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Breakout Written by Leo_Todrius Commissioned by mangoCurl Clouds slowly lumbered from horizon to horizon, each one replaced by another just behind it. It was a small respite in a long sequence of hot days, and Scott was relieved. He came from a cooler climate and after an extremely warm spring and summer, the fall was proving to be just as hot... but with the clouds, it was finally cool enough to throw the blinds open, crack the windows and get to work.

The sophomore was slim, dark haired and a bit introverted. His side of the room was neat and orderly, almost a bit too spartan. His bedspread and pillow cases matched, his closet was organized by color, and there was almost a criminally under-represented amount of decor on his side of the room, with the exception of a fiber-optic lamp and a poster of the Tardis from Doctor Who materializing on a large rocky outcrop looking over a tree lined valley, looking almost like a crystal.

Scott moved around, gathering up what few bits of food wrappers and scrap paper he'd left lying around to tidy his own side of the room, but in moments he was finished. The sophomore slowly turned, looking at the other side of the room. It was the difference between day and night. Blankets, clothes, magazines and textbooks formed the strata of a landslide that oozed almost perfectly to the half-way point in the dorm room. There were countless hygiene products lining the counter in front of the mirror, and so many posters of musical groups and anime that they were overlapping one another.

Scott was simultaneously unsettled by the mess and envious of the content. The truth was, he felt rather lucky to have Mike as a roommate. His first one had left school after the first year, and he'd been placed randomly with someone else... but Mike was charismatic, energetic, creative and interesting. He'd dragged Scott to an 80's party, they wound up eating together frequently, and despite having different classes, they studied together out on the grassy hill under the big oak tree.

Just thinking about it made Scott take a step back, drop down onto his bed, and lay down flat. He sighed softly, wistfully, longingly... At first it was longing for that moment, but it soon grew into something more. Scott stared at the boring white ceiling, wondering just what his roommate was up to at that moment on that cloudy day.

**** Silver light came in through the milky windows at steep angles, catching in the glass shelves, illuminating the countless samples gathered there. Each sample was a different stone, a different element, a different fragment of the planet as a whole. Some looked like metals in shades of silver, gold, turquoise and ruby. Others were crystals forged out of violets, ambers and blue tones. Some looked like common river rocks, and others as if shadow had been petrified into solid form.

Keener University prided itself on having one of the country's best geology courses in the country. The major was prestigious and offered a well supported career trajectory, but even as a simple elective it gave its students an appreciation for the world around them. Mike wasn't even sure why he'd signed up for the class in the first place, but he was glad he did. He found himself oddly attentive to the classes, eager for the field trips, and generally enthusiastic about it all.

Mike was an athletic kid, lean and fit. He had a bit of a swimmer's build despite focusing almost all of his activities on land. His formerly brown hair had long since been dyed a vibrant, intense purple that made him easy to spot anywhere on campus. He leaned into the color choice with a darker purple sweatshirt and even a purple notebook.

The class had ended, the open lab had ended, but still Mike remained. His pencil drifted across his notebook, but he was not writing notes. He was sketching a figure, a person, a tall skinny boy with dark hair. He'd gotten pretty good at sketching Scott... He started absent mindedly one day under the oak tree, then another time when Scott fell asleep on top of his covers reading his homework. Mike's cheeks grew a bit pink as he thought about it, but it was hard to deny.

Mike had grown up as a bundle of energy bouncing off of other people, usually getting into trouble and drama. Being gay, he avoided the pitfalls of knocking a classmate up, but he had certainly put in the appropriate amount of work. It had been drama that had driven off his first roommate, and at the last minute he'd been placed with someone random, someone unknown. Mike had been terrified at the possibilities, but his terror was misplaced.

At first, Mike felt bad for Scott. He seemed like milk and toast, bland as can be, but that clean shell held someone curious, kind, compassionate, and a wonderful listener... Scott listened to him for hours talking about past boyfriends, about troubles in class, adding little helpful quips about going to the prom drunk on a ninety five degree night might have worked better if he had hydrated more. He was sweet, and somehow, Mike felt like that was what he had been missing in his life... But he didn't even know what Scott's preferences were. Not once had it come up.

Mike's pencil came to a stop. He looked down at his sketch and sighed slowly, closing his notebook, chuckling sadly. Here he was, hung up over a boy that was probably straight and his favorite music was the soundtrack to Detective Pikachu... Mike sighed and gathered his things, stuffing them into his backpack. He stood up as he lifted his backpack, but his foot caught the strap and pinned it to the floor. The sudden stop of inertia forced Mike into an odd angle and he tripped over his desk, coming down against the glass display case.

