Chapter 79: Bug Catching

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Bug Catching

Chapter 79: Bug Catching

The forest floor was covered with damp soil, exposed roots, and uneven gravel, making every step difficult even for someone with two healthy legs. Axel Vance pushed through the trees mostly on his right leg, using his enhanced balance and Physique 3.6 to keep himself moving despite the fracture in his left. Every landing sent pain through his body, but his strengthened physique still allowed him to maintain an absurd pace for an injured man.

Dense trees blocked most of Axel’s view, and the palm-sized black creature was almost impossible to track directly once it entered the woods. Fortunately, Chris was doing plenty to announce their location. "Help! Somebody help me!" his screams echoed through the forest ahead, giving Axel a clear direction.

The tiny creature displayed ridiculous strength as it dragged Chris’s body between the trees at high speed. It had apparently never heard of protecting its host, because Chris repeatedly slammed into roots, rocks, and tree trunks along the way, leaving disturbed soil and streaks of blood behind him. Axel followed the trail and muttered, "At this rate, that kid’s going to finish paying for every bad decision he’s ever made before I catch up."

Axel himself was hardly in good condition. One leg was still fractured, his body had only recently recovered from the Color of the Stars, and all of his proper weapons were back with Seth and Lionel somewhere hundreds of miles away. If he had been carrying a firearm when the bug first appeared on the bus, this chase might already have been over.

He could not afford to let the creature escape now. Whatever that insect-like thing actually was, Axel had already seen enough to suspect that the larger flying monster had not been its only possible form. If the parasite managed to complete another transformation, he might have to fight something on the Creeper’s level again while barely able to walk.

Axel forced more strength into his right leg and increased his pace.

The distance was finally shrinking.

Then hurried footsteps came from behind him.

Axel turned sharply and saw Carrie White stumbling through the woods in pursuit. Her face was pale, tear tracks still marked her cheeks, and fear was obvious in her eyes, yet she continued following him with surprising determination.

"What are you doing?" Axel barked. "Go back to the bus."

Carrie flinched hard enough to nearly stop.

But she shook her head.

Her hands clenched nervously at her sides as she forced herself to speak. "I just... want to help you."

Axel stared at her for a second and felt an immediate headache coming on. Under normal circumstances, a frightened teenager with unstable telekinetic power would have been exactly the kind of supernatural mystery he wanted time to investigate carefully. Right now, however, he wanted fewer complications, not another one chasing him through the woods.

Still, Carrie had followed despite being terrified.

That required more courage than most of the students on the bus had shown.

Axel sighed. "Fine. Just don’t get too close."

He turned and kept moving.

There was no time to argue further.

A few moments later, the scratching sound ahead suddenly stopped.

Axel slowed as he entered a small clearing.

Chris lay sprawled across the ground, barely moving, while the black insect clung tightly to the back of his neck and scalp. The creature had apparently realized that dragging an entire teenager through the forest while Axel followed was not going to work.

Its tail moved again.

Chris’s body jerked violently.

Then something began changing.

Dark coloration spread beneath his skin while the blood vessels across his neck and face became unnaturally pronounced. His arms and legs started stretching into distorted proportions as joints shifted under the influence of whatever energy the parasite was pumping into him.

Chris screamed until his voice broke.

His school clothes tore around the shoulders as two fleshy growths pushed upward from his back. His jaw opened too far, several teeth loosened, and sharper replacements began emerging while his fingers slowly lengthened into claw-like shapes.

Axel’s eyes narrowed.

He had seen that general shape before.

The parasite was using Chris as raw material for another monster body.

"So that’s what you really are."

The Creeper-like form he had fought earlier was apparently not the creature’s only body in this AU. This small black organism seemed capable of attaching itself to a host and reshaping that person into a new predatory form, although Axel still had no idea how it related to the ancient creature he remembered from the movies.

He could not let the transformation finish.

Axel pushed off with his good leg and lunged forward.

Before he reached Chris, a violent supernatural pressure erupted behind him.

Axel turned his head.

Carrie stood at the edge of the clearing with both eyes wide open.

Fear had completely overwhelmed her.

"No!"

Her scream tore through the trees.

An invisible wave exploded outward from her body.

Branches shook violently.

Leaves tore free and spun into the air.

Loose stones rolled across the clearing as pure telekinetic force surged around Carrie.

Axel could not see the power with ordinary vision, but his supernatural perception made its presence unmistakable. Carrie’s fear had taken the psychic energy she had spent years suppressing and turned it into something enormous.

The invisible force seized Chris.

His body suddenly lifted from the ground.

The black parasite released a shrill hiss.

Carrie pulled.

The creature resisted.

Its legs clamped harder around Chris’s head while more aggressive energy surged into his body, apparently trying to finish the transformation before Carrie could separate them. At the same time, Carrie’s telekinesis pulled the host and parasite in opposite directions.

Chris became the center of a supernatural tug-of-war.

His body convulsed several feet above the ground as the incomplete transformation stalled. Blood appeared around his mouth while the parasite continued pouring energy into him and Carrie desperately tried to rip it away.

"Enough!"

Axel forced himself between them.

He reached Chris and planted one hand against the teenager’s forehead.

Color of the Stars activated immediately.

That impossible, beautiful hue appeared across Axel’s palm.

Then it spread.

The alien trace inside him did not care whether the energy came from Carrie or the parasite. Both supernatural forces were connected through Chris, and the Color swallowed them indiscriminately.

Axel felt the first current enter his body.

Primitive.

Aggressive.

Predatory.

The parasite’s energy felt like concentrated instinct with almost nothing resembling human emotion inside it.

Then Carrie’s power followed.

Hers was completely different.

Fear, anger, humiliation, panic, and raw psychic force crashed into Axel together.

The two energies fought violently inside him for only a moment.

Then Color of the Stars overwhelmed both.

The alien power tore apart the incompatible traits, purified what it could use, and converted the rest into nourishment that flooded Axel’s damaged body. Warmth spread through his muscles almost instantly.

The parasite screamed.

Its transformation energy vanished.

Carrie’s telekinetic force weakened at the same time.

Without enough power to maintain its grip, the black creature was finally ripped away from Chris’s neck by the remaining psychic pull. It shot backward through the air and slammed hard against a nearby tree trunk.

Carrie collapsed almost immediately afterward.

Her knees hit the ground, and she caught herself with both hands while breathing heavily. She had poured far too much of her suppressed power into one uncontrolled burst.

Axel barely noticed.

The combined energy rushing through him was already repairing the damage from the bus crash.

A deep itching sensation spread through his fractured left leg.

Bone, muscle, and surrounding tissue began knitting together far faster than before.

Axel flexed his fingers.

Some of his depleted Psionic Power had also returned.

After a few seconds, he removed his hand from Chris.

The teenager dropped heavily to the ground and remained unconscious.

His body looked terrible.

Scratches, bruises, torn clothing, and incomplete mutation damage covered him from head to toe, but the monstrous transformation had stopped. Chris was still human and, more importantly, still alive.

Axel looked down at him. "You are going to have one hell of a story if you remember any of this."

Then he tested his left leg.

Pain remained.

But it could support some weight again.

"That’s better."

A faint scratching sound came from the other side of the clearing.

Axel immediately turned.

The black parasite had survived hitting the tree.

Its shell was cracked and several legs appeared damaged, but it was still dragging itself toward the brush with surprising determination. The little monster had apparently decided that escaping was more important than trying another transformation.

Axel’s expression hardened.

"No you don’t."

He rushed forward.

Before the creature could disappear beneath the leaves, Axel grabbed it.

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