Ace and Cherry were subdued by the same robotic claws used in the first experiment, stripped of their clothing. Both siblings were kept conscious and weren’t given any form of anesthetics to put them to sleep. Meanwhile, the Granians who had attended—Grand Master, Grim, Huntress, One Horn, and others—were standing behind the protection of a triple-layered glass wall with metallic walls at the bottom and the top. Like the first time, two Granians, dressed in hazmat-like clothing, walked into the room with thick, metallic canisters, opened them as fast as they could, and ran away, hiding behind a double-layered metal door. Dry ice spewed from the canisters, and clicking, squawking shrills came from them. "Wait, wait, wait." Cherry grew frightened as she saw the symbiotes emerging from the canisters. "Aren’t you going to put us to sleep like last time? What if these things kill us?" Unknown to her, the Granians were not able to hear a single word coming from her mouth, causing her screams to be in vain. "OH MY GOD!! LOOK AT THOSE THINGS!!" The first symbiotes were shaped like spinal cords with bone segments for legs, black holes for eyes, and tiny mouths with razor teeth aligned. These ones, however, were made from a soft, pink fleshy material. They were shaped like deflated rugby balls and had valves on top of their backs where they breathed from. Two segmented legs at the front, two in the middle, and two at the back were what they had to help them make their way onto the blood mutant siblings in front of them. "I DON’T WANT THAT THING TOUCHING ME. LET ME GO!!! LET ME GO!!" *CRAW!!* CRAW!!* CRAW!! The symbiotes voiced to each other, sounding like the caws of a crow with a throat filled with mucus. "AAHH!!" The first symbiote dug its front legs into Ace’s leg and slowly climbed, leaving wounds in the process. Meanwhile, Cherry’s symbiote circled to her front side while looking her up and down. "DON’T YOU DARE, YOU FREAKING PARASITE!!" She cursed as she desperately tried to move her body away from the symbiote. Unfortunately for her, the creature jumped onto her body and latched itself in between her privates. It slowly climbed up her stomach, onto her chest, and then slowly placed its legs in her mouth. All this grossness was too much for Cherry, so she closed her eyes shut like her brother and waited for it to end. [HP: 10...6...4...3...2...1....] [Energy: 40...20...10...5...2...0...] "AAAAAAHHHHH!!" Both siblings screamed in agonizing pain as the symbiotes, resting on the centers of their backs, burrowed into their flesh. The pain they felt was unlike anything they had ever felt, and it kept rising higher and higher with each passing second. *SCREEECH!!* *SCREEECH!!* The symbiotes pumped themselves up and down while the valves on their backs spat out the remnants of the first symbiotes placed in them. [System Shut....System Override.] [New Symbiote detected.] [HP: 1..10....40...80....100...150...200] [Energy: 0...10...40...80...100...280...350...500] [All Stats have been automatically increased by twenty points.] Blood Strength: 25>>>>45 [+20 Stat Points added.] [Total Stat Points: 34] [Even though your body has received a massive energy boost, it is yet to learn how to fully hold and yield it. Any attempts to harness it fully could possibly lead to addiction and death. Do not fret. The system will reset and start afresh to help you regrow and evolve even further.] As soon as the symbiotes completely entered into their bodies, six thick veins ran from the center of the symbiote valves to their heads, heart, and lower body. With that painful experience done with, the blood mutant siblings were released from the machines that bound them. Their bodies, still readjusting to the new changes, were too weak at the moment, making it difficult for either to stand. "Cherry...," Ace called with his eyes widened and breathing increased, "Are you feeling this? It’s like...my whole body has been...upgraded..." "I feel like I’ve been kicked in the chest...." Cherry answered. "I need to... I need to lie down." "Complete Success." Chris walked into the room with Grand Master and Grim following him. His enthusiasm and excitement freaked them out a little, but they too were pleased to see that the symbiotic fusion was complete and was a success. "My Lords, didn’t I tell you it would be a success? These humans are certainly proving to be better than the first ones...." Chris covered his mouth out of fear as his ears gazed upon the displeased glares of Grand Master and Grim. "Forgive me, my Lords. I spoke out of haste. I’m sorry...please don’t...." "You are lucky that this high-risk trick of yours worked, Grishto." Grim