<div class="floatleft">(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/36/c7/ee/36c7ee071cc6d56a6f390852faad369f.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Benson "Bence" Marconi<br/><strong>Alias:</strong>Red Ranger<br/><strong>Time/Date:</strong>October 1st, Evening<br/><strong>Location:</strong>BYOB Bar - Mega City Streets<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Kara, Open<strong>Mention:</strong>Other Mobicytes<br/><hr/><br/>Bence abruptly stopped when Kara threw herself into his path.<br/><br/><strong>Are you done?</strong>she had asked.<br/><br/>Bence gave the blonde a confused stare. Her question had him speechless. As far as he knew, he thought he was finished, thus was why he was trying to leave.<br/><br/><strong>If you want to freak out, go for it. Freak out on me. I can take it.</strong><br/><br/>Bence then realized how hostile he must have sounded. He looked away from Kara to sweep his eyes over the room and noticed a few people were staring at them, watching them on the edges of their seats. It was as though they were waiting for him to strike. Had he really sounded like some wifebeater asshole? Bence looked back at Kara and sighed.<br/><br/>“No; I don’t want…” he paused in his speech, watching Kara silently gesture over to an empty table. Bence then seemed to glance over Kara’s head with a clear look of rejection on his face.<br/><br/><strong>...Ice cream?</strong><br/><br/>He glanced down at her and the ice cream she held out to him. Bence shook his head and just stepped by Kara, even if she tried to stubbornly remain in his path, he would push by her to escape the bar and get out into the open air. He said what needed to be said, and the fact that they all didn’t seem to care only confirmed that he didn't belong with such an insensitive group.<br/><br/><strong>I had sensed a unique emotion when you were with the Kara Human last. I did not sense it this time.</strong><br/><br/><em>I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I want nothing to do with those people.</em><br/><br/><strong>But they are your friends, Bence.</strong><br/><br/><em>Why? Because they got your worm friends in their heads? They don’t know me. They don’t even know each other!</em><br/><br/>Bence suddenly felt his body go rigid. His eyes widened as he no longer felt in control. He started to run, and Bence in a panic asked,<em>What are you doing?! Where are you taking me?!</em><br/><br/><strong>I must show you something. There is one nearby.</strong><br/><br/><em>One what? Bench! BENCH!</em><br/><br/>Bence ran right into the bench, folding over the armrest to flop and slide across the wooden seat. He grasped the backrest to stop himself and bore his teeth in pain as he tried to find his feet again. He slipped a leg off the bench to rest his foot on the ground and slowly sat up with a groan.<br/><br/><strong>I am sorry, Bence. The poison makes it difficult to control your motor functions.</strong><br/><br/><em>Just let me do it. Tell me where to go, and this better not be a waste of time.</em><br/><br/>Bence left the bench, thankful to have worn his jacket or he would have been prickly with splinters. He started up the road and allowed his Mobicyte to guide him down a few streets and weaving through some alleys. Wherever his Mobicyte was taking him, there were few people and the city became a project.<br/><br/><strong>Here. Hide here.</strong><br/><br/><em>Hide?</em><br/><br/>Bence crouched next to a group of trash cans clustered next to the alley corner.<br/><br/><strong>You can feel it. It’s here.</strong><br/><br/><em>The only thing I feel is nervous because I’m wonderin’ what the fuck you got me into.</em><br/><br/><strong>Watch.</strong><br/><br/>Bence continued to cluelessly look around until he noticed a Hispanic girl on her cell phone. She had her hair in a high bun on her head and was wearing a solid-white T-shirt with grey sweatpants and lime-green slippers. She sounded as though she was talking to her boyfriend, and the more she talked, Bence's eyelids became heavy. The booze were getting to him. Bence leaned against the brick wall and his head slowly started to dip until his Mobicyte shouted:<br/><br/><strong>Look!</strong><br/><br/>Bence’s eyes snapped open in startle and nearly bulged from their sockets when he saw the tanned humanoid creature posted on the wall above the unsuspecting girl. The creature was about eight feet with bulging yellow eyes, pointy elf ears, and a long snout like a horse. At the end of its mouth were human-like lips, stretched wide over rows of white triangular teeth. Its spine was raised on its back, making blade-like ridges going from the base of its neck to its tail bone. At its tailbone was a short, pointy tail, its legs were folded like a frogs’ at its sides and hands tucked beneath it. The creature’s jaws parted and descending from its mouth was a black, gelatinous - Bence thought it was a tongue, but as it squirmed about on its own accord, it was something else.<br/><br/>Bence paled upon seeing it, and looked down at the girl who didn’t even know it was above her. He made a motion that would have been him running to save her, but his body went rigid.<br/><br/><em>What are you doing?! We have to go save her!</em><br/><br/><strong>You need to watch Bence. This is the only way that I can convince you.</strong><br/><br/>Bence opened his mouth to try and warn the girl but felt a hard strain on his vocal chords. They were so tight that it made his eyes water and nearly made him cough.