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Elisburg — when viewed by my Mutalisk from high overhead — looks like something from a world war two movie. A thick, concrete wall surrounds it, with barbed wire coiled along the base. Armed soldiers — or maybe PRT troopers, I'm not sure who has jurisdiction here — patrol along the outside perimeter, along with a decent number of capes. Outside the ring of concrete is a mile of trenches, bunkers, and machine gun nests. All seeming actively manned by more troopers and capes.

The United States must be spending a fortune on containment, as can be expected of the nation with the highest military spending in the world. If that's even true in Earth Bet. I see no reason why it wouldn't.

Within the city… creatures and beings wander around doing… whatever Nilbogs creations are want to do. They stay away from the walls, and no shots are fired by the troopers on watch. The city is… pacified. Contained.

I examine the fortifications again. This is what Canberra will become if I allow myself to slow down, to become complacent. It's amazing really, thousands of units of manpower that spend months, years, simply containing a threat. Not dealing with it, not removing it, just… keeping it here. All for the possible future where Cauldron might need a cape like Nilbog.

My thoughts are interrupted by a flash from one of the large observation towers dotting the perimeter, and on instinct my Mutalisk strafs sideways, dodging out of a targeting laser, its optical camouflage not seeming to matter.

Shit! Attempting to approach Nilbog will have to be put off, the entire place locked down tight, even as my Mutalisk climbs for elevation into the clouds I can spot a trio of capes flying towards it. Shame, I would love to get access to Nilbogs creations Essence. Alas, even if I made it through the blockade, I'm not sure I could talk to Nilbog himself before he attempted to use my Mutalisks biomass for his own. Risking my Mutalisk and it's cargo at this time is… not worth it. Maybe when I have a hive set up localy, I can try sending a few suicide scouts…

Really, the two of us share a lot of similarities in powers, if I recall properly. Well except the part where he's still humanish and mobile, while I'm not. Also his creations are all individuals, whereas mine are not. So maybe only mechanically similar! Still… If I had a mouth I'd be drooling over just the though of what interesting Essences I could get from those individual masterpieces he has wrought. Can he create Essences from scratch? Does he just recombine what is already in the biomass used?

Ah, I'll have to go with my secondary target. It's the much safer bet. My Mutalisk turns towards the rising sun and puts on speed, leaving the capes attempting an intercept far behind in moments.

My expansion hive in Antarctica is finally developing. The entire research base is now overgrown, thick layers of creep — well fed on seal and penguin flesh — insulate the base and produce copious amounts of heat. According to the thermometer hung by the door, and left behind when the place was abandoned, the interior temperature is now in the low tens.

Still a bit on the cool side, but at least the larva and eggs can survive. The first hatchery is up, and the first few batches of Ratlings scurry around, excavating tunnels and chambers deeper under the antarctic rock, while a handful of Zerglings patrol the immediate vicinity for extra nutrients. The cold is rough on them, an hour or so in the freezing temperature exhausts each one, and they have to cycle back into the hive to rest.

The larva pre-encoded with the Essence for an Essence Gatherer is only a day from completing its Evolution, unfortunately putting it on roughly equal development with it's brother in the Amazon hive. I've got so many samples of Essence just waiting to be collected, hopefully granting me some form o frost protection! I'm almost tempted to have the Mutalisk fly the samples back to me personally, but it's still my best hunter. Zerglings — despite being designed for aquatic operations — have not fared well in the frigid Antarctic waters.

Ah, a moment of focus on my Zerglings, one of them has picked up a trail. Not animal — well animal as well — but no, this is surely a dog sled! Only a half-hours run inland from my hive, moving at an angle along the coastline!

With a thought, the Zerglings follows the tracks, they seem to weave and meander around a bit, as if the musher was not entirely certain of his destination.

A few minutes later, the dog team comes into sight. Eight dogs, pulling a sled and a human figure draped across the back. My Zerglings sense of smell is rather weak due to the cold and frost, but even so I catch the distinct smell of sickness and death.

