The guards outside the holding area were more prepared for him then any of the other people he had fought in the compound. He almost wondered if they were aliens.
Their full body armor prevented his nanobots from entering immediately. As they started to chew their way into the armor, a field was activated that repelled the nanos completely.
Cracking his neck, Dustin stepped forward to fight them. He didn't mind a little combat himself.
They charged at each other at the same time. Using his electrical organ to generate just the right amount of charge, he was able to bypass the field that covered them, and threw one across the hall. The second got a good hit in, knocking Dustin to the ground, then kicked him before he could move out of the way.
'PED, evolve cutting hands.'
(EVOLUTION INITIATED.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
Swinging his bladed hands at the leg of the guard when he went to kick him again, he was awarded with a deep slash through the armor and into the leg itself. Bright blue blood poured out, confirming his suspicions.
Falling to the ground, the guard scrambled away from him, making room for the other guard to jump in and attack. Dustin didn't give it the satisfaction. Grabbing the leg as it went to kick him, he sliced through the armor and cut it to the bone. Blood started pouring out onto the floor.
Letting go, he watched it fall to the ground, and start trying to slap something on its chest. Was that a bomb??!
Rushing forward, he flipped the guard over onto its face, just before the charge went off. He was flung up against the ceiling, where he demolished a light, before falling aback into the mess that used to be the guard. The other guard was dead, leaned against the wall, where he had bled out.
Standing up, Dustin flung the ick off his blades before changing them back to normal hands. Then he opened the door that they were trying so hard to protect.
Inside the room, the walls were lined with three-foot square cells, just big enough for people to sit, but not lay down. The floor was a grill, that no doubt hurt their feet, but allowed waste to pass out of the cell. Small openings on the front, allowed for food and drink to be passed to them, but that was all.
Dustin was shocked and horrified at the people who looked at him when he entered. There were thirteen cells occupied, ten men, two women, and a child.
The looks from the people made him suddenly realize he was covered in blue blood from the dead aliens outside. Changing into his slime form, to clean himself, then back, caused their looks of fear to change over to hope.
Stepping up to the console in the middle of the room, he quickly figured out how to open the cells, letting the people out.
"Who are you?" asked one of the men.
Before he could answer, the lights went out, eliciting a scream from one of the men, and the door locked. In the hushed silence, Dustin could just barely hear an alarm sounding in the distance, and then the hiss of something being released.
"Shit! I'll answer later," he cried, activating his nanobots to light up the area. Thinking quickly, he spied the gas valves spewing something into the room from near the ceiling. There were too many to plug in time, even using his nanobots.
"Everyone, get together by the door, as close as you can!"
They all pushed up against the door, their fear making them forget their nakedness.
'PED, slime me!'
(EVOLUTION INITIATED.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
Blowing himself up to be big enough to encompass them all, he formed a bubble over them, protecting them from the gas. Squeezing himself through the door, he was able to figure out the lock system was not something he could undo easily.
'PED, I need to be able to filter out the gas so they can still breath, and I need to be able to eat through those bars locking the door with acid.'
(EVOLUTION INITIATED.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE. I ALSO MADE YOU CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING THE GAS YOURSELF.)
'Thank you, I appreciate that.'
Focusing on keeping the air inside clean for them to breath, he started eating away at the bars keeping the door shut. Sending out a tendril, he started to eat the alien guards, so that they wouldn't freak out when he finally got the door open.
He noticed something moving down the hall, as he ate the remains, and paused to study it. His sight in this form was very limited, but as it got closer, he realized it had long legs like a spider, with jaws dripping with venom. When it got close enough, he quickly sucked his tendril back through the door. He had recognized what it was.
Crap. If he got the door open that thing would kill them all. The venom was corrosive enough to cause his slime form problems. He remembered it from a planet he had visited with Granny. It almost killed them, but she had eaten it. If he remembered right, she had indigestion for a week after. The legs had barbs on it, that would paralyze its victim, while the venom dissolved the insides for easier digestion.
As he deliberated, it drew closer to the door, and started trying to get in. It was attracted to the gas! He had eaten through the bars locking the door enough, it wouldn't be long before it got in.
There was nothing for it. Dustin knew what he had to do. When it lunged at the door next, he shot a tendril straight into its eyes, coated with the acid he had been using to eat through the bars, and tried to eat his way into its brain. It reacted immediately, by spitting its venom at the tendril and jerking away.
Gritting his imaginary teeth, since he didn't have any, he continued to force himself inside the head of the nightmare bug. His bubble rippled with revulsion and convulsed from the venom.
(DUSTIN, YOU MUST ALLOW ME TO EVOLVE YOU, OR THE VENOM WILL CAUSE IRREPARABLE DAMAGE.)
'Just a little more,' he thought, forcing the tendril deep into the brain of the bug, finally causing enough damage it fell to the ground, spasming in death.
'Okay,' he finally conceded.
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
As he felt himself getting over the venom, the corpse of the nightmare bug was roughly jerked out of his sight, and his confidence dropped. There was only one thing that ate nightmare bugs, other than Granny. It was the Cruncher.