Chapter 7: Chapter 7 Sending the First Batch Home
As Dustin trailed behind Olivia, he watched her walk up to each mushroom and touch it gently. When nothing happened, she would frown and move to the next. Her reaction was so frustrating, he wanted to tell her to stop, but he couldn't decide if that was a good idea or not. Either way, it was damn creepy.
They had traveled far enough into the cavern by this point, that Dustin couldn't see where they had entered. If it weren't for the path they were following, he would have freaked out much sooner.
Ahead of them, he could see what looked like a well-tended garden, with a plot evenly spaced out, and little tiny mushrooms of various colors growing in rows. The only other place he had seen something like this was the mushrooms he had destroyed on their home planet.
Olivia paused when she spied the plot, then slowly approached it, looking around for anyone who might have been tending the garden. That's when they both spotted the mushroom man.
He didn't have any obvious mouth, and his eyes were just round white spots under the cap that looked like a hat. The moment he saw them, he raised his arms, that were covered in thick mushroom plates, and charged them. Dustin turned to run, but Olivia stood there transfixed.
Growling in frustration, he grabbed her arm and jerked her behind him as he turned to run again.
"What are you doing?" she cried, trying to break free.
"I'm saving your sorry ass! We're leaving!"
"But I thought you were looking for survivors!" she said, fighting his grasp.
The mushroom man had slowed his charge when it was obvious they were leaving, but was still following at a distance. Probably to make sure they weren't just going to come right back.
"I've been getting reports from the nanobots ever since we entered this damn mushroom forest. There aren't any others on this whole damn planet!"
"But," she said, glancing back at the man.
"No! Whatever your fascination with those damn things are, I'm sick of it. As soon as we get back to the ship, you're getting scanned to figure out what the hell is wrong with you."
She stopped fighting him, and followed in silence as they made their way out of the mushroom forest, through the abandoned town, and out of the mining cavern. He didn't let go of her until they were in the large cavern where he had built the ship for the Uz'En to escape in.
"There's really no other Uz'En on the whole planet?" she finally asked, as he started using the extra nanobots to make them a ship to escape the atmosphere of the planet.
"Not that I've heard. The nanos can fly pretty fast with the upgrades I gave them, and it's been hours since we got down here. Besides, I really need to get those pods I sent up collected together before they run out of air."
She nodded as the ship he was making started to take form. Glancing back one last time, she sighed and stepped into the small compartment. The ship was only going to be used to get them off the planet, then the nanobots would be used to tie the pods together, and to get them all home. They would get back to the ship in their energy worm forms again.
Using the same hole that the prior ship had used, they blasted off the planet, and managed to evade all of the ships that were hovering around, looking for them.
"I don't see any debris, so maybe the other ship made it out," said Olivia, looking around.
Dusting was too busy steering around the laser net they had thrown up, to look around himself. It was terrifying the number of ships they had floating around searching for his nanobots. This must be why the Uz'En on the planet never got their PED's.
"There are the pods!" Olivia said, directing his attention to one of the moons orbiting the trash planet. The pods had joined in with some of the debris floating around the moon, but there were smaller one-manned craft looking for them. The rate the ships were moving would have them finding the pods soon.
"I can get them out, but we're going to have a fight on our hands," said Dustin after a moment of studying the situation.
"Sounds fun," she said with a grin. "How much of a fight?"
"Didn't you say something about wanting to go onto some of these ships and causing trouble?" he asked, glancing over at her, before going back to dodging debris.
They just managed to get up to the group of pods, when the larger ship started to head their way.
"We've been seen! Time to change and have some fun!" cried Olivia, starting her evolution.
Dustin glanced over his orders to the nanobots one last time, before initiating his own evolution.
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)
As his frills formed on his space worm form, the nanobots ship around them fell apart and the nanobots flew over to the cluster of pods. It only took a few moments for them to pull the pods together and form a ship.
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)
The Uvojic ship arrived just as the nanobot ship opened a portal and jumped the survivor's home. In his current form, Dustin was amazed at the amount of exotic energies that floated off the portal. He fought against the urge to rush over and start gorging, and thankfully the portal closed very quickly, leaving the Uvojic's floating in space alone.
Not waiting for them to notice him, he flew at the ship, and ate his way through their energy shields. The smaller one-manned ships were coming towards them, apparently sensing the nanobots within them, after the pods escaped them. Dustin wasn't sure what they were up to, chasing after them like they were, but wasn't going to wait around to find out.
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)
His skin started to become crystalline, and with Olivia following his lead, he punched a hole in the side of the ship.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Sdrawkcab Time to kick alien butts!
Chapter 8: Chapter 8 Self Destruct
Dustin knew that if he didn't take out these ships, word would spread that there wasn't just a nanobot issue, but a new race that used them, and that was the last thing he needed; more enemies.
Sending his nanobots along the outside skin of the ship, eating it and disassembling it as fast as they could, he rushed into the ship, ignoring the rush of the air as it raced into space by digging his crystal claws into the floor. He saw his first Uvojic.
The alien that slid past him to the breach had a dark purple skin, and dark black eyes that took up a third of its face. The look of fear didn't sway Dustin as it tried to grab onto him. He moved to the side, letting it slide across the rips in the floor he had just made. The sharp metal ripped through its skin easily, and it was quickly gone, swallowed by the emptiness of space.
