Saying that Sarah was upset would be an understatement, she seems furious, although I’m not entirely sure why, Carol seems confused as well so I doubt she knows.

Sitting down in Sarah's office, which is becoming increasingly familiar, I set the dead Warmachine down on the couch and sit next to it, following that, Carol sits on the other side of me, Sarah then lets out a deep sigh and sits across from us.

“So, I have two questions, one, how did you get that, and two, why did you bring it back.” She motions towards the Warmachine with increasing exasperation.

Taking a second to compress the day, I provide my signature deadpan answer, “Well, we ran into it and then it spotted us, so I killed it, then I brought it back because I figured it had some value.”

“I should have figured it was something like that.”

Having been silent for a while, Carol finally interjects, “So um, is something wrong with it?”

“Yeah, there is, those things tend to explode when they die.”

“Oh, I see the problem now.”

“By the way.” Getting the duo’s attention, I bring up an important matter, “It’s glowing.”

“Shit, that’s what it does before it explodes, we need to go.” Getting up, Sarah and Carol start running towards the door, but I have an idea, the Warmachine itself isn’t glowing, but it seems more like something within it is heating up extremely.

With that in mind, I have myself an extremely sharp, nearly heat immune clawed hand, so, I thrust my left hand forwards, piercing into its chest, feeling where the heat is strongest I pull back, tearing out a spherical device, the orb itself is a burning orange in color, with several ports around it which are connected to the machine by wires.

I quickly tear the wires out of the orb, and it quickly stops heating up, but it is still incredibly hot so I have no choice but to continue holding onto it for now, and with the imminent explosion out of the way, I should probably tell the two of them that it’s not going to explode anymore.

Walking out into the main lobby, I see Sarah trying to get people out of the building, she doesn’t seem to notice me walk out of the back, so I walk right up to her and tap her on the shoulder.

Seeming to have startled her mid sentence, she turns around with a strange, yet oddly cute noise, “Guwa, Tyra? What are you doing, you need to leave too, the entire building is gonna go up in flames soon enough, all because of that damned machine you brought in.”

Deciding it’s best to gloss over the noise I just ignore it, holding up the core I show it to her, “You don’t need to worry, I stopped it, I found out the source of the self destruct, so I removed it from the machine, and consequently stopped the explosion.”

“Wait, you what? Actually, I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, you could do practically anything and it really shouldn’t surprise me.”

Looking back towards the Divers leaving the building, she raises her voice and makes a quick announcement, “Alright guys, false alarm I guess, resident monster here just saved the entire guildhall, although she was the cause of the explosion.” Mumbling the last part of the announcement, she turns back to me, “Well, either way even if it’s presumably safe, I want that core gone, and quickly, I’m not making the same mistake this time, although I should have been more careful in the first place.”

Nodding to her I see Carol come back inside and start walking over to us, with a sudden thought striking my mind I take a look at the core and bring it up to my face, where I take a bite out of it like I’m eating an apple, it’s hot, but not unbearably so, if anything the heat makes the metal easier to eat.

The two watch on in both confusion and amazement, as I eat the core over the course of a minute or so, “Alright, the core is gone, just like you asked.”

“I don’t think she meant like that Tyra.”

“Whatever, it doesn’t really matter anymore, you gonna be alright Tyra? I had thought you only really ate organic stuff.”

“Yeah I should be fine, my body can-” Before I can finish however, what feels like lightning travels down my spine, starting at the base of my neck and traveling down to the tip of my tail, causing a light spasm across my body.

ALERT- POTENTIAL TECHNOLOGICAL UPGRADE DETECTED

ATTEMPTING TO INTEGRATE…

WARNING- INTEGRATION FAILED NOT ENOUGH MATERIAL PRESENT

 

Well there's the problem, ignoring the various calls of concern, I rush back to Sarah's office and start feeding on the remains of the machine. Honestly, this was as much of a surprise for me as it was for them, I didn’t even know technological upgrades were a thing, and I certainly wasn't expecting them to hurt.

This is… new to say the least, no matter how much I eat of the machine I don’t seem to be getting full, or even gaining anything, but I just feel such a compulsion to eat it, likely because of whatever this “upgrade” is, the other thing is that eating it is going significantly slower than usual.

The metal is harder to bite through and chew than the core was, of course, the core was made of a softer and hot metal while I’m currently eating armor plates, the best comparable thing would be eating inch thick hardtack, except it doesn’t soften as you chew, doable but it might take a while.

As I eat, I’m vaguely aware of Carol and Sarah standing a short distance away, attempting to talk to me or just looking concerned in general, but I don’t really care to pay attention, after all, that dreaded hunger is back, and it’s even worse.

The only saving grace is that I don’t have an urge to eat the two people near me, only the Warmachine and its metal, most likely caused by the technological upgrade that my body is currently trying to undergo.

