Tumbling Down

Balance

Among the issues surrounding becoming a gigantic individual the most important ones are sometimes the hardest to notice; at least from their own viewpoint. In contrast, some of these are obvious for the ordinarily sized, such as the problem of stepping on whole crowds without even wiping our feet first. Others can include learning how to tailor new clothes, assuming you want clothes, and herding techniques when your food starts misbehaving. However the most important issue to keep in mind if, via some serendipitous event, ever become a so called "macro" is that of balance. Something that Solarian, our story's protagonist, is about to discover all for himself.

Great fat tentacles lurch forward from the constantly shifting mass that is the Uriah Monster. Additional sub-tentacles and insipid tendrils break away from the tips of these limbs and being to reach out for Solarian. He yells out in a panic, wings flapping furiously creating a great gale and small vortices in the air which push him backwards. There is something propping up his tail, which is in turn keeping the rest of his body stood up, but then that thing, an office building as it so happens, gives way and the dark green dragon falls over. Solarian thrashes out with his arms, only to knock a further two buildings down before landing with a mighty crash, kicking up entire roads and leaving ripped tarmac and rubble in a circular impact from the epicentre of his impact.

There is a strange booming sound can be heard which wavers intermittently. It takes a moment before Solarian realises that it is the sound of Uriah laughing, which in itself is a disturbing realisation as the sound is not even remotely animal sounding in nature. He picks himself up as quickly as possible, reeling around to shout orders at his troupe of bewildered macros. Many of them start to panic as more tentacles spread out, some wrapping around entire individuals as they struggle and scream. More destruction occurs as the city is knocked around like an elaborate lego set. A couple of canids, Solarian does not know their names, are dragged into some kind of orifice at the centre of the Uriah mass.

"It's his dick!" The lion part of Janus, Solarian's two-headed chimera lieutenant, realises with terror rising in his voice. In the middle of the mass, Uriah's lust and gluttony has manifested itself as some sort of sexual organ unburdened by the rest of a body; although describing it as a penis does not do an accurate job on the specific minutiae. Sufficient to say the front orifice writhes with Lovecraftian tentacles that envelope and consume the two macros.

"JOIN ME!" A less intelligent voice than the one from earlier reverberates from the top of the Uriah monster. After the terrible sound a face appears, crazed and barely recognisable. Whatever Uriah has done to himself, the effects are outwardly out of control.

"Retreat!" Solarian bellows and rises up to hover above the city. He is trying to direct his troops away from Uriah using his vantage point, but unfortunately the threat is starting to spread from more than one direction.

Black, amorphous objects are being shed by Uriah. They fall to the city streets with weight and roll some distance like tumbleweed before unfurling. From his vantage point Solarian can see the strange fragments start to consume people from the panicking crowds. One which looks particularly aggressive sprouts its own tentacles and smashes the windows and door of a building before dragging its occupants out, kicking and screaming all the way. After a delay some of these things start to take on shapes, torsos and limbs appear incorporating the features of people they consumed. Uriah is more than just a monster, he has become a bio-weapon incarnate, a plague that will run rampant. This city is already doomed.

"Help!" One of the troops is in trouble, a ferret named Julian who is being chased by one of Uriah's many lovecraftian appendages.

A sonic boom sounds as Solarian snaps his wings and dive bombs, trying to reach the ferret first. One of the tentacles whips at one of Juliet's oversized paws and he stumbles over a pile up of cars, not unlike slipping up over a mess of toys cluttered across the carpet. He falls headfirst into a warehouse store, all manner of sharp objects pricking the skin underneath his fur. The building comes crashing down swiftly followed by Julian who tries to use his outstretched arms to break it; his palm only end up digging up the asphalt of the road on the other side before his nose comes to rest against a seedy bar. The tentacles are quick to close in, their black serpentine shapes weaving around the traffic wreckage ignoring the screaming city dwellers.

"COME WITH ME!" Solarian shouts down at the bewildered ferret as he lands with impact and hoists the other macro up. A quick dust off and then he wraps his arms around the Julian before beating his wings and rising up into the air once more.

"STAY!" This time the voice sounds as though it is coming from the tentacles as Solarian just manages to become airborne with the now crying ferret. Said tentacles are snapping with actual mouths at their ends now making them even more malevolent in appearance.

***

Regrouping

Commander Daniel Broadhurst can scarcely believe the things he is witnessing on the surveillance footage. Over a thousand cameras down upon the ground and a hundred more from over the clouds have taken countless stills and hours of footage of the monster now. Little did the public know, but Uriah's company had been involved with government contracts concerning Ly and its potential use in creating the long sought after perfect warrior. However from current reports, and the obvious monstrosity rampaging through Capitol City now, Uriah has clearly been abusing his position in researching previously unknown consequences of Ly exposure. If the military had known they could have ended this before it had started, or even appropriated the advancements for themselves.

"What do we do now sir?" It is the incessant voice of the lieutenant again, his paws shifting nervously as he stands just behind Broadhurst. The canine commander slowly turns around and gives the young man a look; it is one of those looks where you make them feel like they are being scrutinised for the next thing they do or say.

