Fantasy Tigerborn, and other true stories. (most of the time)

[AEONmeteorite]

Alyss paled as she viewed the screen and saw the device roar with energy. "The tiger is goin-" the tiger beat her to it and she slid along the surface just as Amare went to help her.

With her eyes bug wide while her head swiveled back and forth at the flashing, shifting surround, Alyss barely opened her mouth. "No..." she muttered. "No, no, no, no..." she gradually got up, her knees buckling as she did. She left the device on the floor of the skull. The screen emitted brilliant light.

It couldn't, shouldn't move now. They just got here. They'd just begun. They never got a single sample out. Alyss looked around. Peering at every bit of the skull, and then at her person. Nothing would work. So she lifted her hands and stared at the for a lengthy while. Sliding occasionally from the tiger's shifts. Having to catch herself multiple times. Until finally she made a choice.

She ran. She ran straight toward the brain. Fists at the ready. Yelling as she did.

 

[Calibutcher]

He had said he would figure something out but the reality was very different he was stuck and he knew it. Probably doomed to die here. He didn't want it to be true but something was causing an evacuation and he was stuck in a creature that was largely impervious to outside factors. "Reactivation?" He wondered if head imagined the voice it sounded unlike anything else he had heard.

He sat down heavily trying to steady himself among the swaying the tiger seemed to settle into. He was however shocked to see Alyss who had been motionless suddenly lunge at the tiger's brain.

"What are you doing?!" he cried out in surprise.

Her fists sunk into the brain slightly and made a terrible squelching sound.

"accepting integration, please remain calm." The voice boomed again. He had not imagined it after all.

What followed brought anything but a sense of calm to Amare. Alyss's fists were surrounded by the brain matter and began to suck her in. Amare stood quickly and moved to grab her. "Pull" He exclaimed as he grabbed onto her arm and tried to yank it free. It only sank deeper as he resisted it.

 

[AEONmeteorite]

Alyss had been practically deaf to the voice. Her mind having chalked it up to the communicator. As her fists sunk into the brain, she tugged them back to try and punch at the organ again. Accept, her arms sunk further in. "W-wait..." she breathed, and kept tugging, still blind to the blaring voice and only noticed Amare as he tried to help her.

"Hurry!" she shouted and used all her bodyweight to release herself. The device on the floor of the skull screen flashed, still pointing at the brain. Alyss lifted a foot, pushing it against the brain to try and gain leverage, but that too began to be absorbed. "Amare, please get me out!"

 

[Calibutcher]

Amare pulled all the harder hoping to free his friend and colleague. He slipped with the unsure footing and bumped into the brain himself. He cried out in fright but was not pulled into the brain like Alyss.

"Only one integration will be accepted." The voice chided the pair.

Amare's jaw dropped as he now understood whatever the voice was it was actually speaking to them. Or at least aware of them. "What?" He huffed to himself in surprise. He focused on Alyss again and was horrified to find her body mostly absorbed now. The last bits of her helmet and back were enveloped in blue substance. He reached in to grab her and attempt to pull her out again but the same words repeated as before.

"Only one integration will be accepted."

His gloved hand grabbed her belt and he held onto it but the blue enveloped his hand and began pushing it back out. Struggle as he might against it. It refused him, unlike Alyss. Now he was alone in the brain and his fear multiplied...

The glowing blue matter of the brain was continuing to move Alyss deeper, it was not forcefully unless she tried to resist. The pressure was not suffocating but still smothering in a sense.

"Intergration blocked by foreign material." There was a pause as though it was thinking or expecting an answer. "Adjusting" The material around her shifted and began tugging at her suit. Eventually, it found a way to open the suit and the ooze began to fill the suit.

"Begining integration"

A new sensation came to Alyss a tingling over her body and as the ooze reached her helmet and enveloped her head it began there as well. Her sense of being began to dissolve her thoughts fuzzy and as she could hold her breath no longer the world faded to black...

^^^

Amare backed away from the brain and curled up into a ball sitting on the ground. He could not contact either the ground team or ALyss despite his attempts. The tiger went still, however, sound from outside eventually reached him, dull thuds and minor earthquakes. He sat and pondered what he could do next. It was an hour before anything happened.

"Intergration successful."

Amare shuddered unsure of what that meant. "Hello?" He said cautiously.

^^^

For Alyss it was nearly a moment, she had closed her eyes in the suit before reopening them again, this time however her perspective was different. She could see the lab all of it really and from very high.

A voice spoke in her head. "Intergration successful."

Another much quieter voice from somewhere close came to her as well. "Hello?"

 

[AEONmeteorite]

Once again, her breath kept held. She gazed out, her puplils dilated and then slimmed down. Upon looking about, the wonder of whether or not what she experienced had been a dream felt possible as she found herself in the lab. The first voice didn't spur much in her. She'd assumed it came from the lab. The second though willed her mind to begin breathing frantically. Finally taking in scoops of air, as Alyss had thought she'd been drowning a moment ago.

The lab empty. Her breathing far louder than she thought possible. It echoed off the nearby walls and caught into her ears.

She turned her head down to see if she'd missed someone, as there'd been a clear 'hello' in the distance. That had been it though, what had pulled the wool off her eyes. Down. She had to look down.

More of her body moved. On all fours. Her skin seemed different. Her ears could swivel. The room she was in, this should be where the tiger is, but it wasn't. And yet, here she stood.

"Have I?" She questioned, though she wondered if she could even speak.