The dogs catch wind of my Zergling when I draw closer, it's easy to tell as they put on a burst of speed. The person draped over the back doesn't respond in any way…

Despite the increased pace, the team can't keep it up and starts to lag again, not that they could outrace my Zergling while dragging a heavy sled. There's holes in the line too, four harnesses dangle empty and the dogs I see upon approach look half dead on their feet.

Still, they turn and growl threateningly, placing themselves between my Zergling and the sled with it's human occupant. No, occupants. One draped across the back, the other lying and bundled in furs within the sled.

Despite the team coming to a stop to growl and threaten, neither of them stirs.

My Zergling retreats a bit, and sits down in the snow, watching the dogs. The leader maintains his posture, though bowed by fatigue and starvation but not backing down, growling anytime I twitch. The rest curl up in the snow, taking any rest they can.

I watch them while the leader watches my Zergling. The humans don't stir. I'm pretty sure they're both dead, or as close as makes no difference…

What to do. Eight dogs and two human are a decent batch of nutrition, hard to pass up in this frigid wasteland. Killing a dog team though, ones so loyal to their masters… even if dead… I'd rather not?

I send my Mutalisk to follow back along the trail the sled took. Where did they come from?

The cocoon containing my experiment with Howitzer peels open, like a giant fleshy flower with petals of bright pink flesh. Along the inside of each petal is a thin layer of brain matter, spread out so thin it's nearly transparent.

Using Ratling eyes, I peer over the fruits of my experiment. At the center of the flower, a coil of hydrostatic tissue stiffens and rises, spreading the fragile lattice for closer examination, and the entire thing lights up with bioluminescence.

The only dark spot stands out, unmistakable. A spot about two centimeters across, the only part whose Essence I could not affect directly. The part whose Essence this whole experiment is for. The — hopefully — still active Corona Pollentia of a Cape.

Dead ones are inactive and seem to have no Essence, they might as well be a particularly dead rock as far as my Essence collecting ability is concerned. This one should be alive still, as its host is still alive, though no more sapient then the creep growths in the city above. Even less so in fact, as it lacks any senses baring the vaguest sense of touch, which would simply cause it to close up and protect its sensitive brain.

I reach out a tentacle towards that dark spot in the pale flickering light. A thought suppresses the organisms instinct to close up and protect itself. Lets see what…

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My tentacle goes numb just before smoke curls off of it, a moment later the tip in contact with the Corona Pollentia ignites!

Pain wracks through my main body and I scream through thousands of organisms simultaneously!

I regain consciousness — and that's an odd feeling since I didn't realize I had lost it — to a dull throbbing headache. That is to say, my entire everything hurts, seeing as I am a giant tentacled brain.

"A-x-!"

Something is hitting me, it takes me a moment to…

"Alexei!"

What… where's Face? Ah there, he's… lost most of his covering clothes and is just standing behind Emily while she's pounding her fists on my overmind body. "Emily?"

Emily looks over her shoulder at Face when I speak through him. "Finally!" Then her knees give out and she falls against me, where I quickly wrap a tentacle around her. I taste salt on her face.

"I'm here, I uh… seem to have made a mistake?" Flashes of memories flow through me, but they're weak, indistinct, hazy. A pack of very confused Zerglings following Emily, because they had no idea what else to do and she smelled of 'familiar, mate'.

"You! You scared me!" She hits my surface again with a fist, but there's no strength in it, and her thin shoulders start to shake in my grip.

"Sorry? What… what did I do? You aren't hurt are you?" There's a bit of orange goop stuck to her face, I wipe at it with a tentacle. Whatever it was, her powers have broken it down beyond recognition.

"Face and all the other minions started making these horrible noises and collapsing! It was like when you went into a tinker fugue but instead of just being sort of absent it was… You were on fire!"

What? On fire? I don't feel… it does smell a bit like barbeque in here, even Face can pick up on it. I look around, and spot a charred length of tentacle lying on the ground, partially carbonized, still smoking and smoldering in spots. It's messily severed a couple feet from my body, my side of the severed end leaking a bit of purple blood. A fire-axe lying in the pool of blood tells me all I need to know about what happened there. "Okay… okay, so stuff happened that I don't entirely recall…" I give Emily a tighter hug. "But I'm fine, you're fine. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

Emily returns my hug, gripping a tentacle to her chest. "I was just saying goodbye to Darren and Juul, when Face started screaming, and collapsed. And most of the Zerglings and Ratlings around did too, I think. Face was twitching all weird, and I tried to help, but I didn't know what to do."