It took a while to finish the machine, at least two hours, but by the end, the hunger had died down, and rationality had returned to me, however, an alert notified me that my body was about to change, and pretty heavily.

 

ALERT- REQUISITE UPGRADE MATERIAL GATHERED

INITIATING INTEGRATION

WARNING- PREPARE YOURSELF

 

My body felt like it was on fire as it changed, my dense bones being replaced with metal, making their previous hardness look like a joke, but most importantly, I could feel strands of artificial fibers slithering along my muscles, reinforcing my entire body, and a similarly shaped, yet much smaller core formed in my abdomen, where a practically empty space was since I was incapable of reproducing.

After a few hours, my body started to cool down as the changes solidified, to start off, my bones were completed replaced with CrCoNi, a Chromium, Cobalt, and Nickel alloy which can be up to ten times stronger than Titanium, and around 20% of my skeletal muscle fibers were replaced with T800 carbon fibers, as well as most of my ligaments, otherwise my body would tear itself apart trying to support itself. For the most part, the only muscles changed are the ones immediately surrounding the bones, while not a perfect replacement, by working in tandem with my natural muscles and with my body’s ability to replace damaged tissue, even artificial ones, it can make do, of course, if I didn’t have this ability my body would currently be killing itself, but I do, so it’s fine.

The other exciting part is the energy core, which is a hydrogen micro fusion reactor, incredible I know, but by taking water and splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen, I can sustain both my body’s need for oxygen, and now its need for hydrogen, and yes, it takes a lot of energy to do so, but I have a literal fusion reactor inside of my body so I have plenty. Finally, the carbon fiber doubles as a poor, but working insulator around my bones, and allows electrical singles to travel through them, which means, I can now power my Organic Disruption Field Gauntlet, or ODFG for short, without using biomass, and I should be able to use it with minimal repercussions due to my bodies upgrades.

By the way, is now a good time to mention that I passed out shortly after the changes started? Yeah, I only know how long the transformation took, because the clock in the room jumped forwards by 3 hours from when I passed out, from 4 to 7, speaking of, there’s nobody else in the room.

Getting up off of the ground I immediately notice something, my clothes seem to be a little bit looser, not enough to make them fall off, but it feels like it has a bit more give than before, the second thing I notice is my weight, which has skyrocketed, not surprising since my bones are now a dense alloy instead of bone.

Walking up to the door frame it takes a second to get used to both the increased weight, and yet the absolute ease I have in moving even with the weight, upon reaching the door I figure out why my clothes are looser and open up my status.

 

[Tyra Nidious]

{Bio}
Height- 229 cm/90 inches
Weight- 320 kg/705 lbs.
Race- Tyranid Cyborg
Corruption- N/A

{Stats}
STR- 50 (60)
DEX- 40 (48)
CON- 36 (43)
INT- 14 (17)
WIS- 12 (14)
CHA- 9 (11)

 

Well, that explains it, I seem to have shrunk by about 6 inches, yet my weight has increased by roughly 5x. Which doesn’t surprise me, CrCoNi is around 5.2x denser than bone so it does make sense, my stats have taken a leap as well, which is a pleasant surprise.

Hearing the floor creak beneath me, I realize a major problem, my weight is about that of four people, in the area of one person. That's a lot of weight in a short amount of space, have I mentioned this is the first floor?

Opening the door and walking down the hallway, I’m concerned by the lack of sound, and walking out into the main lobby, I look around and worryingly don’t see a single person, which means something incredibly urgent is happening.

Leaving onto the street I look around and finally notice people off in the distance, over by the north wall again, starting to run over. I immediately realize yet another major problem, I will likely not glide or fly again for a very long time, which is super disappointing since I really enjoyed doing that, although I can now run at almost 40 mph without even breaking a sweat so that’s nice.

Reaching the wall in just a few minutes, I see Sarah by the wall giving out orders to attack some sort of Humanborne, so, I give a running leap and easily jump over the 20 ft. wall, landing on the other side with a large crash, turning around I come face to face with a familiar monster.

A tall humanoid with metallic skin, an elongated hunched forward head, with a single large void like eye on the front, just about matching me in height, getting a better look this time I can see that its hands are three pointed claws, and its feet are flat stumps instead of human like ones.

Feeling shivers again, I almost flee but this time I know I can do it, this time I know I’m ready. Staring it down it lets out a long, low billowing howl, almost like a whale call, then it charges me, putting a step back and launching itself forwards, almost floating along the ground, and crossing the distance in just a second.

Bending over at an unnatural angle, my back is just a few inches above the ground while my feet stay flat, and my tail launches upwards, intent on striking it in the chest and launching it over me, which fortunately works, impacting it on the chest I slam into it with enough force to shatter a normal human, yet it only flinches as it lurches upwards, missing me and only taking a light gash on its chest.

