One of the bugs was red and yellow, had a tiny little stinger on its tail, like a scorpion, that stretched over its back, and six, super long, claw-tipped legs. Of all the bugs she was holding, this one terrified him beyond anything else.

“Why are you so scared?” asked the prince, moving forward to look at the selection. “These are all merely bugs. Sure, they can kill some, but your scales should be sufficient to protect you.”

“I don’t know, but that red and yellow one, scares the shit out of me!” he said, shaking his head. He couldn’t bring himself to get any closer. In fact, he was pretty sure that if he had more space, he’d move even further away from it.

“Well, you were going to teach her how to kill, you could start with that one?” suggested the prince, shrugging and sitting down, out of the way.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, kill that thing!” he said, pointing at it.

She tilted her head to the side, as if she wasn’t sure what he wanted.

“Damn it! Just squish them!” He clapped his hands together, as if squishing them all.

So, she clapped her hands together, only squishing some of them, and sending the rest flying throughout the room. Most of them landed on the ground, and scattered to the edges of the room, against the walls.

And do you know where that damn yellow and red bug landed? Yep, right at his feet.

He couldn’t swear where the girly screaming was coming from, but it certainly amused the prince, who calmly reached over and crushed a few around him. Dustin thought he was going to lose his mind, scrambling halfway up the walls.

His heart was trying to make its way out of his rib cage as that bug sat there calmly waving its antennae. Then it almost turned its head towards him, and just like in one of those damn horror movies, that he hated by the way, it scrambled towards him.

The bug tried to sting him, and he just barely moved his foot out of the way in time. The prince was on the ground, laughing, and the stick girl looked at him in confusion, shaking her sticky hands, that were covered in bug guts.

“PED you better coat my feet in some thick crystals right now!” he all but screamed.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

As soon as his feet were as encased in crystal as the prince’s used to be, he dashed forward and stomped that bug.

It became paste beneath his foot, and he slowly raised it up, seeing a bright, glow-in-the-dark blue streak.

Breathing hard, he allowed a full body shiver to travel throughout him, before slowly reaching down and pinching a piece of it. Placing it tentatively into the port, he quickly wiped his fingers on a root that was sticking out of the wall.

(GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: TISSUE DISSOLVING VENOM, NEUROTOXIC PAIN INDUCING SALIVA, TARGETING PHEROMONES)

A little giggle escaped his lips as he worried about his sanity for a moment. How the hell does anything come up with these things?!

“Give it all to me,” he said, scraping his foot off.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

Shaking his head, he turned back to the twig girl. “Do that,” he said, pointing to the glowing smear on the ground.

After she was done, chasing and stepping on all of the bugs she had brought down, Dustin changed his mind about staying down here. He had sampled all of the bug material, but none of it gave him better traits.

“I must have been stung by that thing,” he said after she was all done, still staring at the spot it had died.

“Really? Do you remember?”

“No, but the traits I got from it are terrifying enough, I’m sure there must be some residual trauma for me to react like that.”

“I suppose, we haven’t bothered to study anything like that, at least we hadn’t before I got stuck here. It’s always possible they might have discovered that, but honestly, I don’t see them caring.”

Turning to her, he said, “There are some creatures that hang in trees, camouflaged, so that you don’t see them until they start sucking your blood. Do you know what I mean?”

She nodded after a moment of thinking.

“Get one and hit it hard enough that it doesn’t try to bite you, and bring it here. It’s time for you to kill something larger.”

After it left, the prince shook his head.

“Getting the cloaking ability from that creature will only work momentarily. The drones will still be able to pick up your heat signature, and the electrical signature of your PED.”

“One step at a time. I can’t solve all the problems at once.”

Dustin was frustrated. How the hell did he hide his heat signature? He was trying to think about if he covered his PED with a large plate, whether that would do it, but he wasn’t sure.

“PED, grow a crystal plate over the PED.”

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

It looked weird as hell, but seemed like it would work. How could he check to see if they could see it or not? He thought really hard, then froze.

What was he doing? Dustin felt like such an idiot! Here he was, trying to hide himself from the sensors and drones, when he could be hiding in plain sight. He had upgraded the PED to allow him to mimic any creature he wanted, fully. Just because he couldn’t mimic a Josagn, didn’t mean he couldn’t mimic anything else!

He needed to find a creature, that was about the same size as himself, because he was rather partial to his current size, and that wasn’t on a kill-on-sight list, then he could waltz right up to the shuttle station. He wasn’t sure about once he got inside, but he would worry about that then, unless…

“Hey, Prince! What kind of defenses do your people have inside the shuttle station?”

“The weapons they carry on themselves, normally? There would be the normal laser guns, maybe a few projectile weapons, but your biggest problem will be the sonic attack that they are capable of shooting at any shuttles that leave.”

“And what does that sonic attack come from?”

“A mounted sonic emitter, that swivels on a 360-degree base.”

“What would be the point of having such a powerful weapon, when it is only good against crystal creatures?” he wondered, out loud.

“Oh, it’s not used to hurt anything, though it would hurt crystal things, it’s primary use is to capture things alive. On a non-crystal creature, it would merely stun them. That way if a prisoner managed to get as far as the shuttle station, they could catch it, wipe its memory, and try again. The viewers love it when they get that close to escape.”

“Sadistic bunch, aren’t you?”