The ship rocked as there was an explosion somewhere. He wasn't sure if it was from his nanobots or Olivia, but decided he needed to do more than just stand there. Making his way to the hallway outside of the empty room he had entered through, there were plenty of aliens to fight. His crystal skin ignored most of their blows, and his blade hands sliced through their skin nicely.
Making his way down the hall, he killed every alien he came in contact with, until they ran from the sight of him. The air pressure in the ship was dropping as the emergency protocols couldn't keep up with the damage, and soon he was coming across Uvojic who were laying on the ground, panting.
(AN EMERGENCY SELF-DESTRUCT HAS BEEN INITIATED ON THE SHIP. IT WILL BLOW UP IN FIFTEEN SECONDS.)
"Oh shit!" he screamed, calling every nanobot around him to him, he started to dart to the exit.
'Olivia!'
'I know!'
He jumped out the nearest breach as he initiated an evolution.
(INITIATING COCOON EVOLUTION)
BOOM!
Dustin was floating in space, when he woke up. His entire body ached, but he was alive. Had he managed to complete the evolution? Was that why he had managed to survive? Where was Olivia?
Opening his eyes, he found that he was slowly spinning past a planet he didn't immediately recognize. There was debris around him, and a coating of nanobots surrounded him, keeping most of the bigger debris from colliding with him. He saw several dead aliens floating around him, but no Olivia.
'Olivia?' he called out through the nanobots. There was no answer.
'PED, scan for Olivia."
(SCANNING.)
He turned his head and found his mobility was severely hampered by skin that was grown around his entire body. Dustin could vaguely remember that the PED had initiated cocoon, and mentally sighed. He hated that evolution but it seemed to have saved him this time.
(OLIVIA HAS BEEN FOUND. SHE IS BEING BROUGHT BY NANOBOTS.)
Dustin turned his head with some difficulty as a ball of nanobots zoomed towards him, merging with his own. Olivia was still in her crystal form, but was still alive.
(SHIPS ARE APPROACHING, WHAT DO YOU WISH?)
'Send the nanobots to destroy them,' he thought, reaching out with his stub of a hand to touch Olivia. Why did she keep getting hurt so bad?
(NEGATIVE, ALL NANOBOTS THAT HAVE GOTTEN CLOSE TO THESE SHIPS HAVE BEEN DISABLED.)
'Damn! Initiate an evolution for space worm, and can you get Olivia to change too?'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION FOR BOTH HOSTS.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)
'Scatter the nanobots so we're not a target!'
Grabbing her limp form with some of his tendrils, he ignored his concern over her not regaining consciousness, and started to fly as fast as he could away from the ships. It only took him a moment to orient himself and to turn towards the laser fields that surrounded this space. If he could get them back to the ship, they could jump away. None of the remaining nanobots had the energy to jump them anymore.
The ships scattered, attacking the nanobots and ignoring them as they rushed away. Dustin knew it wouldn't be long before they were done with the nanos and hoped to be far enough by then, that the ships didn't register their personal nanos.
As the laser fence approached, he was hit with a problem. They had tightened the holes since the attack, and he wasn't going to be able to get through without triggering it while dragging Olivia behind him. Moving along the fence, with her in tow, Dustin tried to think of what to do. The ship would be exposed the moment he tried to board it, and if he triggered the fence, there would be huge battle ships on top of them in seconds.
'Initiate an evolution for Olivia to reduce her size as much as possible, without risking her to the effects of space. Do the same to me."
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)
They were still entangled in each other, but their bodies had shrunk small enough that he could easily get through the fence. The only problem was that his speed was so slow, he wasn't sure he could move faster than the moving lasers.
'Is there any way to increase my speed?' he asked, keeping an eye out for any ships.
(NOT WITHOUT INCREASING YOUR SIZE.)
'Do that then,' he groaned mentally. This was taking too long!
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)
A ship flashed in his vision, and he freaked. Rushing at the fence, he started to move through it as his body increased in size. Dragging Olivia along with him, he tried to hurry, his speed picking up as his evolution completed.
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)
Suddenly the fence was gone and he turned towards where he knew the ship was at, but something grabbed him. There was a tether attached to his back from the Uvojic ship!
Pushing Olivia's body towards the ship, he gave it orders through his nanobots to grab her and to jump away to safe space as the tether started to reel him back in. He fought against the line, twisting and turning as it pulled him through where the fence used to be.
'Initiate my crystal form!'
(UNABLE TO COMPLY. EVOLUTION CHANGES ARE BLOCKED BY SOMETHING IN THE TETHER.)
Dustin really started to panic when he realized he couldn't change. This form had no offensive capabilities, and he had no doubt that if he was captured, they would destroy all of his nanobots. He couldn't allow that to happen.
Turning his head to see the tether as best he could, he realized that if he flew at the alien ship, he had a chance of escaping the tether's hold. Without wasting another moment, he turned and sped towards the ship, causing the line to go slack as they couldn't reel it in as fast as he was flying, then with a flip in space, he wiggled against the tether's hold.
His wispy tendrils were slipping free just as the slack disappeared and he was jerked towards the ship once again. Before he disappeared into the opening that appeared on the side of the ship, he saw his ship appear and seem to swallow Olivia's body up, before disappearing in a blink of light.
At least she was safe, he thought as he was swallowed up by the ship.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Sdrawkcab
He spent too much time and effort trying to evolve into new forms. Obviously he wasn't thinking too clearly...
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
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