The sound of the breaking glass was like a thousand chimes sounding in concert. The pieces rained down across Mike, accompanied by the hot flashes of several cuts across his cheeks, forehead, and hands. His cheeks burned with embarrassment before he looked up, realizing that emotion was far from sufficient. He'd taken out one of the geology lab's main display cases. Rocks of all different sorts were strewn across the floor. Some had cracked, others chipped, one had nearly pulverized into dust... but Mike soon realized which case it was, and his eyes slowly craned up.

Sitting at the top of the case was one of the crown jewels of the geology lab's collection; a fragment of a meteorite that had crashed less than a mile from the university. The stone was metallic, pitted, and glossy in a dark goldish-green hue. Mike held his breath, realizing the meteorite was teetering on the edge of the glass, wobbling on its own center of gravity. He slowly reached up for it, to try and brace it, but as if the attention on the rock was enough to influence it, it slipped over the edge, bounced off of Mike's hand, and fell to the ground.

Mike's brown eyes watched in horror as it hit the floor and snapped... but to his shock, something inside the meteorite began to... leak? It oozed out, dribbling at first. The liquid was slick and thick, dark jet black until it hit the light and then there was a purple undertone like ballpoint pen ink. It poured out of its confines, making a puddle, but the puddle was too big for the stone it had come out of. Whatever this liquid was, it was... growing.

The fear and panic in Mike's heart subsided enough to allow his brain to think. He had to get help, to let someone know what he did. If he was lucky, they wouldn't kick him out of school. It was their fault, right? Keeping such precious things around stupid college kids. Mike got up slowly, wincing, feeling the glass in his hands and a spot on his leg. Mike moved for the door, limping a bit, having to move around the debris.

The liquid shifted, sloshing from one side of the puddle to the other before a tendril snapped out, shooting over to part of the linoleum. Where it stuck, it unfurled another tendril almost like a clock arm from the point of contact. With two points of contact, it began pulling itself before more tendrils shot out. Like a fractal spider, it began following after the creature that had released it, sliding over the glass and a few drops of blood.

A ripple passed through the ooze as it came in contact with the blood, giving it an idea of what it was following. Carbon based, mammal, biped, male... Young, strong, virile. Hormones, pheromones... Yes, it could deal with those. The ooze began to pump out its own, moving faster. The human made it out of the lab and into the hall. A tendril shot out, catching the door before it shut. It slunk up the door frame, touching the knob, feeling the body heat. It crept up higher, clinging to the ceiling.

It had been so long since it had been free, so very long... After being imprisoned, the hallway outside the lab seemed so big, so empty. It could smell the residue of humans... Hundreds, thousands over the years, but none of them were as fresh, as real, or as present as the human... It followed after, picking up speed, clinging to the ceiling. It saw the human and his brightly colored hair. Veins of purple began to bleed into the black ooze's form.

Mike looked one way and then the other, his eyes eventually going to the card reader. The light was red... No student could get in, only out. The professors had already gone home for the weekend. Mike's shoulders slumped. He'd have to tell Campus Security, otherwise they'd find the decimation and investigate and he'd be destroyed. He had to take ownership... but... maybe he could clean up a little first, make it look better?

As the sophomore moved back toward the lab, his panic and fear began to ease. Maybe it'd be okay... A slap on the wrist... and they could tell stories about him, the unique kid that took out a whole display. Maybe not manly, but memorable... Or maybe he'd clean it up and sneak out, a rebel, a wanted man, a bad boy... A strange, drunken grin crossed Mike's lips as he made it back to the doorway, slowing to a stop.

Why did he feel so... good? So... aroused? He had a bit of an erection going on. Was that normal for the end of one's academic career? Mike felt something hot, wet and sticky land on his right hand. Suddenly it made sense. Maybe he was bleeding. Feeling good and aroused could be the sign of blood loss, but when he lifted his hand, the sticky wet substance was... black? As he looked at it, another glob landed on it, tiny tendrils spreading out, latching onto the back of his hand.

Mike looked up, eyes widening in shock as he saw a huge writhing mass of black slime on the ceiling, anchored between the crown molding and a light fixture. Two thick tentacles shot down, hitting Mike in the shoulder, sliding under his backpack straps and snapping them, the pack falling to the floor. The goo wrapped around his shoulder, spreading under the armpit before tendrils started to fan out over his back, knitting together before spreading down his arms.

