Waking up with a body feeling like you got hit by a freighter would be less than what Michael felt as he became conscious with a splitting headache on top of it.
As memories flooded his mind as got his bearings a small smile appeared on his face as he now had someone to call Father.
Noticing that she seemed smaller as she was curled upon his lap and was still asleep he slid his arms under her to carry Her before shockingly realizing the new state of the room.
The floor was sunken in with solidified liquid metal. The wall behind him was warped as if someone took a blowtorch to it and tried to make a hole in the wall that just melted like cheese but held on by thin strings of metal.
Getting up he carefully made his way out of the crater and looked at the damage from another perspective.
It seemed as if the place had gotten hit by a meteorite… would be the appropriate event…. If they weren't inside a ship.
With a hoarse voice Michael asked out loud, "Oran? What happened?")
"I have recorded the event for you to watch as you are surprisingly alive after that blasted furnace episode…. Hers was never that intense! The damage to this room is significantly worse than getting glassed by a Mothership's MAC Cannon from close Orbit!"
Clearing his throat he asked sheepishly, embarrassed, "Can you teleport us to the hot springs?"
"Of course!"
With a flash the scenery changed, now a room with opened box style cubbies on the wall and a curtain to one side and a door on the other. Michael realized he needed to change her clothes, which shouldn't be an issue for his experience with his naked female spartan siblings every time they got to wash up every day for the past years since he was six years of age.
But why did it seem more like a challenge with Shanna…. Or should he call her by her original given name, Kyrena? He'll ask after she wakes up.
As if finally remembering something important he hallard out, "Oran! Can you change our outfits?"
A pause ensued as Oran who was trying to recover the melted room, to its original appearance before having to recycle the entire room, took notice of their situation.
"Yes I can but I'll be busy afterwards so use the Console on the door to move from place to place!" With that a light engulfed the two and Kyrena made some soft noises as the sudden change made her shiver from the sudden change.
Walking briskly past the curtain he paused as being in any type of ship should have at least some reasonability limit to what could fit inside….
A dimly lit sky with stars shone brightly above a mountain with many ledges filled with steaming water and a smooth waterfall that gracefully fell along the side from the bowl on top of the mountain into a steaming moat that looked like a slide.
Astonished at the feat of the scenery inside a small ship, the possibilities from the conversation with Father opened up some thought as to how he could make and house an army under the radar of others.
The abundant hot spring water felt cool as it washed over them and sizzled into vapor as he made his way into the deep but shallow end of the most.
Compared to the furnace type heat he had endured, this water was refreshing on his skin. Unaware that his own skin was peeling off and soft tan-red scales appeared beneath as a tail slowly grew from behind him as his human skin was being washed off.
Slowly sinking down to sit the water as it flowed over Kyrena and washed away the dried blood from her skin as if it was never there, he wondered about these feelings and curiosity that he never had before as he looked upon her sleeping figure past the intense steam that had engulfed them.
Thinking about the content of the screens that had popped up before had caused them to suddenly pop up again. Taking a breath he readied himself to go through the layered screen tabs as he tried to figure out this so-called Husband System.
[Coms] [5 Channels Open]
[Weapons] [50 Slots Open]
[Vehicles] [None Registered]
[Armor] [Silver Cowboy Equipable]
[Status] [Evolving]
[Unit Housing] [Pending]
[Inventory] [75 Slots Open]
[Trackers] [Locked]
[Map]
[Skill Card Library] [Locked]
[Direct Subordinates] [None]
[Subordinate ???? Summon] [Locked]
[Sub Subordinates] [4 Personnel]
[Subordinate Menu Override] [Locked]
[Plexus] [3 Useable]
[Crafting] [Crafting Portable Room Available]
[Shielding] [56%]
[Wife Status] [Sleeping]
[Wife Location] [Hot Spring Room]
[Wife Teleportation]
[Guild] [Locked]
Sighing heavily, Michael laid on his back as he moved Kyrena onto his chest as he floated with such relaxing ease that he barely noticed the physical changes to his own body.
What felt like a super muscle relaxing fatigue refreshing breathable soak made him flex all his muscles as it felt more comfortable to be able to move properly.
His shoulders and chest had broadened, his back became more intricate, his legs became buffer and longer as his feet became a third human and 3/4th claws. His arms were slightly buffed as his hands had claw features, with a golden hue from fingers to elbow, but no sharpness like a human besides his fingernails. His growing tail became proportionate to his body as it thickened with intricate muscles and grew small spines, like a dragon, from the tip of his tail to up his spine to the base of his head.
His head kept his dark hair and some human facial features as his forehead slightly broadened, his nasal area thickened and protruded slightly as his jaw line matched his snout. His teeth became harder and sharper that were inlaid within each other perfectly to where you wouldn't know the difference unless he opened his mouth to talk or eat.
His red eyes now slightly enlarged to fit his new skeletal structure as his pupils became slits and his new eyes took on a shiny reflective silver-red glow and as he had blinked, his eyelids were now of a thin dark silver-blue reflective layer.
His entire body shimmered as his new skin-like scales shifted as he flexed allowing the water to wash between them. As the scales moved as he flexed they changed colors from tan, silver, and red above dark blue underskin.
Feeling like he was finally how he was supposed to be he dozed off to sleep atop the water with Kyrena atop him halfway in water as they drifted in the hot springs.
Oran was busy with the sorting of materials it gathered from scrapping the now melted chamber to take note or record the physical changes that the Spartan 053 had undergone. Knowing they might sleep it off he had ignored the hot spring camera feed as he was helping the Bee's with the main task she had wanted them to do, gather or give a way out for as many as she could before the month was over. Watching the four play in the air as they practiced maneuvers, so as to not get bored on the long-short flight, made them look like fireflies rather than bees on the radar.