<br/><br/><em>Why are you doing this? That thing is going to kill her!</em><br/><br/><strong>Bence. Watch.</strong><br/><br/>Every muscle in his face tightened and no longer could he look anywhere else. He was forced to watch the beast’s black tongue descend toward the girl below. A clear rope of drool slid off the slug-like appendage to drop upon the girl. She paused and exclaimed, “What the fuck!?” As she noticed the wetness. She raised her arms, looking at the ropes of clear liquid dripping off them.<br/><br/>“Oh gross!”<br/><br/>Shaking her arms, the girl looked up, wondering where it had come from, and her face immediately warped with fear upon seeing the beast perched above her. Her first reaction was to scream, which was exactly what the black creature had been waiting for. Faster than a cobra, the tongue appendage dove into the girl’s mouth and descended down her throat. Her neck swelled with its girth. Gagging and struggling, she dropped her phone, and reached up to grasp the slug-like creature, trying to pull it out but its slimy body slipped through her fingers. The creature was like a large boa constrictor, leaving its previous host into the new one. The girl’s stomach swelled as though she were pregnant beneath her shirt. When the tip of the creature disappeared behind the girl’s lips, the husk of the alien above fell from the wall to collapse on the road. The husk immediately shriveled and brokedown into dust that was swept away on the lightest of breezes. The girl’s tummy started to shift, shrinking as the worm stretched out and started to make room in its new home.<br/><br/>Bence was frozen in disbelief and terror that Little Brother didn’t have to hold him there anymore. The girl’s head snapped left and right. Her shoulders rolled and she bent over and straightened several times as though the creature were testing her motor functions. The girl, still conscious and aware of what was happening, started to cry but she could not speak. She couldn’t call for help even if she wanted. She felt the worm moving around inside her, sliding beneath her skin. Next time she bent over, the creature slid out from between her buttcheeks, peeking out from her sweatpants before it went right back inside through a different passage, her uterus. The girl clenched her eyes shut briefly until they opened once more, so wide that Bence could see their whites from his hidden position. Two short spurts of blood shot from the girl’s lips before she straightened and a red jet of blood and organs fired from her mouth across the alley. She sprayed two streams of carnage across the alley, stray drops dripping onto her white T-shirt.<br/><br/><strong>It has no use for the host. Only to hide its true form. This is only one of many. The queens cannot hide.</strong><br/><br/>Bence couldn’t believe that ugly fat thing they had fought that morning was a<em>she.</em>He would have never guessed it to be.<br/><br/><strong>The queen you fought was weak because she had released too many soldiers to protect her.</strong><br/><br/>Bence shook his head as the girl continued to vomit her insides all over the place. He was shaking all over in fear and started to slowly crawl backwards.<br/><br/><em>I don’t wanna be here anymore.</em><br/><br/>When they were clear, Bence rose to his feet and ran away from the alley. He got as far away from the creature as he could sense. He found himself at the bridge leading into the main city. He stopped to bend over, resting his hands on his knees as he panted and nearly vomited from a combination of the booze and the horror he had just seen.<br/><br/><strong>If I cannot convince you, then I will not force you.</strong><br/><br/>Bence suddenly felt a sharp pain in his skull. He clenched his eyes closed and grasped his forehead as a series of veins appeared like tree branches across it. The pain soon stopped as abruptly as it came. Something slimy and gelatinous dropped into his mouth and he held his hand out to spit it into his palm. What appeared before his large and stunned eyes was what looked like a small red starfish, just large enough to fit into the center of his palm. Glancing around at his clothes, he noticed that they were hanging off of him. He was still the same height, but he wasn’t as large as he had been before. Bence stared at the creature in surprise. Was that it? Was that Little Brother?<br/><br/><em>I thought you said you were the biggest one,</em>Bence mused, and didn’t get a response back. The little starfish had been him...or it. Bence stared down at the harmless creature. It flashed a gentle red almost as though it had been its heartbeat. Bence walked over to the bridge and stared down at the water. He remembered that the river below had been the same river where a supposed alien ship had landed. Bence slowly and regretfully held his hand out over the water. He kept his palm up still holding the little creature in it.<br/><br/><em>Why is it so difficult?</em>Bence wondered. He was back to normal. The parasite was no longer inside him. He could return to his life. Wasn’t that what he wanted? He turned his palm so that he could see the creature. It was so pathetic without him, and here he was about to dump it in the river like an unwanted pet. Bence frowned, feeling the shame overwhelm him. He curled his fingers about Little Brother and brought it back toward him.