The young man screamed out in shock, his voice echoing into the empty building. He tried to lunge forward, to pull back, to drop down, but the ooze held him in place by his shoulders. It coiled down his arms, wrapping across his clothing and flesh, knitting together, tightening, smoothing out. As more of the mass shifted from the ceiling downward, more globs began to fall, landing on the carpet, congealing and amassing beneath Mike.

Mike could feel his shoulders and arms aching, throbbing, being squeezed... His ribs too, his throat... He could feel wet, sticky strings inching up through his hair, following the curve of his skull. His feet felt tight, his ankles. How was it below him? The tension and pressure was shifting, the center of mass changing. There was a chance, a small chance, if he could just push at the right time...

Mike pulled back ever so slowly before he threw himself forward. The tendrils around his arms didn't let go from his body, but they let go from the ceiling, snapping down to the floor, pulling Mike onto all fours. He landed in the puddle beneath him, feeling the goo spread down over his back and stomach, the slime creeping up his thighs. It spread over the back of his pants, then the front. Tendrils crawled across his jaw and up his chin, coming together over his face. It softened out into a slime coating that spread over his cheeks, his nose, his forehead before it slowly sealed over his eyes and mouth.

There was a moment of claustrophobia, of panic, of fear. He could see nothing, feel nothing of the outside world, there was panic. His heart only beat faster when he felt the slime starting to prickle and press against his bare skin. Had it eaten through his clothing? Was it going to dissolve him? It pressed tighter against his skin, little bumps forming over his nipples, a crease forming between his butt cheeks, webs forming between his toes. His fingers spread out, the digits tipped in sharp points that resembled claws.

Mike tried to move, to flex, to break free, but in a searing flash of light that filled his brain, his fear of being trapped connected to the reality of the creature being trapped in the meteorite... Years of spinning, boiling hot heat of hitting atmosphere, the stunned shock of hitting the ground, and then years... and years... and years... of hearing humans, muffled, so close and yet so far, and then the bliss of release, the bliss of tasting the human's blood, of finding a compatible host, of... of being together, of being one, of being free and strong and young and old and big and small and...

Mike's slimy lips parted, revealing a mouth full of goo. The slime coated his teeth, softening the bone before reshaping them, honing them into sharp fangs. It wrapped around his tongue, coating it, growing it, lengthening it as it took on a deep purple color. The face twitched and warped before membranes formed to process light, the purple and black slime lightening in the face until two haphazard eye spots formed.

The last of the goo retracted into the coating over Mike's body. A clawed hand pushed against the carpet, pushing him up onto one hand and knees. Then he stood, putting one foot forward, rising upwards to new heights... Seven feet tall, broad rippling shoulders, thick biceps and triceps, large feet... He was huge, he was perfect - almost. A wet, slick, tearing sound came as part of the creature's front section peeled off from the rest, a thick veined purple-black cock wobbling down in front of him.

Mike felt a bit of embarrassment, but that emotion was soon overwhelmed by pride... and then a bit of desire. More slime oozed down around the member, helping it to fatten up and grow wider, then longer, stretching out inch my inch until the plump head glistened in the light, the veins throbbing with each of Mike's heart beats. A clawed hand wrapped around it and gave it a few strokes... and Mike nearly moaned, his huge tongue lolling out of his mouth. It felt better than it ever had. Every minute touch, every slight brush was a thousand times more sensitive. He growled happily, thinking of all the good things he could do with his tool, all the people he could impale and fill and convert... just like Scott.

A ripple shuddered through the slime coating Mike as they thought about their roommate. Mike's desires had been poured into the creature's, his desire to be with his crush mixed with the need to dominate, corrupt and spread. Mike's life, the creature's life were all becoming one, and one word echoed in his mind - symbiote. Mike licked his fangs as he looked back at the classroom. Let them find the mess. There was nothing the humans could do to hurt him now. He was their master, a renegade, a superior being... and they knew exactly who to add to their kind next.

The symbiote shifted a little, sifting through the material that it had consumed from around its host. The clothing had been broken down to its constituent elements, but some of the technology the human had proved interesting. The symbiote began to seep into Mike's cell phone, oozing over the circuitry, mimicking it and building upon it until the cell phone dissolved into the slime.

