When Tyler and Faust finally woke up, Alex had already changed her clothes and freshened up somewhat, only leaving her hair in disarray to make it seem as if she was panicking over their sudden black out. She had to instantly crank up her acting skills.
Pacing back and forth worriedly while nervously biting her nails, Alex was a mess--though she decided to hold back the waterworks this time around. Now, that would have been overdoing it.
Seeing her friends regaining their consciousness after two dreadfully slow hours, Alex immediately ran up to them, gently hovering her small and delicate fair, white palm over their foreheads that were dripping with sweat.
"Thank goodness! I thought you two...I thought you guys left me all alone!" She released the breath she didn't realize she was holding all that time.
"Wha...What happened, Lexi? Why are we--ugh!" Tyler quickly brought his hands up to his head, cradling it as he was immersed in so much agonizing pain in his brain, "What the hell...?!"
"Ugh..." Faust seemed to be faring with the torment of having his mind invaded by an alien much better than Tyler was.
Alex gasped exasperatedly, "What's wrong?! Why is this happening?!"
As one of the experts in the field as well as having gone through the process herself (though on a considerably smaller scale), Alex finally became aware that the two were actually battling against an invisible enemy.
"Alex, you need to run away..." Tyler gnashed out through his tightly clenched teeth. He and Faust rarely called her by her name. They only called her "Alex" if they believed the situation to be extremely dire.
Although Faust said nothing and was silently bearing his own share of the convulsing torture of having one's mind pricked and prodded from within, Alex knew he was agreeing with Tyler.
In response, without caring about their current suffering, she slapped them both across the face as she was not only furious but helpless, "Did you guys forget that I am also already an alien?!"
Thinking to this point, she felt her anger escalate, "You two better prove you are both worthy of being this miss's best friends! Her family--her most trusted and beloved men in the entire universe! If you lose to those filthy aliens, then consider us as finished!" Uh, why did she sound like a girlfriend threatening to break up with her boyfriend(s)?
[...you will regret saying that later.]
'Shut it. I know.'
Tyler and Faust couldn't help the upward tilt of their lips, "Don't worry, Lexi. We are...stronger than you."
Tyler managed to squeeze out the teasing and taunting remark before blacking out again, probably dedicating more of his consciousness into fighting back the foreign presence in his mind.
On the other hand, Faust was still awake as he furrowed his brows and bit his pale lips harshly to keep himself from groaning out loud.
After fifteen minutes, the pain finally seemed to have subsided and their states were relatively normal again aside from their faces being as white as sheets. Throughout the entire process, Alex was by their side, holding their hands and wiping the excess sweat off of their faces and necks with a wet towel that she had prepared in the kitchen.
Tyler was surprisingly finished before Faust, so when Faust finally relaxed, Tyler waved his large hand in front of his eyes with a playful grin pasted on his smug face, "Hey, Fausti, you still in there?"
To which Faust merely scoffed slightly in ridicule, gently tossing the outstretched hand back to its place by Tyler's side.
The two were immediately wrapped tightly within Alex's slender arms in an embrace as she had never felt so relieved in her life.
"Was this my fault?" She mumbled quietly and guiltily to herself.
However, the two men, who were unaware of her actions that were indeed the cause, unhesitatingly denied her part in any of what just happened.
"You didn't know that would happen. You didn't know anything at all," Tyler reassured her while caressing her red hair lovingly with his large and rough hand.
"Lexi is a good girl," Faust added while her rubbed her back tenderly.
But Alex still felt a mountain of guilt weighing down on her as she kept whispering apologies.
Tyler couldn't take another ten minutes of self-loathing that Alex was subjecting herself to, so he threw out a threat that was more truthful than not, "If you don't stop, then I will kiss you."
Faust also gazed at Alex intently, his pupils constricting within his pale green orbs as if agreeing with Tyler that he, too, would partake in such a "punishment."
As a result, Alex hiccuped once before shutting up for good, to the two's immense regret.
Getting back to business, the three went over their newfound capabilities. For one, other aliens did not dare to approach them. Rather, they were avoided. Alex was suspiciously silent during the observation, but Tyler and Faust just assumed it was due to her position as their almighty Queen. Yes, when they successfully suppressed the Royal Guards, Tyler and Faust immediately felt the unbreakable connection that the three of them shared. They were to be Alex's most loyal vassals, and it made sense considering their initial relationship with each other.