 

[Calibutcher]

The head shifted suddenly and Amare slid forward into the brain. Any sense of calm he was starting to register vanished as he was now touching the same thing that consumed Alyss. He tried to scrabble but there was little he could do at this angle and with the slippery inside of the skull.

"NO!" He cried out "I don't want to be integrated!" He pushed away frantically

A quieter voice that only could be heard by Alyss prompted her. "Welcome user, your integration is complete, please remain calm. Disorientation is normal." There was a pause. "Apologies, we do not have much time. User, what would you like to be called?"

 

[AEONmeteorite]

Her mind felt tingly and she had a tough time keeping standing. "Wha- ?" She began to ask, but silenced herself to let the voice finish. "U-uh..." Alyss began again. And as she began to wonder if this was still a dream or a joke of some kind, she responded with, "call me Superior."

 

[Calibutcher]

"At once. Renaming the Guard's Gem to... Superior. Now to the matter at hand. Your planet is under siege by the Vittox. You have been integrated to respond to this threat and protect your planet. A great honor. Regrettably, this attack has been swift. You will need to act quickly to prevent further loss. How would you like to proceed?"

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"W-wait... are you serious? I'm tired. And, I'm.. I think I'm a tiger. Who are the Vittox? How would I get there? Where's Amare?"

 

[Calibutcher]

"Quite serious. Yes, Fatigue is normal at this stage. You are essentially a tiger. The Vittox are an alien race known to target planets of lesser technology to strip mine and sell slaves. Exiting the chamber will be quite simple there are several ways for you to do so. I can elaborate further if you desire. I assume Amare is the one inside your skull currently yelling for help." THe voice answered all the questions just as quickly as they were asked and in the most matter of fact tone.

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"Mhm, mhm, m- WHAT?!?" Alyss nodded her head until she heard the last part. "I need to get him out!"

 

[Calibutcher]

"Interior functions may be difficult for you to handle at this point. Standby while I troubleshoot." There was a pause several seconds long.
"I believe I have the solution. Repeat my words. Internal functions, self-regulatory, Cranium maintenance hatch enlarge."

 

[AEONmeteorite]

Alyss near hyperventilated as she waited for instruction, and the moment it came, she repeated, "internalfuctionsselfregulatorycraniummaintencehatchenlarge!!!"

 

[Calibutcher]

Amare heard something behind him and turned to see the hole they had come in through had opened he wasted no time and dove out onto the scaffolding. He began running as soon as he could catch his footing and sprinted along the catwalks towards the exit.

"Command successful, this is promising, perhaps you will grasp this faster than most."

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"Okay, okay, good," she mumbled and began to pad around in a circle. Backing up occasionally, hitting a wall, giving herself a short fright, then repeating. "Help. Tell me an exit," she ducked some and began heading down a hall that fit her. She knew of exits, but they were all human sized.

 

[Calibutcher]

"The fastest way to exit is to dig, though there are other options still. "

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"Dig?" Alyss asked back and looked down while she lifted a paw. "Hmph!" she squeaked while she looked at the paw over and over again. She lifted it off the ground and pressed it back down. Then, she turned her head to study her other paw, to which she made a similar sound. There was a left and right. Two paws. She tried to dig with her right, to little success as it wasn't breaking through the ground. The more she tried though led to her claws unsheathing. "Oh!" she yelped again, and repeated similar steps as she discovered this new part of her. Finally, she began to actually dig, and as she did, she inquired further of the situation. "How may I turn back?"

 

[Calibutcher]

Amare continued running as fast as he could, he felt his body shift again and his anxiety grew. He would not make the exit in time if things kept moving like this. Then he saw the other structures in the tiger the ones that all the science teams assumed were houses. He ran for them instead. He made it inside one just as the TIger began moving with more fervor. Once inside he found great relief. These structures were built in a way so they were not affected by the outside movement. It was those he was standing on solid ground even as he could see the insides of the tiger moving about.

"You cannot change back, you are the Superior now. Your current abilities surpass all that your previous body had."

 

[AEONmeteorite]

Pulling up the floor, cement and dirt, Alyss kept at it, but came to a halt as the voice gave her news that she wasn't prepared for. "What?!" she gasped and looked to right as though she'd be able to see the being she had been speaking to. "But...this isn't what I wanted. I didn't agree to this."

 

[Calibutcher]

"Curious, many before you have considered this a good thing. Especially now as your planet will need you so drastically. Which brings me to my next point. If you want to get to the surface, you need to dig up."

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"A good thing?" Alyss questioned, and gazed down at the ditch she'd already created before being reminded of the options she had. "Before me? How old is this tiger?" she asked and looked to the roof. She went onto her hind legs and began digging upwards. Objects fell to her face, clunking off her and barreling to the ground. "We were able to tell its age with all the different materials it was made up of."

 

[Calibutcher]

"Yes before you there have been 3,227 other users. as to the Tiger's age that is a complicated question to answer. The Tiger is from many ages and made of many things through those ages. What you recognize as the tiger today has been around for millennia."

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"Three-thousand!?!" she gasped as a large chunk of cement fell on her head. She huffed and growled some as her ears pinned. Alyss shook to get the dust off her. "You mentioned aliens. The Vito-what's its. Has this lion been off earth?"

 

[Calibutcher]

"The Vittox" The voice corrected. "Also this is not a lion." The voice said sharply. "It is a tiger, and yes it has been off-planet."

 

[AEONmeteorite]

"Tiger, lion, whatever, cat. How do I get off Earth? How did it get off Earth?" She scraped again above her, not quite grasping just how much her paws were able to dig into the earth, for light began shining down on her from the outside. "Teach me how to control this thing."