Almost at once, the symbiote became aware of the webs of frequencies coming from every direction, overlapping and passing through one another in an endless song the humans could not hear. It was beautiful, alive, sophisticated and complex. The symbiote slowly crouched down, listening to the song. There were voices in it, words, numbers... slowly it started to see pictures, videos, to feel people both nearby and far away. The creature growled slightly, wishing it had gained this ability before its years of imprisonment, but at least it could touch the world now.

The symbiote began to break apart Mike's wallet next, absorbing the chip from his debit and credit cards, learning their encryption. With a quick test, it seemed those numbers carried some weight on the cell phone networks too. The leather from the wallet was particularly fascinating, a robust material that carried with it a strange allure in the human's mind.

With nothing left to digest, the creature decided to test its new abilities. Relaxing its hold for even a moment, all Mike seemed to think about was Scott... That nerdy, vanilla, handsome, innocent young man. Just thinking about him brought up the contact info the symbiote had absorbed from Mike's phone. Once more a predatory grin crossed the creature's fang filled mouth.

With careful thoughts, they composed a message for Scott. A plea to come find him in a private place, to tell him something he needed to know. Mike took more control over the message, adding personal touches, making it sound sincere, but the symbiote was working on another part of the message. If every part of his body could shift from material to material, to contort and change, finding the right frequency for its core makeup wasn't much harder. A small portion of the symbiote was converted into energy and sent with the message, broadcasted into the vast sea of harmonic frequencies.

The message was sent without flexing a muscle. The deed was done. The symbiote pushed back up to its full height, grinning his fang filled grin as he strode down the hall, pushing the front door open so hard it nearly broke off the hinges. He took a running start before he jumped, launching far off the ground, landing on the roof of the next building. His feet pounded as he kept his speed up before leaping his way to the next building, barely visible against the setting sun.

****

The door to the gym building squealed as Scott moved in, looking around a bit warily. The text he'd gotten from Mike was a bit concerning, and the destination seemed even more alarming. After finishing PE in high school, Scott had assumed he'd never have to deal with another gym again, but Mike had been insistent. Scott moved through the lobby before slowly pushing open the door to the locker room.

"Mike?" Scott called out, catching sight of his own reflection. He looked pale in the artificial lights, and skinny. He exhaled slowly and came around a bank of lockers, nearly jumping as he spotted Mike leaning against the lockers. "Dude, you scared the shit out of me..." Scott panted, looking over, eyes widening slightly.

Mike seemed cool and collected, leaning against the lockers. The light glistened off of black leather pants that left nothing to the imagination, while a heavy leather jacket with a lot of straps hung off his shoulders. Underneath he seemed to have on a form fitting rubber shirt, contoured to his pectorals. His purple hair seemed almost longer than before, black at the roots and a vibrant, full purple for the length of it all. Two black metal rings hung to his bottom lip, showing off how puffy and full they were.

"Didn't mean to scare you." Mike said, smiling slowly. The color in his eyes seemed almost tinted, purple and vibrant. "I'm so glad you came."

"You said it was important, that you needed me." Scott said. Mike nodded, standing up, reaching a hand out. As he touched Scott's shoulder, Scott felt something inside of him almost tingle from the contact.

"I do, I do need you. I can't believe it's taken us this long..." Mike murmured.

"This long to... what?" Scott asked. Mike smiled more.

"To admit how we felt... all this time. You loved how bold I was, how free, how adventurous. I loved how sweet you were, how kind and compassionate... We longed for each other, just a few feet away." Mike said.

"Mike, what's going on? What happened? Why do you-" Scott was interrupted as pierced lips pressed to his. He murmured, eyes wide at first before they slipped shut. Mike wrapped an arm around Scott's waist, holding him tight, tighter, so close. His leather pants began to ripple and shift, turning to rubber, connecting to his shirt, slipping down as his shoes melted into purple and black slime, connecting to it all. The straps sunk into the jacket, the jacket meshed with the shirt until Mike's body was coated in purple and black rubber from the neck down. Scott broke the kiss, panting, flushed, aroused. He reached out to put his hand on Mike's chest, but his face contorted in confusion as he looked down and then back up.

"It's okay, Scott, I just broke out of my shell..." Mike whispered, "I want to help you do the same. I know that you want to... It's why you were drawn to me." Mike said, placing his hand on Scott's chest, "To us."