"We plan our response lieutenant and we make sure it succeeds." A counterstrike against that creature down there is the only choice Broadhurst sees available to him now. But he knows what the subordinate will say next, the inevitable second guessing.

"What about our standing orders from the Chancellor? We can't risk revealing ourselves to the enemy, not even for this, can we?" The lieutenant is sweating, the look always gets them.

"If the Chancellor isn't already dead then he soon will be. Our ground forces have already mobilised but clearly their effectiveness is limited against these creatures. Quite frankly lieutenant I don't think this facility is as important a secret as our experiments with Ly are." Laying down the logic is one thing, but if they are exposed this could all end in war anyway; Broadhurst will just have to take that risk.

"Yes, sir." The subordinate replies and his paws begin to dance across the console.

"Deploy the Malediction and tell them to wipe out all of the anomalies. Oh and put on some appropriate music, something by Galen maybe." The Commander reclines in his centre seat on the orbiting command platform's control centre. It is time to bring a little order back to the state but this is by no means going to be bloodless.

***

Only half of them have made it back from the city. Solarian is livid, his red eyes seem to be more expressive than usual as he paces with booming footsteps in the excavated cave. Apart from himself and Janus, the ferret he rescued called Julian of all non-terrifying names, and three others; the rest are either dead or worse. He needs to strike back, every fibre of his towering being burns with a fury that he can not express without breaking something valuable here. He stops and stares at where Fredrickson is trying to look even smaller and more inconsequential than before on one of the metal gantries that is part of his piecemeal laboratory here.

"What is he?" Solarian booms whilst leaning down to peer at the canine, his massive teeth making his open mouth appear like a dark cave with jagged rocks everywhere.

"My ex-boss. I umm, err..." Fredrickson gulps, feeling just as terrified by Solarian's presence as when he originally saw the transformed ex-tigerwolf.

"I'm not going to eat you." Solarian speaks as softly as he can now, though his blood still boils with anger. "Just tell me what you know."

His familiarity with these super sized beings serves Fredrickson well and without reducing to a fountain of tears he explains everything he knows. The dog's research team was many under the employment of Uriah, both from his own company and other subsidiaries. Although communication between the teams was often censored, information controlled for clandestine reasons, its purpose was clear enough to the academia sort. Uriah was interested in all possibly biological uses of Ly, from miracle cures to extreme yet controlled mutation. But from out of the common direction of the research a clear thread was present. Power, raw in its scope and application. Uriah wanted the key to Ly, the basecode from which it could be used to create the closest thing as possible to a biological immortal. Something like a superhero without all the heroics or any possible weakness aside from being contained within a true vacuum with no energy or matter to sustain the subject's body.

"I don't get it. Is the big ugly mess out there supposed to be a perfect immortal then?" Solarian is less angry and more confused right now.

"No, at least I don't think so. If the final subject was always meant to be himself than he would have to undergo the final mutation and subsequent systematic selection of desirable traits. At a guess I would have to say that thing out there is just a dead end he came across."

"So he do we kill it?" The lion side of Janus, that which had been Oscar, speaks up. His falcon half, Graham, frowns at this but it was on both of their minds.

"I don't know." Fredrickson shrugs. "A big enough bomb maybe?"

"What if we go to the lab I wrecked. If there is a hinging about the Ly experiment you don't know about, a lead could be there." Solarian smiles as the dog is quick to nod his head in agreement; no doubt he is hoping to find an opportunity to escape.

***

Return To Uriah Drinks Inc.

Months have passed since Solarian made his violent exit from the two fade laboratory. In that time he has made a home, acquired a transformed army and then nearly back to square one with Uriah's rise to monstrous infamy. But in spite of his woes, the research facility is in a much worse state. Fourth of them have come to the abandoned building, Solarian with Fredrickson riding between his two horns, along with Janus and Julian. The rest remain at their mountain headquarters, just in case something inevitably poor timed happens to it.

"So this is where our gifts came from?" Janus-Graham squawks whilst tapping one section of the entrance-side's wall. This action inadvertently pokes a hole in it, so he stops with mild surprise on his face.

"Don't start demolishing it! I did enough damage last time..." Solarian growls. Now he proceeds to set the canine back down on the ground. Fredrickson is quick to disappear inside of the laboratory, leaving the giants on their own outside.

"So what is it like having two penises?" Janus hear someone ask and turns to see the ferret grinning behind him. "Do you both feel them, or is it one each?"

They could be here for some time it seems.

***

The hallways feel strange to Fredrickson. He has been down them a thousand times, but that was with people, noises and lights. Now his fur is standing on end as the creepiness factor rises the deeper he goes inside his old place of employment. As he goes around one corner the dog stops and gasps as the stench of rotting flesh rises up into his sensitive canine olfactory senses. There are bodies here, people he once knew, just left to rot as the entire facility had become quarantined after what had been officially called a biological contagion leak.

