Keron
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Chapter 17 - The Symbiote
🕑 Added 2025-01-03 00:13:24 +0000 UTC“Eee, eee eeee.”
“E! Ee ee. Eee e.”
--Spot and Stripe, plotting The Great Hotdog Robbery of 2032.
The black ooze hits my chest, spreading out to cover every inch of my body, creeping up over my face. I hold my breath and shut my eyes, but the expected rush of fluid up my nose never comes and, after a few seconds of nothing happening, I open my eyes again.
I see a smooth black silhouette staring back at me in the mirror.
The Symbiote finished bonding with you while you were panicking. It can now be controlled with simple mental commands.
Pouting and trying to ignore the teasing tone in Cyon’s mechanised voice, I silently will the Symbiote to release my head. The darkness splits down the centre, peeling away from my face and sliding down to stop at the top of my neck, letting my hair flow back down my back freely.
I look down at my hands and rub my fingers together, feeling the thin, slightly soft material covering them. It doesn’t feel particularly robust, but when I extend my claws underneath it stretches instead of tearing.
My gaze is quickly drawn away from my hands as I realise the Symbiote appears to have eaten my old clothes, leaving me with only the second skin of warm black slime that I think I can feel breathing?
The amount of muscle I can make out through the Symbiote surprises me. I’m certainly not complaining, but it feels weird to have a six pack suddenly.
I look back at the mirror again, standing on my tiptoes to try get below my waist into the image as I turn, admiring my new feminine silhouette. My eyes automatically flick to my swishing tail and swaying hips as I peer over my shoulder, and a small frown creases my brow.
I think about my old trousers and almost instantly the Symbiote squirms, bulging out and taking the shape in my head. I touch them and find the feeling almost identical to my old clothes, only slightly softer.
“This is great,” I chirp happily, picturing more pockets and watching them form all over my legs.
I’m glad you like the purchase. Now, if you are finished checking yourself out, can I suggest you test the stealth capabilities before moving on?
My face flushes bright red and my ears press flat to my head as I realise, I completely forgot the coolest part of the suit.
As if reacting to my desire to disappear, my body suddenly vanishes, leaving only my uncovered head visible in the mirror.
“That’s so cool,” I whisper quietly, my shame only growing as I stare at my face in the mirror.
The Symbiote climbs up to cover my face, making it vanish as well, leaving the mirror empty. I swear I can feel the thing moving back and forth on my head like it’s trying to comfort me, but I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.
A second later I fade back into existence in the mirror, but I leave the mask on as I leave the room.
Be warned, the Symbiote will feed directly from your bloodstream to keep itself functional. The more you drain its energy with added capabilities like the invisibility, the more you will tire as well.
“Will I run out of energy quickly if I use it? Aren’t my super muscles already sucking me dry too?”
You received a slight boost to your endurance when you spliced yourself with raccoon DNA, however, further upgrades to your digestive and energy storage systems would be highly recommended in the future. You can currently sustain thirty minutes of invisibility before you will need to consume more nutrients or risk harm.
“Thirty minutes of sneaky time. Got it.”
I nod confidently, freeing my face and leaving the suit at the top of my neck again as I drop back onto the sofa.
My ears twitch and I hear a few nearby gunshots from the Monkeys’ stronghold, but I ignore them and pull Spot into my lap, uncovering my hands and giving him some belly rubs.
“I have four hundred and ninety points left, right?”
Four hundred and forty when your emergency medical funds are subtracted.
“Okay, four-forty then. What should I get?”
I would recommend unlocking the Class I Prolotor Bacterial Genetics catalogue for one hundred points, then purchasing a set of Nano-Injecting Claws from your Melee Weapons catalogue for forty points.
The image of a pair of slick black gloves with vicious-looking spikes extending several inches from the fingers and three empty glass vials on the back of each appears in the air in front of me.
The claws can be loaded with anything you want injected into your target.