Turning around with a smirk I taunt it with my hands, although it doesn’t seem to care and attempts another charge, this time I prepare myself differently, as it charges forward, this time at a lower angle to avoid my tail, I jump over it, but unfortunately for me, it’s quicker, grabbing me by the tail, fortunately for me, I’m heavy.

Upon grabbing my tail it’s forced to follow me in my leap, while we’re midair I coil up my tail, attempting to throw it off, seeing an opportunity the monster takes a quick slash at my tail, precisely targeting the ligaments between bone segments, and managing to escape my grasp, along with the majority of my now severed tail.

Landing on the ground I immediately use 2 biomass to stop the bleeding, but don't bother attempting to reconstruct the tail, it would be too expensive and take too long, luckily the adrenaline is dulling the pain a bit, but that won’t last very long.

Looking at the monster I could swear it was smirking, not giving the monster a chance I start to charge at it, activating my ODFG as I get closer, I throw a feint with my right hand before quickly turning into a slash with my left, which luckily enough leaves a deep gash across its stomach, spilling black blood onto the ground.

In retaliation it launches its own slash with its right hand, which I block with my Necrodermis claw, grabbing onto its hand using the ODFG I begin to slice through it and before long, its hand is in pieces and is laying in a pool of blood on the ground, letting out a roar it attempts to headbutt me, however, my most dangerous natural weapon is my teeth.

Matching its headbutt I take the opportunity to bite its head, easily destroying its eye, stumbling back in confusion the monster attempts to swipe at me but I easily dodge, and with a single precise thrust from me, I have my claw around its heart and pull it out, its black blood pooling on the ground and with its equally black heart in hand I grab my tail, reattaching it as I snack.

A few minutes later its body is gone, my biomass is full, and best of all, it had a crystal, which I pocketed for now, walking back up to the wall I knock on the door, but after receiving no response I instead opt to simply jump over the wall, which I do with relative ease.

Landing on the opposite side with a resounding thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

“What the hell? Tyra, was that you?” Hearing the telltale signs of Sarah’s cursing I can determine that she is okay, which is good.

“Yeah, I noticed you were having trouble so I rushed over and took care of it.” Honestly, I was just looking for Carol so I wouldn’t get shot, but this is a decent excuse as well.

“Oh, well thanks for that, a class 3 Humanborne would have been trouble.”

“Class 3?”

“Right, you probably haven’t been told, well, every Humanborne comes in classes, 1-6 to be exact, class 6 is something a regular person could take care of, 5 would need a squad of regular people or a professional, 4 would need a squad of professionals, 3 would multiple squads of professionals, 2 would need basically the entire guild, and 1 pretty much means the town is lost, 0 does exist but nothings ever been classified in it before so it's more of just there for formality.” Now that the dust is starting to clear Sarah starts to walk up to me.

Sizing me up and down, Sarah seems to take notice of something, “Hey Tyra, did you shrink a bit?”

“Yeah a little bit, part of the upgrade I guess.” Shrugging I continue to speak, “By the way, where is Carol?”

“Oh, what’s this missing her already? Jokes aside, I sent her home, she's not a professional by any means, although she does have you so that counts for something.” Waving me off to leave she turns to ask one last question, “And you are absolutely sure you’re okay this time? No sudden hunger pangs or whatever and passing out?”

“Well, I can’t exactly guarantee that since hunger is practically half of a Tyranids instincts, but as a sentient one I can suppress it, most of the time anyway, what you saw earlier was my body finding something it could use to evolve, to evolve… I need to go.” Without saying another word I turn around and begin sprinting towards the apartment complex I’ve started to call home, the last time I evolved was an objectively minor change to me, and yet Carol had a 2% increase in corruption, considering the sheer density of the recent evolution, Carol might turn within a few days at this rate, which really puts a time limit on things.

Reaching the apartment complex I carefully go up the concrete stairs, making sure to take careful steps so as to not break through the floor, and once I reach Carol's apartment I punch in the passcode and unlock the door, stepping into the apartment where Carol is sleeping on the couch.

Walking over to her I sit next to her and stare at her for a few moments, I can’t exactly check her corruption without her being awake so that means I wait, and I have just the thing to pass the time, taking out the crystal I gained from killing the monster I turn it over in my hands, it's spherical and about a cm thick, and vantablack, like carrying a pearl made of the void itself.

Popping the crystal in my mouth I swallow it whole and allow my body to digest it, before going through the same process as with the first crystal, then as I go to check the new skill, I hear Carol stir beside me, and put it off for later.

“Hey, Carol, are you feeling alright?”