Holding one paw up over his black nose to block the stench, Fredrickson carefully makes his way around the couple of bodies. He is beginning to near the more sensitive areas of the facility now. These are the innermost laboratories where Ly extraction, manipulation and ultimately relatively primitive reprogramming was performed upon the samples. The door to the first lab is ajar, no power going into its automated locking mechanism. Fredrickson pushes it open and enters whilst hoping that none of the extant security turrets are operating.

Lab Delta-01 is in a state of disarray. This is more in part due to the hurried evacuation than anything Solarian did during his violent escape. More evidence of the physical damage Solarian had done to the facility though as only half the lights and work consoles are powered. Fredrickson does not need to the use torchlight he has taken with him yet; he did not expect the backup generators to still be ticking over after so long. The dog walks up to one of the glowing screens and pulls out the retractable soft-touch keyboard.

>>LOGIN?

Easy enough, he enters and ID he rarely, but nonetheless enjoyed the privilege of possessing: the chief researcher's. He had enjoyed a one time fling with the professor, as taxing as it was for him considering her vivacious personality. When it had ended she had made sure he was transferred out of her own prevue, instead working with the test subjects. But she had never changed her password, and that he had kept as his own ace in the hole. Curious how he finally has a dire need for using it after the whole project has been derailed.

>>J.ARKWRIGHT

>>PWD?

>>*********

>>WELCOME BACK, PROFESSOR

***

"Aah, not so fast sexy." Oscar-Janus growls as his claws run through the tussled fur of the ferret's head, buried between his thighs. Graham-Janus squawks but has nothing further to add as the curious natured mammal has one paw around each cock.

"I can't decide which one first!" Julian exclaims as he nuzzles against one throbbing organ and then follows up by licking at the other. Their musky juices have already coated his face and whiskers, the scent being carried all the way to where Solarian is watching from some distance away.

It had not taken long since that initial comment for the two to pair off. In fact the way that the ferret is now trying to wrap his greedy lips around both of the chimera's thick, throbbing members is even from a purely voyeuristic standpoint intensely affecting. However the draconic mutant knows that it is best for at least one of them to have their mind on keeping ready for any nasty surprises. So the leader of the giants is content to watch, for now.

"He's going to take both of them!" Oscar-Janus states are obvious, glancing to see his avian brother's equally shocked and aroused expression.

"I wish he'd have done this e... OH FUCK!" Both of Janus' hands are grasping the marginally smaller giant's head now. They pull him down, both Oscar and Graham uncaring for the smaller guy limits as their loins burn for release.

Luckily Julian has some practise at doing this before his transformation, having had some experience with larger males in his past. Thanks to his augmented physiology he is able to hold his breath for much longer than before. His lips squeeze over both phallus', the twinned throbbing erections making their way down his smooth and wet throat. The tight and warm space, conjoined with the wet swallowing action he is performing is sending the pair wild overhead. Solarian is actually a little concerned the noise only will attract unwanted attention, even as his own member is twitching between his legs now.

Through his unrelenting perseverance, the ferret makes the journey all the way down to the mixed feather and fur texture of Janus' crotch. The hands are tugging at his ears and Julian slowly pulls back, letting his tongue slips and slide between the two train-sized sexual organs as they rub against one another inside his mouth. At the very instant they are about to fall back out Janus' hands force the gigantic ferret back down. Sucking and sliding all the way down until the chimera's balls connect with Julian's chin, creating a noise not unlike that of a thunder clap over the immediate vicinity. Meanwhile, Solarian is unable to help himself and grabs his now very much erect dragon dick as it drools all over itself. This could take awhile.

But even as these three partake in their own sexual deviancy, something new is coming. It is only a glimmering entity on the cusp of the horizon right now, but the war machine the military commander has unleashed will soon be atop Uriah's laboratories and then Uriah himself. The Malediction is not totally unlike a flying fortress. There is enough ordinance on the massive supercarrier to level every city on the globe. Of course just how it will deal with the Ly creatures is yet to be seen, it will be here shortly.

***

>>>File//Mutagenic Selection Process

The Professor had a hypothesis after reviewing studies concerning seemingly random abnormalities with the population. That hypothesis turned out to be true. Sometime long ago, pre-history in fact, an entire civilisation had existed before theirs. In that civilisation were people similar but unlike themselves. They had reached heights which their own was only just starting to gain access too, and began to use extremely advanced biotech to augment themselves in radical ways. This may have led to among other things, extreme body modifications, resurrection technology and shared consciousness.

However, that civilisation fell, exactly why no one has the slightest clue. Somehow due to their extensive self-modification this left their ruined society with a number of very different species, or more accurately subspecies. These began to have new generations and eventually the knowledge of that civilisation was almost entirely lost, save for the bare essentials of tool use and agriculture which helped kickstart their civilisation. One thing has remained in the ruins, the one thing that maintained itself and did not erode was Ly. The biotech-built nanomachines were unearthed after their industrial age and has been affecting the population ever since. But it has taken all of this time to reach a level where they could start to understand and alter the Ly for their own ends.

