between the Unsafe hours and the wrongness levels was correct. Just before he went to sleep, an instinct gripped his mind. It was yelling at him to activate every sensor in his body. He wasn't dumb enough to ignore his instincts, so he looked around for anything dangerous. His Supernality sense wasn't giving him any dangerous information, so he used his physical senses.

Nothing seemed to be out of place, until...

I feel a slight amount of radiation coming from that spot there, Thought the shapeshifter while glancing at a random spot in the air that looked empty. When he felt very subtle vibrations in the air from that same spot, he tried to get as close as possible to it without exiting the perimeter.

Upon doing so, he could hear voices in the distance, hundreds of meters in the air. His audio sensors went into overdrive trying to listen to the sounds in the distance, which finally became clear to Theo. It was a man talking to a woman,

"Are you sure you felt 'Otherworlder energy', whatever it means, in this place, literally in the middle of nowhere?" Asked the male voice.

"I am SURE of it. S, U, R, E, I am ten thousand percent sure!" Spelled the woman.

"If it is another false positive I'll beat you up." Exclaimed the man with a gruff and low voice.

"Don't you trust me buddy?" replied the woman with a high-pitched voice.

What truly troubled Theo was the fact that these people didn't speak an unfamiliar language.

They are talking in English