The gloves turn to present the empty vials on their backs to me which fill with a thick, green solution almost identical in colour to Antithesis blood.
I would recommend loading them with DogEater K1, a strain of specially designed Antithesis-eating bacteria, for an additional twenty points. The strain is designed to target the unique nervous systems of the Antithesis, killing them quickly before rapidly replicating to consume them from the inside out, turning their corpse into poison for any other plants that try to harvest them for biomass.
The gloves turn, flashing the long, sharp blades at me as the green solution pours from the tips, running down the length of the blades. I want those.
A single, deep scratch will be enough to kill most low-level Models, however, if any Antithesis manage to survive you using it and return to a nest, they will likely adapt, and the strain will cease being effective.
My excitement immediately dips at the disappointing news.
“So can I only use it for a bit?”
DogEater K1? Yes. Though K2 through five are all also included in the Class I catalogue, and there are two hundred and fifty-six other strains that could be used to the same purposes.
My mood rebounds immediately as my ears perk up and my tail begins to sway behind me.
“Stop teasing me! I want them!”
Understood.
¯¯¯¯¯
New Purchases!
Class I Prolotor Bacterial Genetics – 100 points
Nano-Injecting Claws – DogEater K1 – 60 points
Total: 160 points
Remaining points: 330
_____
A plain box falls on the sofa beside us, and I pop it open to see two black orbs with three familiar vials filled with green liquid.
I reach out to touch one, and it immediately turns to liquid and runs up my hand like my Symbiote did. The new black liquid coats my hand with another thin black layer I can barely feel, so I tap the other orb to equip the second glove while thinking about the blades Cyon just showed me.
As expected, the gloves morph with my thoughts, stretching out into a set of threatening blades that slide through the back of the sofa with terrifying ease when I test them.
“Nice,” I mutter, pulling the blades back and storing the gloves in the convenient form of two black cuffs at the edge of my living second skin so I can keep petting Spot. “What should I spend last two hundred and eighty points on?”
I would recommend you use the points to start upgrading your siblings. You can purchase the child implants for your D.E.N for thirty points each, along with a drug, Human Thoughts, to help temporarily boost their mental faculties for an additional ten points each. Then, I would recommend purchasing them Opposable Lotor Viral Samples for fifteen points each and restocking their grenade bags with DogEater Needlers.
“Sure, buy away. Add some armour for them to my list next as well please. I don’t want them getting hurt.”
Noted.
¯¯¯¯¯
New Purchases!
Mark IV D.E.N Child Implant x 3 – 90 points
Human Thoughts x 3 – 30 points
Opposable Lotor Viral Sample x 3 – 45 points
DogEater K1 Needler Grenade x 18 – 90 points
Total: 255 points
Remaining points: 75
_____
The bag still strapped to Spot’s back visibly swells, surprising him as it pushes him up into my hand, and three white boxes appear on the sofa beside us, each with a different image printed on the top. One has a plain black dot, another a dash, and the last one has a cartoon French fry.
I nod in approval before popping open Spot’s box as he rolls over in my lap to look at what I’m doing.
Inside I find two disks for an aug system and three syringes with different coloured solutions.
“What first then Cyon?”
Apply the application pads then inject the viral sample on the left into his chest.
I take out the pads towards Spot.
{Do you want a brain computer? It might hurt.}
He looks up at me, tiling his head before pushing it towards my hand and speaking a response.
{Yes!}
I pat his head before placing the pads on his temples and pressing the injector to his chest.
The moment the syringe is empty I toss it away and pull him into a hug. However, instead of squirming in pain, he just shuts his eyes for a few moments before opening them again and looking up at me in confusion.
[{Sister?}]
He doesn’t move his mouth, but I hear him squeaking in my head.
I hear him in my head? The moment I think about it, I realise that I can tell he’s confused because I can feel it, like a second stream of emotions leaking into the back of my mind.
Funky.