Forced mutation and atavisms was the professors real contribution to the practical side of things. A lot of those augmentations their distant ancestors had used was still present, deactivated in their own cellular structures. The Ly was the key, though to which locks they could not know. By forcing random reactivations and cataloguing the basecode sequence used, they were attempting to basically reverse engineer their own biotech artefacts using the Ly. Uriah, it seems, wanted to go a little further than be a biological cartographer. Fredrickson is beginning to suspect that Uriah, without the guidance of the professor or anyone else was making note of the atavisms along with his own brute force experimentation. He most likely discovered some mix that excited him and whatever it was led to their current situation.

>>DETECTED EXTERNAL DEVICE: "FREDDY'S BONE"

>>COPY//LOG: "D-08" TO EXTERNAL DEVICE: "FREDDY'S BONE"

Fredrickson removes the transferrable data store and looks at it in his paw. A part of him is hopeful this will help to save his own scrawny neck, another part is apprehensive about giving whatever power it might lead to over to Solarian and his cohorts. But still, there is another voice in him, one that has a much more selfish idea of what to do. Just as he closes his fingers around the small object the room shakes violently. He almost loses his balance before grabbing onto the desk in front of him. Plaster rains down from the ceiling as differing pieces of lab equipment begin to crash down onto the floor.

"What the hell!" Fredrickson exclaims for no one's benefit but his own. The entire building seems to be shaking itself apart and his first suspicions are the giants outside. But there is a strange humming noise that his acute canine hearing is picking up, something unlike anything he has ever heard before.

Regardless of what is causing the sudden instability for the already half-destroyed facility, Fredrickson has to evacuate the area post haste. He dashes out of Lab Delta-01 and begins to wind through one corridor after the next. One of the bodies catches his left paw and the dog loses his balance. Without the grace of a feline he tumbles forwards, his front sliding over the smooth floor. Even as he is scrambling back up there is a deafening sound behind him. He looks back for just an instant and sees an entire section of the building collapsing in. His heart pounds in his chest as he goes back to running, this time undoubtedly for his life.

***

The Malediction

The scaly giants fingers slowly stop sliding over his turgid manhood the instant his red eyes set upon the approaching megalith. At first Solarian wonders if this really has just all been a dream, but as the bizarre reality sets in he begins to steal himself as best he can whilst sporting a skyscraper-rivalling erection. Julian, with semen stained lips, and Janus stop what they were doing too as the ominous sound of the approaching fortress reaches their ears.

It must be almost two kilometres long from pronged tip to engine stacked tail. The Malediction is the kind of war machine that can only be dreamt up for both its psychological and ballistic impact. Smooth gun metal grey metal starts off broad at the aft and then curves inwards until forming a point at the front; all in all it looks somewhat like an arrowhead. Unlike an arrowhead though, the Malediction bristles with weapon carousels, most being magnetic artillery, or in other words railguns and their counterparts. Although the trio are unable to see from this angle, there is a disc structure on the central decking containing what is essentially the bridge of the hovering leviathan.

A large boom cracks, reminiscent of thunder. Large thruster modules built into the forefront of the Malediction fire. The thrust from the rear simultaneously cut out and after about ten seconds it comes to a complete relative stop. The entire group is still staring up at the hovering hulk. All of a sudden Solarian and Graham-Janus with their superior vision simultaneously notice the weapon ports of the great craft tracking the group. Neither one gets a chance to warn the others as metal slugs are start spitting out of the magnetic rail assemblies. With each projectile, shockwaves follow them all the way to the ground where they tear through the ground with ease.

Solarian shields his face with both wings and arms as chunks of concrete go flying from where Janus and Julian were standing. He wants to roar up at their assailant, then go up there and do some truly violent things to it; but the bombardment is relentless. The mutant begins to run towards what is left of the laboratories. That annoying, rational side of him is still functioning and knows that the priority is whatever information Fredrickson has. Using his wings for added thrust he sort of bounces along, not daring to take flight in case they provokes missiles that are far more accurate. But at the very moment he reaches the building one of the slugs flies into it, boring a nasty gaping hole in the roof.

"Is anyone alive over there?" Solarian roars above the bombardment. "We need to get Fredrickson out of here!"

Both Janus and Julian come running out from a great plume of dust and debris in the air. Unfortunately one of Janus' feathered wings got caught, but he is otherwise okay. There are a few scratches on both Janus and Julian, but Solarian's scales do not appear to have acquired been tarnished at all from the shrapnel. Hopefully said debris is obscuring the metal monstrosities targeting solution, but they can not be sure and they undoubtedly have infrared and other means of acquiring them. Be thankful for small miracles then as Solarian sees Fredrickson run out of the building's entrance just before it begins to collapse in a cascade of dust.

"Come on, we're getting out of here." Solarian scoops the lab technician up but then realises that the ferret is unable to simply fly and Janus has been injured. "Alright, you take Freddy here," Solarian says passing the dog like some sort of curio over to Janus. "Keep him safe."

"What about you?" Julian asks and then immediately regrets opening his mouth as the dust in the air sends him into a coughing fit.

"I'm going to give them something to shoot at."