muttered, menacingly with his left arm resting on Chris’ arm as he dug his left thumb into it. "Speak like that again and you will become another experiment." "Let him be, Grim." Grand Master continued as he widened the distance between Grim and Chris. "We should be glad that this worked. We had no hope or faith that these humans would make it past this stage, and yet they did." "W-what are you guys... talking about?" Ace, having overheard their conversation, asked out of pure curiosity. Chris looked at the boy with the old smile he had coming back and went on to explain. "Instead of taking this stage by stage, we decided to give you the highest symbiote we had. That is the same as Lord Grim possesses. Although yours are at the infant stage, they will increase in size, age, and power as you do. How do you feel?" "Like I want to die." "Excellent." Chris nearly jumped with excitement but made sure to contain himself before his superiors. "We’re not going to..." "You’ve spoken enough, Ghrishto." Grim silenced the younger Granian with his tail wrapped around the mouth. "We will be approaching our planet in the near future. From now on, you, your sister, female companion, and golden blood mutant shall train directly under me, Huntress, and One Horn. We will put your bodies through unbearable conditions to get the strongest versions out of you. Once that is complete before schedule, you will be allowed time to rest before you begin what you were brought to do here." "More like abducted and forced to do..." "SILENCE!!" Grim barked, shutting up the two humans crouched before him in their shame. "Ghristo, cover these two and lay them to rest. We begin in the next eight hours." With his orders given, Grim and Grand Master, as well as the other Granians watching, left to attend to other matters, leaving Ace and Cherry in the hands of Chris. "This is the last time you will see me here on this ship." Chris crouched between Ace and Cherry while stroking their backs. "I have enjoyed the time we have spent together. From now on, you will be in the hands of Lord Grim. Not everyone who trains under him lives a very long life. Let me tell you a story. See, Huntress had eight sisters. Each one of them was put under intense training, and only Huntress survived. She was bitter at first, but after becoming engaged to Grim, she seemed to have buried it all away. "Same goes for Murdock, One Horn, and their other four brothers. Luckily, those two survived...surprising how you killed Murdock. I hope you two survive at least. I have little hope for your female companion. Turning into animals will not do her any good against Grim, ahahaha." With his little speech over, Chris knocked the two siblings out, clothed them, and had them taken to their resting chambers, more correctly, holding cells. -------------------------- "Augh... my back..." Waking up from their knocked-out stage, Ace and Cherry found themselves in their cubes, which were suspended above the other specimens. Seated in his cube with a bouncy ball of thick, rubbery blood was Jim, who also had a symbiote mark on his back. The man’s face was devoid of joy and happiness; bitterness, anger, pain, and misery were the only expressions he was showing. "You two are finally awake...." He said while absorbing the ball into his hands and looking at the siblings. "Tell me now, how did it feel?" "Death would have been much better than what these little things put us through." Ace answered back while poking his finger on his back. "What training have they put you through, Jim? Did you learn what’s going to happen next?" "I know, I know. That black alien said he is going to start training us from now on." Jim sat back down and made another ball. "Did you two find anything about the Ethisians? I found out nothing yet." "The Ethisians are to the Granians what they are to us." Cherry answered. "Looks like they cannot handle them alone, so they need us blood mutants." "Just proves to show how powerful blood mutants are." Jim spoke. "Imagine, a whole civilization capable of space travel and gassing a planet having a rival they cannot fight. Makes sense that they’re relying on us." Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝕟𝕖𝕥 "No... that’s not it." Ace muttered while looking at Skyler, who was still asleep. "Chris said that we are showing better improvements than the other two. That means these Granians have tried this before. They have done this sort of experiment before. If my hunch is correct, they either got killed or too strong for us to control." "Or are in the hands of the Ethisians." Cherry chimed in as she glared at her brother. "Either way, we’re about to find out soon enough."