"Mike..." Scott whispered, but Mike leaned to kiss him again. There was a flash in the contact, a tingle, and then Scott remembered something he had not before. He had been in his dorm room when he got the text, the text from Mike. He'd answered it and started to reply, but as he did, something wet and sticky had come out from the edges of the screen... and wrapped around his finger... Scott looked down at the hand he had on Mike's rubber clad hip, a black rubber ring around his finger...

When the ring had connected to him, he'd forgotten all about it, but thinking about Mike had gotten so much easier. He thought about the times he'd heard Mike jacking off, the time he'd come back from the shower without a towel, dying his hair, singing when he thought no one was around, sketching... god did Scott love the way Mike sketched... and he could almost, somehow, feel the longing Mike had for him. It was more than a desire, it was an absolute need.

Once more the kiss was broken and Mike moved to kiss and then slowly lick Scott's neck, moving from the collar of his shirt up the slope almost all the way to his ear before he purred. Scott shivered and murmured, his erection growing harder. Sensing it, Mike pushed in, bringing their groins together. A wet slick sound came as tendrils let go of Mike's cock and the black, huge shaft of meat slipped free of the rubbery coating. Veins emerged, the head engorged. Even the urethra was exaggerated by its shiny coating.

"Mike, I still don't know what this is..." Scott panted, looking at his roommate. Mike grinned wide.

"This is what I am now, what we are... This is so much more than the sum of our parts. We are a new being, an ancient being." Mike whispered, "All we want is for people to feel what we feel, to be free of their prisons, to break out and be who they really are. This world is a prison... We don't need to work to survive, we don't need laws or rules to be who we are. We just need to be, and I need to be with you."

"It sounds like anarchy..." Scott whispered. Mike grinned and kissed Scott's throat, then his chin before gazing into his eyes.

"It sounds like the future." he said before the black rubber slipped up around his head, covering his hair, knitting across his mouth and sweeping over his eyes before the symbiote head was complete. Mike's body began to stretch taller, wider, fuller. The legs thickened, the torso broadened, the neck widened. He surged up taller and bigger, his arms holding Scott close.

Scott was terrified and amazed at the same time, wondering if Mike was being changed inside the creature, or if the coating was just simulating a bigger body size... but soon he didn't have to wonder. The symbiote opened its fang filled mouth and came down for another kiss. This time the lips were strong, the teeth sharp, and the tongue huge. It plunged into Scott's mouth, filling it full, but it wanted more.

The tongue brushed the back of Scott's throat before sliding down, wriggling and writhing, sinking down his esophogus before it hit his stomach. The bile tried in vain to digest the intruder, but the slime merely secreted a new substance that began amplifying Scott's metabolism. Tiny tendrils slipped through other gaps, working their way into him, providing him with oxygen even though his mouth was completely full of tongue... and then slime.

Black goo poured in through the kiss, filling Scott's mouth full, coating his teeth and tongue before his cheeks went wide and finally he was forced to swallow. He gulped it down, feeling it flow around the tongue invading him, coating his throat and then pooling into his stomach. He took another gulp, then another, finding it easier and more pleasant each time. His throat bulged a little from the volume pouring into him, but soon Scott's eyes glazed over as his cock sprung to full mast.

With each gulp, Scott felt better and better. His allergies faded away, his lethargy disappeared, the ache in his shoulder was gone. His stomach growled, craving more and more as he drank in the substance, letting it fill him. Flashes of Mike filled his mind, of planning pranks, of playing music, of fantasizing... about Scott. Scott shuddered as the image of getting his hair dyed blue entered his mind... What amazing boyfriends they would have been, together, rebellious, living life's whims...

Scott continued to gulp at the slime pouring into him, but steadily, ever so slowly, the roots of his hair began to shift from dark brownish black to tan and then electric blue. The color crept up from the roots, sweeping out into his hair and even his eyebrows. In moments it was complete, though the symbiote was far from done. Even as it poured into the human, it was pooling around his feet. A large, wet puddle of liquid black marbled with purple veins had spread out before tiny tendrils began to snap and fling up Scott's feet.

Little by little they crawled up over his shoes, webbing over them, closing the gaps, oozing upward in sheets. He was anchored to the floor and impaled by a tongue, holding him in place as the symbiote did its work. It coated his teeth, his tongue, even creeping up inside his sinuses. Scott became aware of scents he never knew before; the musk of every man to use the locker room, the smell of those that relieved their more animal urges in there, the spice of Mike and the artificial, stark scent of the symbiote that was part of him, and now part of them both.