***

Commander Broadhurst is not merely watching from the station. Using a VR system specifically for use with the Malediction, he can serve as the commanding officer of the overblown carrier from orbit no less. Right now he is experiencing the scene of a thoroughly blasted Uriah facility from a birds eye view. He looks to the side of his vision and icons shimmer into view, enabling him to select different cameras and viewing angles. Whilst doing this he is simultaneously linked into the command architecture. Command staff on the Malediction's flight deck are ready to take Broadhurst's orders.

"Status of the subjects?" Broadhurst barks the order and the rank and file jump to.

"We were able to inflict some injury upon hostile Epsilon, sir." The first weapons chief replies, Epsilon being the ID for Janus.

He selects one of the tracking routines and the optics focus upon Janus. The chimera is presently fleeing from the Malediction with great alacrity compared to people of normal stature. All of the smoke and debris kicked up by the previous attacks has been serving as a partially effective screen. The otter, Julian, is with Janus and following keeping pace only a short distance behind. As he watches the duo Broadhurst sees an overlay pop up. It expands to show that a third person is with them, though not a mutant like the former two. Broadhurst's heartbeat skips as he recognises the non-mutated dog being carried by Janus on his shoulder. His brow furrows as he searches for a name and connects it to a file, one of several, about the laboratory's personnel. A probable idea forms and a deep dread grips his heart as he fears what the mutants have been scheming to do down below. Their intent is a mystery to him, but judging by Solarian's actions in making new mutants he fears it can not be good for the majority of people he has pledged to protect.

"Get a target on the runners." He barks the command and it is relayed to the flight staff with minimal latency planetside.

Down on the ground the trio are so busy running that only Fredrickson is keeping an eye on the Malediction. This does little to soothe his panicked heart as he now sees rather large barrels swing around on the weapon hardpoints. Railguns, serving as magnetic air-to-ground artillery, are clearly tracking the trio. They adjust for multiple factors including projected course, drift, ballistic profile and wind speeds. Fredrickson starts to yell to get the attention of the giant carrying him. He warns them and both Janus and Julian start a disorganised zigzagging pattern as opposed to the straight line they were moving in. This makes it fractionally more difficult for the targeting solution, but not impossible. Finally the interface confirms with a red reticule that the Malediction is ready to deal what Broadhurst hopes will be a fatal shot.

The command is given and two 300mm metal slugs are flung out of the railgun assembly at near-supersonic velocities. There is a cracking sound, followed by a terrifying high pitched whistling at deafening decibels. This sound is the only thing that clearly indicates the weapons fire. There is no flash of gunpowder and the projectiles are hurtling so fast and across such distance that the asked eye can hardly follow them. In fact the sound is as good an early warning as thunder from lightning, as the weapon fires are hypersonic speeds. However, Broadhurst's smug smile in orbit does not last for very long as the latency catches up from the Malediction. Something dark and ludicrously fast zips across the optical feed. As it passes the metal rods lose all momentum and tumble to the ground, falling off far from where their targets are now bounding away for their lives.

"What in the..." Broadhurst mutters under his breath and rewinds the recorded video. Slowing it down he can see something winged, undoubtedly Solarian fly over to the railgun's ammunition. Arms reach out, touch them and then he moves on, apparently having absorbed the kinetic energy all in the blink of an eye.

"It's hostile Alpha." A voice says from the flight crew of the Malediction but is cut off, suddenly.

Broadhurst stops watching the video and returns his attention to current events. What he sees terrifies him to his core. Enraged and determined, the real life dragon has changed. Becoming more feral in appearance and less anthropomorphic. It seems larger, definitely looks nastier with spikes running along its back and tail. It swoops down over the Malediction with claws and teeth tearing off chunks of metal. Over and over again it swoops in, relentless and destructive to the max. The Malediction starts to list to one side, one side is now a jagged mess with power not reaching two of its engines. But Solarian is not finished with his prey yet. With blood red eyes he focuses on the top of the Malediction and barrels down. Broadhurst's mouth is agape as he watches the mutant enter one end of the ship and exit the other. He repeats this attack, puncturing clear holes through multiple decks of the armoured leviathan. There are screams coming from the crew, some of its systems will working as the warship begins to drop out of the sky like a mountain in freefall.

Janus and the others have stopped running now. A couple kilometres out they watch as the Malediction falls. Pieces of armour are still falling off of it as fires spread upon the machine's surface. With his sharper avian vision Graham spies out individuals abandoning the flying fortress. Some of them deploy their parachutes and seem to be in the clear, others are struck by debris and carry on falling by themselves. He tells the others this just a moment before the machine finally comes crashing down. Large chunks of the Malediction are dashed across the countryside as the sound of its failing engines fall silent. Everyone carries on watching as everything seems to be a lot more quiet now, only the sounds of slowly burning fires can be heard from the dead metal monster.

"Where is..." Julian starts to ask before someone very large, and very pissed off lands next to them on all four legs.

"Now we finish this with Uriah." The four legged Solarian-dragon says. Around four times the size of Janus and looking every bit like a genuine drake from lore, he looks as ready as ever.