Second, similar to Alex, their blood was no longer red. It was yellow and could melt practically everything aside from Alex's strange sword as well as the irudisium floor beneath their feet. Alex had pulled her black sword seemingly out of nowhere claiming it as a symbol of alien royalty, which Tyler and Faust had no way of denying that possibility, so they just shrugged it off and complied with that far-fetched excuse. Then again, they trusted that even if Alex was lying to them that she would never harm them in any way.
Next, their physical strength and agility had increased exponentially. This was a good thing if they wanted to survive on the starship, especially since Tyler and Faust insisted on getting rid of as many aliens as they could. If they could, they would wish to annihilate every alien on board, then steer the vessel back home to the colonies safe and sound.
Unfortunately, they were also aware that Team Protagonist was heading their way and would arrive in less than four hours. It would be inevitable that the two groups would cross paths one way or another. If it wasn't onboard, it'd be by clashing ships as there was only one passage to A-92 and B-418 that was wormhole-free.
Wormholes in this world were not necessarily good things because they could not be controlled. The majority of their transportation destinations remained unknown even after hundreds and thousands of years with all contact with the vessels broken. Many ships had been lost to wormholes, so it was decided that all forces must steer clear from them on the occasion that they are encountered.
Therefore, even if Alex, Tyler, and Faust could rid the ship of the pests called aliens completely and then pilot the starship within the next four hours, they'd only end up meeting up with Team Protagonist and consequently be under their suspicion within good reason. Even worse, the moment they bled in front of them they would probably become the very same test subjects they were initially in charge of delivering.
The trio had no doubts that such a worst-case scenario could truly take place. After all, they had already been thrust into the underground society by their families in the past. Now that they had become "superhumans," why wouldn't the terrible treatment they already received as normal humans escalate? What was there to stop those top families who were so hung up on their greed for money and power?
So, the only thing Tyler, Alex, and Faust could do without having to resort to massacring their fellow colony men and women was to kill only those aliens they ran across on their way to the armory to establish their base, rather than actively seeking them out. They wouldn't hold back on killing the aliens onboard because they wanted to avenge their fallen comrades and make the mission easier for their reinforcements to complete.
Of course, Alex had another motivation such as completing her side task!
Nevertheless, it took the trio almost four hours to get from one end of the massive starship to the other side; from the research department to the armory. They did make occasional stops to train their new and improved bodies.
The first few kills were, in Alex's honest opinion, the best. This was because, similar to herself in the beginning, Tyler and Faust seemed to have neglected the acidic blood's properties as it no longer had an effect on themselves, allowing it to spray all over themselves. Though they weren't harmed in any way by the fluids, their combat suits could not withstand them, rendering the two delicious men practically stark naked after their second kills.
Alex did not dare hold back on feasting her eyes, nor did she abstain from shamelessly fondling their sexy and lickable bodies with her bare hands when she offered to personally help them both dress up.
Though, she couldn't push them too far, as while she had perfect control over her urges that were influenced by the Queen in her, Tyler and Faust were true to the plot with their massive members proudly shooting towards the heavens by merely her scent. Their hormones were definitely off the charts! Regrettably, she couldn't have her fun or her husband would literally end up killing her in bed when they next met up.
Where are you, my dear husband? This wife is feeling very thirsty ah.
In the end, the trio diverged from the original plotline by not only turning into aliens sooner than in the original, but also heading and arriving at the armory earlier. They ended up not bumping into Team Protagonist in the midst of all the chaos and therefore escaped the scrutiny under the male and second male leads that would follow. Even if they were to bump into them now, the other team could not be suspicious unreasonably because they had the armory behind them! Of course it would be possible to survive in this mess with the entire starship's worth of weaponry under one's belt!
Sure enough, in less than two hours, which was half of what it took the original Team Protagonist to become totally annihilated, the recon team barged into the armory in all their glory. Upon focusing her sight towards the doorway where the malunimium was demolished as if it were a piece of clay, Alex's pale blue orbs instantly clashed with a pair of icy blue ones. Within them, a tumultuous storm was brewing.
Alex couldn't help but shiver at the sight.