Scott struggled to relax his throat, though gagging hadn't been a problem so far. He kept taking in more and more of the goo, his chest rising with each breath, pushing out fuller and stronger. The symbiote was changing him from the inside out, but also the outside in. His shoes dissolved away, eaten and consumed for their resources until the black slime latched onto his feet, clinging to each toe, coating the heels as the purple veins shifted to a bright blue color.

Having claimed Scott's feet, the slime began to seep up across his ankles, stretching toward his knees, claiming his thighs. Having his lower extremities rooted to the floor, Scott found it easier to stand upright despite the intense pleasure and pressure building up inside of him. His lungs throbbed, his heart raced, and it felt like he was reaching capacity. The slime inside of him was swirling and shifting and churning until it had nowhere else to go.

Black goo spilled out of Scott's lips, clinging to them before it spread outward in all directions. Tendrils wrapped around his chin, snapped out across his cheeks, wrapped over his nose. With the anchors down, liquid soupy symbiote slime spread out faster, covering his cheeks, dribbling down the front of his throat. It swept up to his eyes before covering them, blocking out all light. It coiled around his ears, anchoring around the lobes before covering them and filling them.

Even without being able to see, Scott could feel the slime crossing over and through his hair, covering his scalp. It joined up with the slime over his ears, his cheeks, his neck, closing off over the back of his head until everything from the neck up and the knees down was coated. There was nothing but darkness, silence, and then the world blossomed around him once more. Eye spots formed in the surface of the symbiote's face and a new, more dangerous, animal mouth opened full of fangs and a wicked blue tongue.

Mike pulled his own purple tongue back, though the two wrapped around each other like angry snakes, connecting them together before they gnashed their fangs once more for a kiss. The slime surged up Mike's thighs, eating away his pants, absorbing his cell phone and wallet and keys, using the metal for other purposes. It covered the crotch of his pants and ate through the fabric, sinking down, anchoring to the skin before it vacuum sealed around his cock, coating it, squeezing it, fondling it. It felt like thousands of tiny hands were working it up and down, and with each beat of his heart, it filled out fuller.

Sticky sounds came as tendrils let go and his cock swung out free, bobbing in front of him just like Mike's. Mike could see Scott's heart beating with the way the cock bounced and wobbled; thump, thump, thump. Each beat pushed it out longer, longer, and longer. The veins bulged more, the meat fattened up, growing wider and wider still. His balls slipped free next, round and full and growing.

The symbiote slipped around his waist, dipped down between his ass cheeks, and then plunged into his sphincter. Scott shuddered, loving the feeling. He urged the symbiote on harder, deeper, faster. It obeyed, thickening the tendrils, stretching him wider, bumping into his prostate on the way in. This was what he wanted life to be. He felt it in his stomach, his lungs, his ass, and even his cock. It pushed in from every direction, and he welcomed it.

Sheets of black and blue slime covered his ass cheeks just before they swelled and rounded, becoming plump and full. The slime knitted around his waist before tiny tendrils shot up across his stomach and back. The symbiote hood he wore began to ooze again, creeping down across his shoulders. Thick globs poured down his spine, stretching out toward the roots creeping upward until they met together, locking in place before fanning out. Veins of black crisscrossed his back, followed his ribs, and snaked around toward his chest.

Straps of black rubber snapped across Scott's chest, coming together across his sternum. It looked almost like a leather harness for a moment before the goo began to ooze out, coating his skin, coming together bit by bit as the last of his human flesh disappeared. The puddle around Scott's feet was absorbed, soaked up into his new symbiote shell until there wasn't a drop left, and not an inch of skin showing.

The two beings stood there, muscled and glistening, starkly colored and alien in the human environment. Mike leaned in and kissed Scott one more time with passion, purpose, and power. Slowly a tall spike began to rise up from Scott's head, then another, then two more, until in total there were thirteen spikes forming a crest along his head. The symbiote shifted to a bright blue on the spikes, adorning the being with a bit of style.

In a moment of pure inspiration, Scott's symbiote achieved its own self-awareness. It held a lot in common with its creator, wanting freedom and agency, wanting to break down barriers, wanting to be bold and unique... but it also gained a lot from Scott. It was fiercely intelligent, cunning, curious and experimental. He growled happily, his blue tongue slurping out across Mike's face. With one last embrace, Mike turned and jumped up the staircase in a single bound. Scott followed suit before the two pushed out into the lobby, the sunlight pouring around their dark, glistening bodies. It was time to break more humans out of their shell, and welcome them to a new world.