Catalyst

Chapter 31: A Swarm of Two

When the dragons came, there was nothing Firenze could do to stop them. He could only watch his tribemates' burnt skeletons fall onto the ground, one after the other. He wanted to grieve, wanted to cry out, wanted to do something, but another gout of dragon fire forced him to flee once more. Desperately, Firenze looked for an escape, any possible way to escape this nightmare.

As he galloped over the ashes that used to be his friends, clanmates, and their homes, Firenze kept a close watch on the sky. Any hint of movement sent him scurrying for cover, but he knew that would do him little good in the long run. A mere broken tent or the burned-up remains of a tree were no protection against dragonfire. As he hid, frightened and trembling, Firenze heard the scream of his unfortunate clanmates, and saw the the deadly fire grow closer, and closer. Steeling himself, he leapt once more out of cover, fleeing for his life.

There! A gap in the flames! It was small, likely just a gap in the trees that wouldn't burn, but it was enough for a desperate centaur to leap through. After making his escape, he began to run frantically towards the woods, praying that the cover of the trees would hide him from the dragons' sight. Only when the light from the fire was only a distant glimmer did he stop running and find a cave to hide in. And only then did he begin to wonder who else might have escaped. As the weight of the day's events washed over him, Firenze collapsed to the ground, exhausted, and slept.

(Transition)

Abathur gave the dragons a quick once-over as they landed on the creep. There were no obvious injuries and no immediate signs of distress. All three had returned without a scratch. Yes, the dragons were quite a success, even if they could use a bit of tweaking. He would need to make their flames more precise if other combat strains were to be deployed with it. The flame also needed to be hotter. Their current fire would be ineffective against more effective defenses. But that was easily corrected.

Abathur turned his attention to the figure riding the former horntail. The fire was still burning in the distance, turning her into little more than a silhouette, but he could still make out the general shape. In addition to her humanoid body, he could make out her tentacles, three on each side, writhing and grasping with a mind of their own. Each of them branched off into several more precise spines which Abathur knew could form a single, larger spike.

Luna hopped off the dragon, giving Abathur a better look at her. Her skin was now fully covered by the standard zerg carapace, thankfully without high heels this time. Abathur really should have removed Kerrigan's footwear before infesting her. Luna's hair had been replaced with nerve cords, fully connecting her to the hivemind and amplifying her base psionic ability. The tentacles were coated in a ribbed armor, a compromise between defense and flexibility. There were a few minor flaws from the abrupt end to the transformation, but those were easy to fix. The tentacles were misaligned. The top pair were fine, but the other two were progressively closer to her spine, which would unnecessarily restrict their movement, even if it did give them the appearance of wings. The psychological impact would have been effective, but the cost was too much. Abathur could figure out something else.

The eye color was also off, a mixture of blue and yellow rather than the pure golden glow that was supposed to occur. Fortunately, it seemed that this was the only issue in the cranial area, judging by Luna's behavior thus far. This was doubly fortunate, because he didn't want to risk further work and possibly destroy the all too rare psionic potential. Even if he was surrounded by psionics, his supply of test subjects was woefully low.

"Abathur?" Luna began. She was speaking both telepathically and verbally, even if she didn't seem conscious of it. She was broadcasting confusion and fear. "What did I just do?"

"Eliminated opponents. Removed threat to Swarm. Correct decision," Abathur told her. Perhaps the conversion hadn't been as complete as he thought.

"But... but I killed them all. I saw them burn, and I..." Luna shuddered. "I enjoyed it!"