<br/><br/>“I’m sorry,” Bence apologized. He held his fist against his chest. “You were only trynna’ help me, and I can’t go back after all I seen.”<br/><br/>A few tears escaped his eyes. He was so disappointed that he couldn't just go back to the Bence of yesterday. Opening his hand, he peered down at the creature and saw it shining a bright red. Frowning in confusion, he only saw the beast out of his peripherals before he jerked his head up. A second predator, similar to the one he had seen earlier with the girl, had climbed out from under the bridge to lunge at Bence. Bence tried to spring backwards and felt the creature’s claws dig into his shoulders as its weight drove him toward the ground. The wind left Bence’s lips harshly and from the Tauran’s jaws gushed a black slug that forced Bence’s jaws apart. The worm slipped into Bence’s throat suffocating him as he started to struggle in panic.<br/><br/><strong><em>Struggling is useless. Give into the queen!</em></strong><br/><br/>There was a different voice in his head, and it hadn’t been Little Brother’s. Had it been the slug’s? Using the same fist in which he clutched his Mobicyte, Bence struck the creature in one of its bulging eyes causing it to shriek and flinch. It jerked back, but the slug hadn’t. The slug only paused in its descent down Bence’s esophagus as the Tauran gazed at his closed fist. Bence followed its eyes toward his fist, and suspected that it sensed Little Brother. The slug was retracted from Bence’s mouth. Coughing up blood, Bence increased his grip on the Mobicyte as the Tauran raised its claw from Bence’s shoulder and raked it across his forearm.<br/><br/>“Argh!” Bence cried.<br/><br/>The creature snagged his forearm between its teeth, and the pressure caused his bones to crack. Bence cried out again, and in an enraged fit, sent his other fist soaring into one of the Tauran’s eyes again. The Tauran screeched and recoiled, allowing Bence to shoulder it off. Bence rocked forward to his feet and broke into an awkward sprint across the bridge. The sagging clothes were making it difficult and he clutched his pants, holding them up so he wouldn’t fall.<br/><br/><em>Fuck!</em>Bence thought. There was no escaping this life even if he wanted. There was no going back.<em>Where was that morph thing again?</em><br/><br/>Bence glanced down to his hand and remembered the current emergency.<br/><br/><em>Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!</em><br/><br/>Suddenly, a second creature sprung from the bridge to tackle him into the street. A lone car that had nearly run them over, screeched to a halt. The driver gawked in horror at the alien creature before he put his vehicle in reverse and darted out of there. Face down on the pavement, Bence wasn’t about to make it easy for the creature to get inside him. He felt its teeth snag his jacket as though it were flesh and began jerking it wildly as it tried to flip Bence over. The other Tauran had galloped over to tackle the second one off Bence. The two predators began shrieking and tongue-lashing at each other. While the beasts were fighting, Little Brother slipped through Bence’s fist and started crawling for the wound in his arm. Bence hissed in pain as he felt something enter his wound and no longer felt the Mobicyte in his hand.<br/><br/>The Tauran that had been on top of Bence peered down at the arm the Mobicyte escaped into it. Snagging Bence’s arm between its teeth once more, with one strong and violent jerk of its head, Bence’s arm was ripped clean off. The agony Bence had felt he had never experienced before. He had never heard himself scream in the manner in which he had. The red Mobicyte had just managed to wiggle inside Bence before the Tauran attempted to send its black appendage after it. The second Tauran snatched its appendage between its teeth and jerked it free. The two commenced fighting over Bence again as the traumatized tween attempted to drag himself away from the creatures with his still intact arm.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 6pt;"><strong>...Bence!</strong></span><br/><br/>The voice was small and distant. He glanced again at his missing arm. There was blood everywhere and he could see his arm over by the creatures’ feet as they fought.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Bence hang on!</strong></span><br/><br/><em>I can’t do this anymore</em>, Bence thought as he continued to stare at his arm by the feet of the fighting Tauran soldiers. His vision was going black before his eyes, and he couldn’t find the energy to crawl any further. His eyes closed and five seconds later, they opened again. Three minutes later, Bence was standing in the middle of the street with two Tauran corpses at his left and right, skulls pounded into mush. Their bodies were slowly shriveling as Bence stood there shirtless, having removed his shirt and jacket so that he could reattach his arm. He held his arm against his socket as the tissue, nerves, and tendons started to slowly repair themselves.<br/><br/>While he waited for his limb to mend, he glanced over at the river.<br/><br/><strong>You could have thrown me away </strong>Little Brother mused on a stoic expression. He knew Bence was no longer conscious. He was lucky that he was able to rejoin with him in time.<strong>I don’t understand you, Humans.</strong><br/><br/>Bence frowned sternly as he remembered to inform his kin,<strong>I am still here. The Human did not get rid of me as I thought he wanted. We were attacked, but we are safe.</strong>