***

Finality

Klaxons are echoing down every confined corridor inside the low orbit station. Broadhurst's head is ringing from the racket but remains in the control centre. His eyes, weary and bloodshot, stare at one of the panoramic screens as it shows a little red dot moving up from the planet. Ancillary personnel are now being jettisoned from the station in capsules that should safely evacuate them back down to the planet's surface. He looks at the lieutenant who has only been on the station for a month at most. Broadhurst told him to leave with the others but he is still seated there, tending to the command centre's nerves. Maybe he thinks he will go down with the ship like his captain. A futile meaningless gesture, as their civilisation is already as good as over.

There is not enough time left. With people still left to evacuate the red dot is about to make impact. The lieutenant pulls up a zoomed in view of the thing that is about to arrive on their doorstep. Solarian has managed to create escape velocities and even more impressively perfectly lined himself up with Broadhurst's home above the clouds. The dog watches as the dragon-like creature comes closer and closer until he races out of the camera's field of view. Impact. The entire orbital facility shakes, unnerving creaking sounds as if they are inside of a taxed submarine echo with the klaxons. Orientation thrusters fire so as to stabilise the facility, and for a moment the simulated gravity in the station's spinning centre seems to stop. But nothing more, no new warnings about a breached section of the external structure. Not even any scraping of claws or beating of fists down upon the fragile place.

"Turn those warnings off and get me a new visual!" Broadhurst barks and the subordinate does as told, switching the klaxons off and trying to find their new arrival.

The large screen changes to show the black beast hanging off of one of the docking pylons. It is disturbing to see a creature half the size of the entire station hanging on in the vacuum. Although at the same time it is a little amusing as its only contact with said pylon is its tail that managed to wrap around it, bending and distorting the pylon in the process but not causing any breaches of the entry tube ensconced within the scaffolding. Broadhurst scans his eyes over the thing they designated hostile Alpha. His body has clearly adapted to the harshness of his new environment with tissue sealing up his orifices and even his eyes are a different shade, due to a new membrane protecting them. He spins and twists, finding new purchase and Broadhurst now notices that the giant's right hand has been curled up in a fist all this time, refusing to open and use it even though it would make him more comfortable. Is he holding something?

"A new signal sir. Someone is broadcasting to us from below! The subordinate interrupts Broadhurst's thoughts and a new image starts to coalesce on one of the ancillary panoramic displays.

"Can you hear us?" Says an unfamiliar voice. The image clears up, showing the unmistakable face of Fredrickson, who the Commander had identified before during the incident at the abandoned laboratory.

"What is the meaning of your friend outside?" Broadhurst asks, getting straight to the point and with no hint of humour behind his voice.

"Introductions are not necessary then? Well, we know who you are too, or at least what you've been trying to do if not your name. You probably don't want to hear this, but your team and my team are going to have to work together." Fredrickson is about to continue when Broadhurst interrupts.

"You're right I don't like it. So get right to the point." The lieutenant can see that Broadhurst is incessantly tapping one of his chair's armrests.

"Uriah, the monster that is even as we speak finishing leveling the Capitol. He has grown too big and the mutation too virulent. Check your spy satellites and see for yourself." Fredrickson is mildly surprised a how confident he is talking to the military man, any meekness reserved for the giants he associates with now. "I have a plan to stop him and my 'friend' outside is carrying a piece of it. But you need to do exactly as I tell you and start by opening one of those airlocks and accepting our delivery."

"Okay," Broadhurst says after a moment of relative silence. "But first you give me the rundown Mr Fredrickson." He also makes sure to give the all-clear, with all remaining personnel cancelling their evac.

Grateful just that the commander is listening to him, Fredrickson starts to go through the bullet points of his plan. This does not take long, as it pretty much boils down to a one-two punch, the one being the thing that Solarian is still waiting to get rid of. Having heard the alsatian out, Broadhurst tells his subordinate to open the docking point nearest to the scaly giant still clinging on to his facility. Docking lights help draw Solarian's attention and he carefully shoves the thing he was holding into the port. Its door automatically shuts after it and various hissing noises indicate the small room being re-pressurised whilst Broadhurst gives new orders to a couple of subordinates to retrieve the mysterious present.

"I hope this isn't a trick, sir."

"You don't get paid for your opinions lieutenant."

***

There is an eerie silence surrounding the immediate area of Uriah's quivering mass. Everything and everyone has either been demolished or absorbed. The Capitol has been wiped from the surface of the world and without any surrounding nature it is deathly silent. Well, all silent but for Uriah himself, who is trying to focus on something he has been meaning to try since his unreal transformation. Gathering himself up, like some sort of sausage creature standing on one end, he gurgles and makes horrifyingly strained sounds. His smooth surface shudders and new growths start to spurt out. Small budding bulbs grow and spread out, widening over his entire body.

More strangled sounds correspond with new limbs growing from out of his central body. A set of limbs, two arms and two legs, sprout out at the same time as a more clearly defined torso and head squeeze into existence. The budding bulbs continue spreading until they begin to flattening out, spreading what appear to be shiny wet scales all over his torso, limbs and, now a tail? Yes, a fifth limb, clearly like a tail is spreading out from what is now definitely his lower back. Uriah's previously blob-like body has been forced to take on the shape and texture of his original self by sheer force of will being exerted upon his own mutations. However so much is different. His eyes are black bulbs in a black skull. The scales are wet and flexible. His legs are a little bit too bendable and there are no other discernable changes making him appear genderless and without any orifices but for his mouth, eyes and nostrils.