“Hmm? Tyra? Yeah, I just felt a little tired when I got home, it was pretty sudden too, felt fine on the way back but once I sat on the couch, this wave of lethargy kinda washed over me.” Sitting up while yawning she replies with her eyes closed.

“Is that it, nothing new, or feeling out of place?”

“Um, actually now that you mention it, I thought I slept through the night but it looks like it's still dark out, even though it looks like it's daytime.”

“Carol, check your corruption.”

“Sure? it was just at 2% this morning though so it couldn’t have changed much.”

[Carol Helios]

{Bio}
Height- 163 cm/64 inches
Weight- 43 kg/95 lbs.
Race- Human
Corruption- 27%

“Oh.” Hearing Carol's lackluster response I look over at her and notice her very wide red eyes, red eyes which were blue just this morning.

“Tyra, am-, am I going to turn.” Turning to me with tears starting to drop from her eyes, I feel a sting in my heart seeing her like that, her life just got cut down to singular days, maybe even less.

“I-, I’m scared, I don’t want to die Tyra, I- What am I supposed to do?” Hugging her as she starts to cry I watch as the counter ticks up to 28%, at this rate she’ll turn in just three days, maybe two if we’re unlucky, she’s young in human terms, not even technically an adult, and yet she’s just been told by an absolute force that she'll be dead within a week.

I feel bad, and I actually feel a little bit sad, I’ve been getting attached to Carol and now she’s dying because of me, whatever happens, I need to make sure that by the time she turns, I have some way to counter it, or at least make sure she stays herself, after all, is losing all your memories forever really any different from dying?

Well, depressing stuff aside, I first need to consol Carol, “Hey, It’s gonna be okay, I’ll figure something out, I’ll do something about it, I um, I can slow it down, I- I don’t know Carol, I’m scared too, I don’t want to lose you either, and I don't know how to help you, but I- I’ll fix it, somehow, someway, somewhere, I’ll find a way, I promise, I’ll help you.”

You know, that wasn’t the plan, it wasn’t how it was supposed to go, but now, Carol’s not the only one crying anymore, at some point I stopped lying to her, I really, really don’t want to lose her, and I’m not quite sure why.

Logically it shouldn’t really matter if she dies, but there's some part of me, some part that never worked before that's telling me otherwise.

“Okay, okay, I trust you Tyra, please, I don’t want to die yet.” Calming down a little bit, Carol’s heartbeat slows a bit and she ushers out a short response.

“Yeah, I’ll do whatever I can, I’ll do anything.” Loosening the hug I let Carol go and we sit on the couch for a few minutes, not really saying anything until the silence is interrupted by Carol's stomach.

“Haha, I should probably make some food huh.” Getting up off the couch awkwardly, Carol heads over to the kitchen to make dinner for herself, in the meantime I need to figure out whatever skill I got from that crystal.

Opening up the skill panel I take a glance at the skill.

{Skills}

[Weight Manipulation]
[Type] Active
[Description] Allows you to adjust the weight of your body.
[Effects] You can modify the weight of your body by up to -90% or +500%, you can affect as many areas of your body as you like in different ways simultaneously.

Well convenient for my added weight, and it does explain how it sort of glided along the ground and seemed so light, yet was able to deliver incredibly heavy attacks.

But as I’m stuck in my thought I hear a crash from the kitchen and I rush over, inside the kitchen is Carol, collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily, as I went to pick her up I noticed something, the veins on her neck are black, black blood, and my mind flashes back to the pearl, and the black blood of the monster it came from.

It’s my fault, I’m killing her, I just, keep on making mistake after mistake, I ate the machine without thinking about it, and I ate the crystal right next to her, I have to fix this, at this rate I likely have less than 2 days, I need to figure this out and quick, before I kill her like a parasite, sucking away her life in exchange for something as simple as being her friend, I feel sick of it, I don’t want her life.

But I guess that’s my curse, a Tyranid is by design, meant to suck the life out of an entire planet before leaving. Maybe I was the fool, to think even for a moment that I could just have a friend, that I could be free to live, maybe that’s why I was a failure, because deep down I had emotions. Shaking the thoughts away I move her to the bedroom and set her down on the bed, looking at her strained face I feel like my heart could burst, pacing around the living room I think about everything that I could do, anything I could possibly do to help her.

Then I have an idea, I have the ability to control each individual cell of my blood if I really need to, if I could get my blood into her body I could maybe dissolve the crystal, performing the same thing I did on mine to fix it, just maybe that could help her.

Walking back to her room I get ready to make a cut on her but I realize I can’t, there’s something blocking me from hurting her, then I realize that it’s the skill, I can’t even hurt her because of the monster tamer skill, and because I can’t hurt her, I can’t help her, in frustration I punch the wall, putting a hole through it without even trying, Just what am I supposed to do?