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Paige really didn’t know why they kept her so in the dark about this.
She was one of the best people in this research station, so why did they forbid her from more major missions regarding what was going on? All it seemed to be was animals going feral…
So what was so mysterious about it? Just what was so risky she was forbidden from doing anything about minus menial cleanup work?
…A lot, apparently.
Apparently, a while ago around Japan, mainly in the more rural regions, animals had been mutating, for lack of better words. Pink, fleshy and slimy growths would erupt over their bodies without warning, mainly in the form of their bodies bulging out as their limbs turned into simple tentacles, and extra eyes, always yellow in color with a slit pupil, burst from their exposed flesh. There were countless other things that would burst from their altered bodies, such as fleshy spines and tentacles that didn't replace any limbs, but the previously mentioned changes were by far the most common ones.
Sometimes they wouldn’t even survive their mutation. However, the ones which did all exhibited the same behavior, regardless of what they were before: highly aggressive to anything and everything they came across, minus other mutated animals.
This all started up around the Tottori Prefecture, and had since spread about like a plague. While in more densely populated areas the mutants could be spotted and killed easily, in the less dense ones they could rampage for a fair bit before finally being located and killed.
There were even reports of some wiping out entire towns.
The origin of all of this was presumed to be a small abandoned ruin, only recently discovered. It seemed positively ancient, with information on it showing that it was carved into a cliffside, walls lined with long-forgotten scripture and images with forgotten purposes, hidden away for ages and left forgotten by everything…
Everything minus the flesh that lined the halls of it, that is.
The same odd, slimy flesh that covered animals had been found along the walls of the ruin, this time a little different, in both appearance and form. Somehow, the flesh was even more slimy, and tended to be more varied in color and appearance, from purple brainlike masses stretched across a wall, to dark pink entrail-like strands, dripping a grotesque green slime from them as they pulsed about.
And the worst part of all this?
All this flesh wasn’t from anything on this planet.
Every single DNA test, on both the ruin’s flesh and the mutant’s growths came up with the same, mysterious result, the conclusion that this wasn’t something from the world we knew. That this was something more.
Something that wanted every single creature on this planet dead.
…why did they keep her in the dark about all this?
There were no proper words Paige could find to describe how she felt about what she had discovered other than wonder. Terrified, blood-chilling wonder.
There… there was no way she would be able to go back to her normal job of helping clean up after the mutant attacks now that she knew the truth. She had opened Pandora's Box…
And somehow wanted to delve into it.
She was going to go into that ruin and find out what was up with it. She would come out with the knowledge of where all of this came from and how it all started. Sure, she might lose her job, but that was the price she would pay for understanding.
Plus, the flesh in the ruin seemed pretty benign.
So what’s the worst that could happen?
~~~
She was an idiot. A cocky, cocky idiot.
Yeah, sure, just waltz into an old ruin with alien flesh all over the place with only a gun and a flashlight, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, judging by the wound on her side and her injured leg, a whole lot.
She should’ve known this was too much for her alone to handle. She should’ve fled when she saw the bodies, coated in the same flesh that covered the walls and pulsed to the rhythm of a nonexistent heart. She should’ve simply ran away the second they rose, puppeted about by the endless streams of flesh as they attacked her without remorse, screeching and roaring at her as they struck.
But she walked on. She walked deeper and deeper, despite it all. Despite the wounds.
She wasn’t the first to enter this place, and she would be far from the last. She learnt that by investigating the bodies- all former coworkers of hers. All here for investigations. All dead.
There was no turning back now. If she tried to flee, she would likely bleed out before she could tell anyone about what she saw. So, forward she went, deeper and deeper into the ruins.
She knew she should’ve stayed in New York and helped investigate those supposed mutants running around.
She eventually made her way into a room that was different from the rest, circular in shape and lit by strange white circle shaped lights in the walls, powered by nothing yet standing strong, shining like spotlights over an altar in the center with a circle indent in the middle.
She wasn’t alone, as a small tentacle of the flesh that covered the ruin was in with her, twitching about, oddly lively. It held a small gray-brown cylinder, covered in etchings of unknown source and purpose.
Something about it… allured her.
Paige reached down to grab it with her left hand, right one remaining wrapped around her torso, clutched around her gaping wound. The cylinder called out to her, spoke to her, demanded her atten-
“Well, aren’t you a curious little human.”
