Pitch stepped outside and was immediately assaulted with the feeling that something was wrong. His senses that normally told him what direction a Cryptid was in was suddenly pinging a lot. He kept getting the sense that something was passing underneath him on top of the feeling that something was not far in front of him. He started looking around and saw dozens of giant wasp Cryptids flying from nearby warehouses over to these two buildings. He noticed a third type of giant wasp that was all black in color. Pitch was able to recognize this particular specimen due to past experiences with its smaller non Cryptid look alike. These new wasps… were ground wasps.
Pitch picks up the radio once more. “Visual confirmation on a third type of wasp Cryptid resembling a digger wasp. Multiple subjects resembling these three types are seen moving back and forth between warehouses and some nest that's yet to be spotted. Over.” He then starts looking for a nest. It should be rather easy to find, even in the lower light of the setting sun. However it takes a moment of his eyes adjusting to realize that two of the buildings definitely don't belong here.
Both buildings had a general almost egg shape to the main mass of them with the bottom either being flat or in the ground. They both had sickly grayish almost flesh like color and even texture to them with several spots being discolored from some form of bruising or irritation. One building, on closer inspection, almost had a shape resembling that of a stereotypical beehive like one would see in a cartoon. However, the same was upside down coming up from the ground rather than hanging from a tree and had a number of irregularly spaced holes on it. The circular bumps that went down the mass as typical of a beehive, on closer inspection, were not simply built bumps but rather fleshy, fatty, skin rolls.
It is at this point Pitch notices the four evenly spaced lumps in the man mass as well as a different looking mass on one side and another even more different looking mass opposite to that. Pitch's eyes widened as his brain recognized the four similar lumps as legs at rest on the side of the body with the two unique lumps at the front and back being a face and tail respectful. Pitch looked at the other mass, also having the legs, face, and tail masses and sees that instead of the consistent fat rolls it had wrinkly skin stretched tight around its bulbous body is swirling, waving patterns that swirled around the irregular holes resembling the look of a paper wasps nest made of flesh.
It was clear now to Pitch, that somehow, these massive nests were living and breathing creatures. The nests themselves were Cryptids, in a symbiotic relationship with two of the three wasp types. With the digger wasps likely co-opting the sewer system beneath them as their nest. Pitch slowly picked up the radio. “Visual confirmation on the nests, there are two above ground with the digger wasps likely using the sewers. The nests are… alive. A second species of Cryptid with a symbiotic relationship with the Melissophobians. These Cryptids are likely Trypophobian in nature.”
After describing the main body Pitch goes on to describe the faces. “The large faces of the living nests are grotesquely human-like. Resembling that of a wrinkly old man with the traditional cartoon shaped nest’s face being like that of an obese old man with three chins and big round almost elephant like ears with the other face of the paper wasp looking nest resembling that of a gaunt old man with his face skin pulled tight to his face creating wrinkles in odd directions and long droopy earlobes that almost drag to the floor while in its laid down position. The legs also resemble those of a human with large human-like feet, with the back legs having the same structure as the front only facing the other direction. Over.”
Pitch then placed the radio back on his hip while he continued to to look in a disturbed awe at the massive grotesque living hive monster. “How is it possible for a Cryptid to be this large? I thought that larger Cryptids with sizes like the Loch Ness monster were exceedingly rare. But here we've got not one but two Cryptids with sizes that dwarf that in the same area.” Pitch takes a moment to observe the nests, slowly walking around them from a distance with General Ishwada and the grunt following not far behind.
Pitch stopped walking when he noticed the more cartoon nest shaped Cryptid had a chunk of its flesh missing like it had been wounded at some point. Some yellow jackets are gathered around it spitting some sort of fleshy goop on the wound. As it does the fleshy goop reforms to conform to the shape of the Cryptid, closing the wound bit by bit. Pitch puts his hand on his chin as he sees this repair job in progress seeing that once it's finished it'll look as if the injury never happened. “I don't think the Trypophobians formed the same way as a normal Cryptid. I think the Melissophobians used the flesh of their victims to build the nests with it then becoming animated and Cryptidized after the fact.”
Ishwada makes sounds of disgust and discomfort as he looks at the two fleshy masses. “Well it would definitely explain why these things are able to far surpass the normal size limits.” Pitch lets out a few hums. “I don't think we'll be able to take one of these Fleshrums in alive. It's far too big for containment. At least locally. Moving it out of town would also be extremely difficult to do unnoticed.” Ishwada nods in agreement. “I suggest we kill it with fire. … Wait, did you just refer to the living hive as a Fleshrum?” Pitch nods. “A fitting name, don't you think?” Ishwada lets out a gagging sound. “I mean it's accurate, I guess.”