"MMMmmm. That's much better." Uriah says to himself, stretching and flexing his new limbs.

The mutant croc is now standing some distance above the rubble below. His two feet are sinking into the ground even as he stands there, so he takes a step forward and almost falls from the ground giving away. Towering the height of three skyscrapers, his sheer size and mass are too much to comfortably move around in this form. He should have remained in his previous form for practicality, but he is tired of looking like a B-movie monster. There will be some adjustment still of course speaking of which Uriah now stares down over his belly and at his newly defined pelvis. Once more through application of his will he forces a protrusion from his body and the long, actually proportionally larger than before, male genitals belonging to an anthro crocodile form from the protean bulk. A toothy smile spreads across his face as he reaches down and feels the sensitive new flesh of his own shaft. It quivers and responds just like he remembers, better even as it jumps into life.

"Enjoying yourself." A new voice interrupts Uriah, causing him to blush and jump a little, nearly toppling over in the process. He stops himself with his tail and spins, tearing up debris and wrecked vehicle below, to glower at the two headed chimera, Janus.

"I remember you... you were one of the lab subject's friends." Uriah growls down at Janus who is not even a third of the mutant croc's size.

"You grew I see, and you got a new toy." Janus's lion-side, Oscar, says with a lewd grin and a singer finger pointing at Uriah's new penis still held in one hand.

"Bigger than yours." Uriah replies, not missing a beat as he takes one step forward. He deliberately throws some added force as his foot comes crashing down, the ground shaking violently and Janus starts flapping his wings anxiously taking flight to avoid falling over.

"Yeah, sure buddy. But remember, it's not the size that counts..." Neither Oscar nor Graham gets a chance to finish that sentence as the crocodile's hand comes hard and fast, swiping at them like an annoying fly. "Woah!" Janus manages to dodge the first one but a second manages to scratch one of his legs with a single claw, not going deep but drawing blood nonetheless.

"Stay still while I swat you!" Uriah bellows and carries on taking more and more swings as the lion-falcon does his best to dodge.

So begins a game of cat and mouse. The sight of Uriah traipsing on top of the uneven rubble renders him both humorous and easy to keep on evading. However Janus begins to grow all the more daring as their little game continues. Swinging around behind Uriah he dives in and uses his talons to strike just behind the crocodile's neck. Just as he assumed the scales are soft and easily plied off, not causing much pain but still inflicting at least a little damage to Uriah's new body. He hollers in frustration and flails his arms and tail ineffectually. But even as Janus' confidence grows, he knows that this is all no use unless the boss returns, which should be any minute now. Suddenly though he is caught off guard when something unexpected shoots out from behind Uriah's neck, from the very spot he had managed to peel a few scales away from him. Shit, I'd forgotten about those. The twin voices of Graham and Oscar yell in surprise as a series of hideous tentacles lash out, whipping hard at them and successfully hurting one of their wings. The chimera begins to fall, with only one good wing left, he manages to get some distance before making landfall away from Uriah.

"Cocky little bastard," Uriah rumbles. However as he focuses on making his way over to where Janus has landed he remains unaware of something bright in the sky above.

Command Broadhurst did not exactly have any spare escape capsules in Solarian's size. So instead another spaceleap was required of the dragon. Right now his scales are burning up, re-entry not being nearly as smooth as launching himself into space, though that was uncomfortable enough as his body hurried to adapt itself. Wings and limbs curled tightly around himself, he bears through the experience. Flecks of where his scales are cracking under the immense heat and pressure fall away and burn up in the upper atmosphere. However as the air thickens he finds himself slowing down and after a moment opens up his wings, resuming normal flight inside the planet's atmosphere. Thankfully his aim, with Broadhurst's help, was incredibly accurate and he swoops in just above the ruined city.

"Don't look now, but someone is behind you." Graham-Janus says just as the winged form of Solarian swoops down, biting and clawing into Uriah's back.

"GRAAAAGH!" Uriah cries out in pain, but only more tentacles emerge from his unstable body.

"GET AWAY FROM HERE"! Solarian shouts to Janus whilst peeling back and doing a barrel roll as more of the demonic looking tentacles shoot out in his general direction.

Once more the slimy crocodile giant starts chasing something flying about him. But this time he is after something far quicker. Despite being larger than the chimera, Solarian has mutations which are more mature, even compared to Uriah, though not as pronounced as the crocodile's. Ultra-dense muscle fibres, bubble-lattice bones and more results in far more efficient flight than Janus is able to muster. Uriah spits curses and flails, with both arms and tentacles, with no results. To his credit though, Uriah's almost animalistic ferocity is keeping the dragon well away from attacking anymore sensitive areas of his body; even as Solarian has been keeping an eye on that dangling piece of meat between Uriah's legs. However the final blow is coming soon, he only needs to delay for the final part of the plan on Broadhurst's end. Any minute now.

