I sank.
Bio-armor bit into my waist and neck, a Sub-Drowned’s dainty forearm wrapped around my neck like a blade.
Inkwater shot up my nose, in my eyes.
Getting it in my eyes was my own fault, I overrode the reflex and forced them open.
Had to make sure Moore was good.
Only by the light of Jones’s fuelblood did I see her silhouette.
Like a gentle buzz against my face, I felt her machine gun’s saturation fire.
Moore was good.
That’s good.
That’s all I needed to know.
I knew I could’ve broken the Drowned’s grasp the moment her hands were on me. Would’ve taken a hand on any part of her and a squeeze. The subs are only lightly armored, she would’ve broken like glass.
But Moore was good.
That little dummy was too good for me.
Too good to me.
My HUD’s delta-psi had run up to over 20,000lbs before I stopped paying attention.
Depth was displayed as kms now.
I should’ve been a cube.
A little Grosse-cube.
With my little service cap and everything.
I’d be a cute cube.
Light, bright and white, lanced around me.
The Drowned was a cloud of paste between my fingers. Could’ve started swimming at this point. But I wanted to see which gate awaited me.
I turned, and saw Moore. Nude, smooth, small as she was, and glowing.
She kissed me, with lips like hers, too.
Fingers in my hair.
Scalp. Digging. Puncturing. Hooking.
Before her tongue intertwined with mine. Shudders ran through me as I melted into her. Careful with my touch, as always, to not break anything. Never again.
Yet deeper her tongue went.
Down my throat. Inside me. Through me.
Wet, lancing things emerged, folding me inside out.
I squeezed, ripped, and crushed what I could of the meatshell but it was too late.
Venom, my fuelblood replaced with razors, spread through me.
Bringing forth what was hidden.
Crawling was my spine, ridges extending like wings to my cannons.
The false-Moore shoved itself inside me, shredding itself against my teeth, down my throat.
Fuel for my growth.
For my new body.
For a moment I was the moon, glowing pale, before my skin split, making way for my armor.
For more armor.
I opened my eyes. The first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth…
I could move, as if flying in a dream.
I cut through hyperdense water like air.
I rose.