The Black Eagle goons finally spoke up after a long while of silence. “Yeah, but what about the sheer numbers of wasps? These are fully inhabited nests.” Pitch looks to them and gives his theory on the matter. “I think the nests each started with one queen who manifested pregnant. They've been spawning new wasps since. This probably took the better part of the year to build up to this point. With the Queens likely spawning in different areas in the early spring only to gather here and form a super colony as a defense mechanism.”
The mook then asks “A defense mechanism against what?” Pitch answers “A super predator. Before you ask what I mean, I'm talking about humanity. We're really good at making entire species go past tense just by demolishing their natural habitats. It's also possible these wasps see the local humans as a rival super colony. That would make this a territorial dispute.” Ishwada makes a face. “I had no idea wasps had such a complex social structure. Any ideas for easy ways to fight them? I doubt distracting them with sports balls will work forever.”
Pitch thinks for a moment. “Is there any chance you can get us a tanker semi filled with alcoholic apple cider?” Ishwada's face changes to one of confusion. “Again, I have no idea where you are going with this.” The goon then excitedly goes: “Oh! I know!” They clear their throat and calm themselves. “He wants to get the wasps drunk. Then the sober wasps will banish, cripple, or even kill the drunk wasp to prevent the tainted nectar from compromising the entire hive. I saw it on National Geographic one time.”
Ishwada decides now is a good time to ask; “Couldn't we also smoke them out? Although I guess it would take a lot of effort for something on this scale.” Pitch nods. “Also, that would just make them less aggressive and maybe put them to sleep. There is no way of telling how the Fleshrums will react. If it was just the ground wasps I'd one hundred percent recommend smoking them out.” Ishwada grabs his radio with a sigh before pressing the button. “This is Squad Commander Ishwada, putting in a request for the reinforcements to commandeer a liquid tanker semi truck and load it with apple cider alcohol. We're going to drink the wasps under the table. Apparently. Over.”
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The person on the other side responds. “Hehe. I didn't know you had a sense of humor sir. Over.” There's a pause with Ishwada not responding. The other person then comes through a second time. “Oh, you're serious. An unusual tactic but we'll see what we can do. Reinforcements are twenty minutes out. Recommend holding out till then if possible. Over.” Ishwada clicked the button on the radio again. “Subjects are currently not making hostile moves. Basically ignoring us. Over.”
Pitch rubs his chin. “This is odd though. They were acting extremely hostile practically unprovoked before when we were farther from the nest. Now we are right up in their shit and they aren't doing anything.” The Black Eagle soldier shifts and starts walking to the side keeping the same distance from the hive. Eventually every wasp within sight stops in their tracks and turns to face the soldier buzzing angrily and hovering in place. The soldier then walks back closer to Pitch and the wasps take a moment to return to normal operation.
Ishwada rubs his chin. “Well that's strange.” He tried gaining distance from the group in the other direction and got the same reaction before returning to the group and the wasps again ignoring them. “You would think they'd be more hostile against a group if it's territorial behavior.” Pitch hums. “I think it might be me. For some reason my EMF is either making us invisible or… maybe they see me but are actively avoiding getting close. One went to charge and sting me earlier but the moment it got close it started acting strange and backed off.”
Ishwada continued to rub his chin. “So as long as we stay close to you and don't make any aggressive moves we are safe. It's strange but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.” After some waiting Ishwada picks up his radio once more. “Take care in approach, targets will likely get worked up at loud noises or fast movements.” The group heard the low sound of engines as several Humvees and a semi truck with a liquid tanker rolled up a bit down the street. The three slowly walk over to them.
“Greetings General, I have you special request along with back up troops in case this doesn't work.” He then looks at Pitch. “What's with the civve? He's not even in minimal police gear.” Ishwada looked at the tanker. “He's a consultant of sorts, this was actually his idea.” Pitch finds a spot to pool the liquid, filling up small potholes. “For once I'm greatful the city can be so neglectful.” Once the potholes are filled everyone backs away from the pools to let the wasps find them. A small number of each kind of wasp find and hover over the pools before landing and drinking from them.
After a bit they shakingly fly up and make their way back to their hives, swaying side to side unable to fly straight. When they make it to the hives and try to signal where the new food is located they sloppily dance and are quickly attacked by the other wasps. “It's working, they'll attack any wasp that drinks the cider. If they lower their own numbers enough we'll have less to worry about when we take out the nest. Speaking of, can we just bomb the two walking nests?” Everyone looks at Pitch who once again suggested simply dropping something on the nest.
Pitch then says. “Gas leak explosion.” Ishwada sighs. “Destroy the nests, take whatever survives. Then we'll have to clear out the sewers.” A few of the men grab ordinary RPGs and launch them at the nests. Chunks of flesh are blown off as the Fleshrums stand and start trying to walk and the wasps go crazy. The bombardment continued as wasps charged the attackers only to be met with concentrated fire from electric tech including but not limited to a net gun. There were shotguns, snipers, RPG equivalents, a turret on one of the Humvees, and even grenades.