"Yo! Who… Wanna dispose of the dead body?" Hornet asked over coms as he glided in the air like it's nothing, "I call Not It!"
Fan shook her head as she had her gut feeling that this one was different and stayed quiet as she quietly scanned the mountain ranges for possible threats and what she was assigned to look for on the flybys.
"Bruh! What makes you think that someone with 'THAT… type' of body would burn?"
"Easily! Everybody burns! Even water can burn!"
"Y'all just want to see how bad her heat really is without getting burned ya self!"
"Yooo… That is correct… How can she handle that by herself man!"
"Bro, last time you tried to catch her when she fell in Heat… turned you Black! And THAT Was only 5 seconds of physical contact!"
Fan chimed in the chatter amongst her squad which made them all quiet down in thought, "If 5 seconds turns you black…. and such activity is averagely an hour all the way round…. What would you turn into if not a burnt corpse?"
The three boys pondered as Fan found a few multitudes of unknowns trailing them from the ground under the canopy of the forest, but popping above the canopy as if adjusting their path accordingly. Each time the sensors would pick up a different form that would pop up twice each and then switch to a different form.
Judging by the outlines on the infrared radars it was 5 different beings following in a group.
Fan radioed nonchalauntly, "I call Belly! Y'all can play up top as you ponder if the new Bee is gonna be burnt or not!"
"Copy!"
"Roger that!"
"Haha! You're on the botto~m!"
"Du~de!"
"What? She is!"
"But Still! She's Your Sister!"
"But…. it's not like we all are going to be getting separate partners any time soon…."
"Bruh! Sibling Code!"
"Fine!! …was just joking…"
"Nuhuh ya wasn't!"
"Screw you, I'm in baby heat OK!" Hornet sped up and gained altitude as he plundered if he truly felt like banging his own sister. Brushing the fleeting feeling away it finally dawned on him as he questioned why the lookout and distraction would call out a position that she normally wasn't in, "Fuckit!"
Hornet did a barrel roll backflip as he punched it back to the Black Bird, streaming past his brothers who became confused at the urgency before drifting their birds in unison as they followed suit now on the lookout for anything dangerous from above or any high ground.
"FAN!! RESPOND!"
"I'm not detecting anything unusual… What's gotten into you, Hornet?"
"He probably realized his feelings for Fan?"
"Nah… wouldn't make him go that speed if it was so."
"Just curious… When did we get so far away from Blackie?"
"And how come we're not there yet?"
"Shit!"
"Punch It!"
"Hornet! Respond!"
"Eyes On Hornet! Treeline Skimming"
"Do You Have Eyes On Fan Or Blackie?"
"No! But... That's the school up ahead of us... D...did we pass them?"
"How the hell do you bypass a, Large. Solid. Black. Pelican. Class. Space. Armored. Ship. With. A. Beacon. Tracker. On. All Lines?!"
As the three turned around in unison they began to hail Fan's bird on all bands hoping for a ping as they searched for any distortions of any and all kinds as they slowly made their way back to where they were.
Some time ago as Fan was making a log of the small events that might be what was hoped to not be with skeptical eyes.
"Oran? I know you said not to hail you… but I think I found what she hoped wasn't present on the planet… What's the protocol for it?"
Fan waited as she tried to scan the beings as they popped up for the records. After a bit as the boys had gotten pretty far ahead she noticed that Blackie was steadily gaining altitude as its haul began to shimmer.
Raising equal to Blackie Fan documented the event live in her Log as Oran wasn't responding,
"Oran? Hey Artificial Bucket!" She hallord over the radio at Oran who was autopiloting the bird, "O~ra~n! Oi! Oi! Oi! Ding batter rust bucket?"
Confused as she tried to access the Docking Bay Function with no avail as it read there was an error in communications.
Hoping this wasn't one of the 7 failsafes that was mentioned. She began to look for signs to tell which one this was so she could act accordingly.
The black bird began to shrink rapidly in one spot as Fan quickly realized what was happening, she sped forward and punched a spot on the window close by her as she cussed her heart out.
A ding sounded as she shouted a command, [Return]
The fligher dissipated and wrapped around her wrist as she kept her momentum taking a gliding dive position she dove beneath the still shrinking ship as it turned into the size of a baseball and dropped.
"I'll Keep You Safe Boss!" She cried as she increased her shielding via her hat's rim as gloves materialized on her hands as the maxed shields flashed fully charged.
Turning onto her back she angled herself as she caught the ball and her shields flared red as she hit the canopy of the trees at an odd angle on the way down.
Spending a lot of unused points to her shields she saw a flash back of a lesson on points….
Mis Woods said in civilian clothes as they walked down a hallway towards Blackie from a meeting with the higher ups,
"Now! Never use all your points! They come in handy in tough situations!"
Her younger voice echoed, "But if we use all the points then we won't be in a tough spot though?"
"Yes, you can get past many obstacles by using the points up… But the unknown may out play your distribution of points! So always keep a Savings of points to use in emergencies!"
"Copy that!"
Pain radiated her body as her hat started to slide off her head as she was upside down against something abnormal that had braced itself as it slowed her fall.
Seeing a nice deep skid mark between the trees as large hands wrapped around her and slowly turned her right side up. She wanted to flinch at the sudden touch, but as blood flow was restored her vision blurred as a large shadowy mutated figure came into view. Clutching the ball to her chest as she locked her armored glove she faintly whispered, "C…op…y?"
Not expecting a reply but as her consciousness faded she heard a gutral deep voice as she was cradled in its arm and engines pasted by over head,
"Copy! That!"