Ew....

The squiggly little vermins latched onto her skin, their small sharp teeth pierced her supple purple skin, with every suck, they drew the blood from her, they drew until all that was left was an empty dry husk..... they burned her corspe soon after.

We did it over a small alter in the middle of the Bogwomen territory, the alter was just big enough to carry her weight, we surrounded the alter and lowered our heads.

Her name was Sophia.... she helped us during the battle with the Mega beast, I didn't know her, neither did Barney or Pedro or Bradley or Arthur or Vince.... none of us except Sir George, according to him, She used be good friends with his little brother, he wept bitterly as we paid our respects.

".....What are you gonna do with the leaches?" I asked Miranda, She gave me a sad smile, "I'll show you later," was all she said.

The burial.... if you can call it that, took place in the night.... it was haunting watching the fire hiss and roar over Sophia corpse.... yet I couldn't take my eyes off her for some reason, we stayed there until all that was left were her ashes.

"Mennnnnn, I always hate the smell, it makes me hungry for some reason, This time it was like..." Barney was saying until Pedro added, "Roasted snake?"

"Yeah! I thought I was the only one!"

".....Some vile cretins claim our sisters taste like that Fatewalker," Sammie added.

...I'm surprised she did not take offense to that, decking Barney and Pedro would be the normal reaction, right? or.... am I just violent for believing that?

"We are not so thin skinned BugBreeder, you need not worry about our feelings," Sammie spoke.

".....you don't happen to also have an ability to read people's minds?" I asked incredulously.

"Nope kid, you just have a reeeeaaaalllyyy dopey looking face! it'd be a disgrace for anyone not to see through that!" Barney bellowed, he burst into a feat of laughter before saying, "Now I'm hungry! Sammie what's for supper!? you better have Winnie's elixir with you! this day's been messed up! You gotta compensate us!"

"Why should I?"

"Seriously..... That elf-"

"Barnabas!" Sir George snapped, Barney fell silent at once, "Samantha...." Sir George muttered.

"Yes.... Truthseer?"

"I'm.... we do need some food and rest, could you please give us the grace of 24 hours of hospitality?" he pleaded.

".....18 is more than enough, right?" She said staring at Bradley, he nodded his head and we said no more.

We got to the dining hall, it barely fit Bradley, he had to crouch down in order to walk properly, We took our seats and waited for supper.

"Say Barney...."

"Yeah kid?"

"What about.... your em...."

"My em....." Barney said while blinking innocently, the bastard wants me to ask him outright... I sigh and give in.

"Your arm... what about your arm?"

"My arm..... hmmm, I think I'll sign up for that Red Razor program they keep trying to sell, hehe...." Barney giggled.

"You sure?" Pedro asked, "I hear you need to also do brain surgery as well as other body modifications to ensure you can handle it's.... un-"

"Pepe! it'll be alright! Besides it's not like they'll turn me into a full metal man..... maybe Jane and Josie will like the changes!"

"Jane and Josie?" I asked.

"Yep! My wife and kid!"

"You're married!?" I said incredulously, Sir George and Bradley chuckled while Pedro gave me a tight smile, Vince didn't seem amused and Arthur was working on his Automaton.

"Yeah..... you got a problem with that kid?" He asked cooly, "You're not one of those anti-marriage nuts that keep cropping about recently?"

"No! it's just that you don't look the marriage type!"

"So what's the marriage type huh? A pot belly and balding head? Wait Vince! I'm obviously not talking about you! It's just a harmless example!" Barney cried whilst Vince was slowly rising to his feet, the Orc frowned and sat back down.

"What kind of example is that though?" Sir George commented.

"Oh stuff it Georgie, you know what I mean..."

"Emmm...."

"Kid?"

"You were talking about that place, what'd you call it? the Blue button?"

"Oh? so you're looking forward to that place huh?" He said while giving me a sly smile.

"N-no it's just, you're married!"

"I'm not gonna cheat on my Mrs if that's what you're asking.... Look Kid, there's a lot you don't know about me or any of us in general and the same is true for us with you right?"

"..."

"We'll get to know more about each other real good during our stay together! Yep!"

We sat there chatting waiting for our supper until

The Bogwomen brought in....

"What is this?" I said staring at the funky looking roast meat served with boiled vegetables.

"Drecore! Have a bite Kid!" Barney bellowed, he took a chunk outta the meat and chewed loudly.

".....it tastes a bit.....gamey...but delicious like fish!" I asked, "Hmmmm, it does taste gamey... maybe they didn't remove the toxins well?" Pedro commented.

"Toxins.....?"

"Yeah..." Pedro went on to describe how to properly cook a Drecore.

What is a Drecore, you ask?

Hmmmm..... Think of a cute little Hedgehog, now imagine it stretched out like an anaconda, now imagine it with not limbs, now imagine it with spikes everywhere but it's belly, now imagine it being able to dislocate it's jaw like a snake..... it's even more horrifying when Pedro explained it.... I almost lost my appetite but Vince threatened to whoop my ass if I didn't finish my food, I reluctantly ate the food.