Ishwada hands a few grenades to Pitch. “Here, we call these Edison Bulbs. They are the first among the electro-tech weapons and the reason we name them like we do. They were intended to be EMP grenades but for some reason kept exploding with electricity. Couldn't find a fix so they simply swapped for cheaper materials and ran with it.” Pitch laughed. “Haha, Edison Bulbs. That's hilarious.” He then tossed out a few, with the third one actually hitting a digger wasp in the face before going off.
Eventually the Fleshrums were nothing but burned mush and wasps lay on the ground dead, dying, or stunned. Ishwada issuing orders. “Okay, clean up and contain what you can, then we'll send teams into the sewers with smoke emitters to smoke out the diggers. Last thing we need is another gator situation. I swear if I hear about us getting calls about bees in the sewers someone is getting it.” There's a collective “yes sir.” As the crew start doing clean up and collection.
Ishwada looked at Pitch. “Sorry if your idea didn't seem to help much cause we just overwhelmed them, but I'm sure it did something. That kind of creative thinking is definitely something we could use. You've convinced me to keep you on as a consultant.” Pitch does a light bow. “Thank you sir, I'll do my best to help. I may no longer be human, but I am still a citizen. I just want to do my part in helping people. Also, this gets me closer to finding the answers I'm after.”
Ishwada chuckled. “Good to hear, just don't be so outright with your status as a Cryptid. Some of our numbers are not as open to the idea of cohabitation.” Pitch tilts his head. “Doppelgangers and succubi are voting citizens.” Ishwada grumbles. “So was my father during world war two.” Pitch knew exactly what Ishwada was talking about. He had trouble finding the words. “He… his father came here because he didn't like where the Empire was going and brought his wife with. I remember overhearing you talk to my dad about it.”
Ishwada nods. “It was a dark time in American history when the war hit. My father, despite being born here, was still Japanese. He got the same treatment as many Japanese who were living in America at the time.” Pitch nodded. “I think I'm going to help with the clean up.” He left the former General behind as he started helping Black Eagle load wasps both living and dead as well as bagging samples from the Fleshrums. Pitch let out a sigh. “I should have known this was here, I should have spotted it sooner. I've hunted criminals in this very area and not once did I see a flesh hive being built. If I had noticed it… I could have prevented so many deaths.”
It took several hours to clean everything up with a second team coming in to smoke out the sewers. With special gear just for the mission they open a manhole and head in. “Alright boys, we are putting a hit out on the queen. We need to stop these things from making more of themselves first and foremost. We've got enough living and dead samples so feel free to kill on sight.” Pitch started walking to the manhole but was stopped by Ishwada. “Where do you think you are going? You don't have a gas mask or anything.”
Pitch blinked a few times. “Right, breathing.” Ishwada himself blinks silently. “Wait… do you… not need to breathe?” Pitch looks around. “I barely need to sleep as well. Like once or twice a month for just a few hours.” Ishwada lets out a loud groan. “That ain't fair. What in the hell even are you?” Pitch simply replied “Not human, that's all your getting out of me for now.” Ishwada sighs. “Fair enough. But maybe not flex that by going into a smoke filled area with no gas mask.” Pitch looks at the manhole. “I wasn't thinking that far ahead, just about clearing out the wasps.”
Ishwada puts a hand on Pitch's shoulder. “You've helped more then enough.” Pitch raises his voice. “But I haven't, I go through this area all the time and didn't notice anything was amiss!” Ishwada sighs. “You can't do that. You can't blame yourself for everyone the wasps killed simply because you didn't catch them sooner. No one noticed. You weren't looking for it, no one was. You were just passing through or focusing on something else. It's not your fault.” Pitch sighed again. “I'm going home.”
Pitch started walking and making the long journey home on foot, leaving the scene behind. Once home Pitch plops into his bed and just lays there not needing to sleep, but rather just wanting to rest. “I need a vacation.” After a brief moment his phone went off. Pitch picked it up. “Holden abortion clinic and pizzeria, were yesterday's loss is today's sauce.” Kathryn’s voice come from the other end. “Funny. How'd it go with Ishwada?” Pitch sighs. “I'm mentally exhausted, but it went well all things considered. Fought some giant wasps, saw some giant living beehives. Ishwada is willing to have me on full time.”
Kathryn's shocked voice came over the phone. “Living beehives?!” Pitch sighed. “You'll be getting samples and specimens later today so you'll have lots to do on your next shift.” There's a moment of silence before Kathryn talks again. “I actually have tomorrow off and was wondering if you wanted to go out. Have a proper date like a normal couple. We haven't had a chance to since the late night breakfast last minute after our shift that one time.” Pitch enthusiastically responded. “Yes, one hundred percent. Pick a place and consider it done.”