***

The signal modulator device Fredrickson had sent their way is humongous. Almost the size of a car it had been some effort to get it into place and attached to their main transmission array. But now it is all done and their few remaining technicians are finishing the last of the preparations. Broadhurst bites into his bottom lip nervously as he watches the lieutenant work. If the lab tech had been telling the truth then this is not only their last chance at ending Uriah, but this entire incident. They will not be able to bring the Capitol back of course, but as a nation they will survive. All those people who had fought and lost will not have done so in vain. They are going to win this. However, even as they reach the crescendo the canine commander can already taste the bitterness of a pyrrhic victory.

"It's ready now sir." The lieutenant reports whilst wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Good, then we go back to the control room."

"No need sir, it's all hooked up, aligned and ready. All that is left to be done is pressing the button."

He presses the button.

Everything Is New Again

A brilliant light flashes from the sky. Brighter than the sun as its light touches Solarian and Uriah they both fall to the ground, paralysed on the spot. Solarian's body goes numb, his vision blurring and now fading as his struggles on breathing. But he is the one who has it easy, as Uriah screams in pain, his horrifying warbling voice piercing the air. Some distance away, Janus too collapses, as does any of the other mutants touched by the light. The last thing Solarian thinks of before he passes into unconsciousness is a single word: Traitor.

***

His back is killing him, that is the first thing that Solarian notices as the harshness of reality breaks the cloud dampening his senses. Something is different, very different. He tries to move one arm, it responds sluggishly, dragging across some broken slab of concrete underneath. Now he tries the other, it responds similarly to the first, but can feel something wet underneath that one. Solarian blinks, once, twice, three times, vision clearing just a little bit at a time between each one. Time to get up and get back to, whatever it was he was supposed to be doing.

With both paws he pushes himself up, into a sitting upright position. Now he sees the devastation, everything that is left of the Capitol and it all comes flooding back to him. The experiments, the mutation, the lab tech, Uriah... Panic grips his heart, pulse rising he struggles to stand up expecting to find something nasty looming over or around him at any moment. But as he moves his body, he finds something new bouncing around underneath his chin, two things in fact, round and soft.

"What the..." Solarian mutters to himself as he looks down and instinctively reaches to feel two large mammaries stationed off of his chest. Wait, that is my chest!

All other thoughts fall from the surface of his mind, as Solarian discovers everything has changed, again. No longer wrapped up in obsidian black scales, he has his old fur again and is in fact generally of the same hybrid species that he started out as; a tiger-wolf hybrid. But unlike his foundational form, there are now clearly two large breasts jutting out from his chest. Checking the rest of himself he also finds both male and female genitalia, positioned vertically next to one another on his pelvis. A sheath and testicles hang from the forefront, with a very sensitive furry vagina positioned along what was his taint around to his buttocks.

"Oh fuck..." The hybrid says for no one's hearing but his own. Whatever crazy reset button Fredrickson tricked him into helping be pushed, it did not reset everything exactly as it was. Who knows what glitch with the Ly caused this, but he, or rather shi, has to admit it is not entirely unpleasant.

Looking around Solarian finds a half crushed car and, comparing to hirself, shi is clearly no longer gigantic in size, but is still more statuesque than shi remembers hir original self being. Shi carries on wandering amongst the rubble, confused and a little morbid whilst viewing the aftermath of the carnage. Did all of this happen because of me? It is frightening to think about the power that was thrown around here only moments ago. Glimpses of the crowds, the little people fleeing in terror flashing across hir eyes. How powerless they must have felt, how terrible all of this truly was. or maybe still is. The light reached Uriah too, that much shi remembers, but where is he? Neutralised? Reset? Worse? Fredrickson will know, shi has to return to the hideout, though the sojourn will take some time. Shi had best start walking.

Coda

Luna takes a sip from the rich, creamy cocktail that the waiter had served only a moment ago. Its rich, maybe a little too rich, but the alcohol is smooth and washes down hir tongue and throat with a warming sensation. It has been almost six months since the event that had decimated the Capitol. After hir body changes shi also took a name change and has settled down somewhere new, somewhere fresh and with a lot of sun; a beachside town with a rich tourist economy.

Setting the cocktail back down on the tray shi turns hir attention to "hir boys". The reset had been kind to the lion and falcon, Oscar and Graham had their melding reversed. Although there are a few, relatively minor oddities, that have persisted. Luna extenders hir right arm and the lion leans on in, purring as his whiskers brush against the side of hir right breast. With hir left arm shi hooks in Graham and the falcon churrs as he similarly nestles into the hermaphrodite hybrid.

Only one thing remains that troubles hir; the mystery of Fredrickson's betrayal and following disappearance. Unable to effectively bully and abuse others like shi had from being a gigantic anthro dragon-mutant, shi had to keep whatever kind of low profile shi now maintained under a new alias. No longer Solarian, shi is Luna Sykes, the exotic hermaphroditic hybrid from a different land; perhaps there should be an accent? At any rate, whatever became of Fredrickson, shi has a feeling that he will turn up again, sooner or later.