"Cas Jnr!" Miranda called.

"Yeah?"

"I need your help with something? do you mind?"

I shook my head and got going, Barney gave me a thumbs up for some reason and we made our way out of the hall.

Miranda led the two of us to some sort of lab, there were jars of animal parts I didn't recognize, a few bottles of unidentified chemicals and buckets of leeches from earlier on a test table..... Mr Mothman (Still Tentative!) was there too.

The moment we stepped into the lab, a thin transparent mucus like substance covered our body.

"What is this?"

"Stratton's Jacket.... it's for lab experiments, now about the favour I need to ask.... how good is your control over the beast?" She asked whilst pointing at Mr Mothman.

"Pretty good.... he needs some blood though,"

She smiled, "He'll get plenty! I just need to run some tests!" She said, "Now...." She grabbed some of the leeches, there about 500 of them in total, She tossed 3 of them at Mr Mothman, he absorbed them into himself and.....

"Hmmmm.... no effects huh? I wonder why they avoid us then?"

"What? You.... You just used Sophia's blood as food?"

"Well.... not food, Sophia was a bit of an eccentric like me, no.... more so than me..... she wanted to run tests on Bio beasts like me.... I'm sure she would have wanted this...." she said with a solemn look on her face, I opened my mouth to object but reconsidered.... I didn't know Sophia personally and Miranda doesn't seem like the type to lie..... if that's what she says, I have no choice but to believe her.

"Still.... why?" I asked.

"Bio beasts, they don't eat us Bogwomen for some reason.... I thought it was because of some sort of allergic reaction to our blood but.... oh? OH!"

Mr Mothman was squirming and contortimg it's body for some reason, making an array of unintelligible noises, it's skin colour was turning from red to purple to black to white to Grey to blue, it kept going until it finally settled on reddish gold, it's skin was now semi transparent and it's nerves and multiple brains were now visible, I counted 7 of them, I saw Mr Mothman's true body attached to the one in the centre, the biggest one.

"Now that's interesting!" Miranda chirped, "They go through some sort of evolution.... but is it because of our blood or your ability?" She asked staring at me.

"...Maybe both or just your blood I think..."

She looked back at Mr Mothman, she sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "We don't get many opportunities like these but.... I'm glad we did get some answers...."

"You've never captured one?"

"we have.... well not us Bogwomen, it's usually the guys working under Catcher, the selfish bastard doesn't agree to cooperate with us whenever he manages to capture one!" She spat, she walked over to Mr Mothman.

"Pardon me~" She hummed before tearing a piece of off Mr Mothman's flesh, "Nice! It isn't attacking me either.... I'll keep this for future research!"

"Emmm, is that all?"

"Hmm? oh.... em there are some other stuff I wanna experiment on! Just give me a moment!" she said before rushing outta the room.

"Well.... I guess we're gonna be here for awhile," I muttered while petting Mr Mothman, He absently stared at the buckets of Leeches, "Huh? you want some more? I..... don't know if we're allowed? Nah, a few won't be so bad!"

I put my heads in my pocket and stroll-

"Hmmm.... what's this?" I thought I dropped you or something?" I muttered, the Red stone I got off the Ironclaw member.... eh Rattlesnake, I think? it was in my pocket now, I hadn't thought of it since then.

"Still want are you exactly, you don't feel.... normal? well nothing here is normal really! I guess I'll ask the guys later!" I grabbed some leeches and-

"What!?"

Mr Mothman snatched the red stone from my hand, along with the leeches! it gulped them down in one go!

"Why!? I was gonna give you anyways! Spit it out! the red stone spit it-!? whoa are you okay!?" I yelled.

Mr Mothman was shaking violently now, he was growing too! Tumors were emerging here and there, inside and outside his body, worse still, he kept eating more and more leeches, he finished 2 buckets, I protected the other 3 so he wouldn't finish everything, eventually I had no choice but to dash out of the room!

SPLOSH!

He exploded.....he actually exploded! But what came next was an even bigger shock, Thousands of cockroaches, all reddish gold in colour emerged from the body of the Bio beast, they flocked towards me, it was disgusting! "Ew! what is this!?" I heard someone scream, I turned around and found Barney and Sir George staring at the whole scene in horror.

"I-I, it's not my fault! I swear!"

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" Vince roared, stomping into the scene.

More and more people poured in, each contorting their face in disgust at the sight of the roaches, until eventually the hall was packed, Miranda was at the front, her eyes seemed to glow in fascination of the whole thing.

The Roaches flew towards my chest and became tattoos but....

"EW KID! THAT'S TOTALLY GROSS!" Barney screamed, the roaches.... unlike the other tattoos were actively moving around my body, you caught a glimpse of them here and there, on my hands, legs and even my face! at least that's what Barney seemed to convey, The bastard actually threw up when he saw this!

"BugBreeder...."

".....Yes miss Sammie?"

"You disgust me!"

"....yes"