I rub her head, but don't interrupt. Whenever she pauses to gather herself, I quickly check on my organisms.

"Then Darren came, saying he can help. I told him to stay away, but he didn't! And… Reflect was kinda twitching and flailing too, but the bubble stayed up and Darren walked into it!"

Ah my Mutalisk in North America landed in a barn in the middle of nowhere. A very excitable and small dog is barking it's head off at it from the ripped open door.

"It's not your fault Emily, if he didn't listen to you…"

"I know, b-but he wanted to help and… he's dead too n-now, my power…" Shetakes a deep breath and closes her eyes. " The m-moment he entered the bubble, he died."

My Mutalisk extricates itself from the haystack and spreads it's wings, examining its cargo. Present and unharmed… but the eggs have been activated, they'll start to hatch soon. The dogs still yapping it's head off, doing this awkward run back and forth well outside of my reach. The door on the nearby farm-house opens up and a bald-headed old man in pajamas comes storming out, shouting… oh my, he's got a temper on him.

"What about the other person you were talking with… Juul was it?" I think that's the name I heard when I was checking in on Emily.

"Mmhm. She is… was, Darrens sister. She screamed his name, then started crying! I was really scared she'd come running towards me too but… she just disappeared."

My Mutalisk takes off, leaving the old man to shake his fist at the sky angrily and yell at his dog for some reason. The last thing I see before I stop paying attention to the Mutalisk is the picture definition of 'kindly grandma' come out of the farmhouse to calm down her furious — presumably — husband.

"I ran back here. Um… the Ratlings were all really skittish, and the Zerglings just sort of… followed me? Face was just staring off into space…"

If she left Face there… oh, this is the other Face. The Face she was with… I check on him, he's returning back to the bunker already. Good.

Emily continues. "I saw other minions on the way all doing the same thing, and then all the ones here were too! And your tentacle was on fire!"

I caress Emily while I take stock of the over-all situation… Most of my organisms are still fine. I don't find any of them in some unfortunate situation, such as say… cleaning human blood off themselves in the middle of a ruined Enclave, so that's a good thing. Would have made the imminent meeting with the Enclaves rather awkward.

A few more hazy memories rise to the surface, recalling feelings of solitude, soul crushing loneliness, surrounded by others-that-are-pack-but-alone.

Others follow, but they aren't memories, Essences! They feel like the faded Essences I've always had access to, but these are clear and sharp… and every single one deals with producing and projecting explosive spheres of fire across range!

I might squeeze Emily a bit hard with my tentacles at that realization, going by her squeek. Finally! A projectile attack that more reliable at range then spitting hot acid! Though… between the burned chopped off tentacle, the loss of at least a couple hours of time, and the apparent complete disassociation of my swarm during the period… The acquisition process needs some work.

Doctor Aldridge paused his work when the creature he was working on twitched. "Keep cutting those tendons before they can regenerate! I do not want to deal with the paperwork if it manages to get one of those scythes into someone's gut!"

The operating table restraints were heavy duty, but the creatures had shown impressive strength, especially when they all seemed to have that shared episode. For a couple hours there, they had been… so much more responsive to stimuli, especially when having muscle samples harvested. Afraid almost, rather then the usual... stillness.

Checking that the assistant was doing her job, he returned to the task of carving the creatures skull open.

I need to deal with the captured organisms sooner rather then later. Unfortunately, I can't really tell where they are. My ability to focus on a particular one does not come with GPS, or even a rough idea of relative direction. Hmm… I suppose there's a chance they aren't even in the same world anymore. Can my connection to my swarm pass through to other worlds?

Well… first things first, I have a Enlcave meeting to attend tonight.

"Emily," I squeeze the girl whose refused to leave my chamber for the past few hours. "Abzu is about to finish evolving. Want to see it happen?"