She paused in terror, letting that voice rattle about in her head. It took her a moment to react to it, as she turned around to see nothing. Nothing but endless darkness and flesh behind her. Nothing but herself, alone in this cavernous pit.
But she knew she wasn’t alone. She knew something was with her now.
Something that was currently stalking and toying with its prey.
“What…” she managed to stammer out after what felt like hours, her voice weak from what she endured trying to get here. “What are you…?”
She got no response for a moment, making her fear she had just hallucinated in what were likely her final moments.
But she wasn’t. And she didn’t know if she liked the thought of something being in here with her more than the thought of dying alone.
“Hmm, and I thought you were stronger than this.” The voice said, almost observing her like a hawk, looking down on its next meal. “No matter…”
“…I’ll hammer out those imperfections soon enough”
With those final words, a cold feeling overtook Paige’s hands as the skin on them began to peel off, exposing bare muscles, bones and nerves to the world around her as she gasped. The exposed fat inside of her body began to bubble to the top of her internal systems and spread out, texture changing to a wrinkly and slightly slimelike facsimile of human skin, hue shifting to a desaturated purple in color as her fingers began to move on their own accord.
They all pushed themselves together slowly, cramming into each other as the bones cracked about, breaking away into the muscle as her hands were rendered useless, slender stumps that ended in a point, covered in blood and torn skin, with scars that were expanding more and more as her skin kept peeling off in strips, revealing more of her internal workings that covered itself in that fat-turned-purple-alien-skin
She could feel and hear the bones in her hands and arms succumb to the same fate as the bones in her fingers, as the muscle seemed to compress down on them so hard they shattered, breaking apart and shattering, only to then melt into more muscle as they changed and morphed into tentacles.
The feeling of her elbows shattering away was horrid, with the joint seemingly taking more time to compress, and giving her time to wonder how the hell she was still alive. She made the choice to try and look away for the rest of her transformation, despite her temptation to stare at her changing form fighting against her.
As the skin fell off and the muscles, nerves, and bones underneath seemed to merged into one, the new material that made up her new skin seemed to wrinkle up a little, as her tentacle-arms thickened out, growing more plump in form, as they also stretched themselves out, the plumpness remaining on them as they grew longer. While this happened, the remaining skin fell off her arms, roughly ripping itself off around her shoulders, which now seemingly didn’t exist, crushed away like the rest of her arm bones.
A new sensation overtook her arms, making her slowly look over to them, only to instantly regret her choice as she saw them move down her torso, sliding down her body and ripping apart her shirt and skin underneath, not even changing what was hidden away under it at that, leaving her internal systems exposed to the cool air around her, blood trailing down her body.
The sight made her feel horribly sick, forcing her to look away once more and gag at what she bore witness to.
Her arms soon reached the very bottom of her abdomen, right at the base of her legs, as the skin they ripped off on their quest to reach them flopped down to her sides, blood exposed from the internal workings of her now dribbling down her thighs.
Paige, by now, was chock full of panic. She had no idea what to do, signals in her brain flashing about, struggling to choose one option among millions, as her legs simply shook about, shaking harder and harder, until a new, painful sensation rose in them.
Like someone was pulling on each side of each leg, tugging harder and harder by the second.
The pain reached its peak when her legs tore themselves in half down the middle, muscle and veins tearing themselves apart, staining her pants and shoes a deep red as they tore themselves apart from the force. Paige couldn’t help but scream out in agony as she fell to the ground, torn legs twitching about like a fish out of water.
She slammed her eyes shut, biting down on her lip so hard it drew blood, the taste of copper entering her mouth as drops of blood dripped down her chin. Thankfully, only her legs and feet were torn in half, but that was little compromise compared to the utter agony of it all. The exposed fat began to turn the same purple as the fat that was once in her arms as it began to shift into her new skin, the remaining old skin beginning to peel off her legs as they twitched about.
“Why…?” She managed to stammer out as her toes merged into one digit as the skin on each half of her feet peeled off, muscle underneath dyeing itself purple and merging with her nerves and veins. “Why are you doing this…?”
“Silence yourself, weak little human!” the voice snarled out, angry over her simple question. “Wretched pests like you don't deserve to learn of the glory of the Krang!”
Paige had little time to wonder about the answer she got as she felt the bones in every half of her feet break away, slimming down her feet and morphing every half into the tip of a tentacle. As the rest of her legs changed, they plumped out a little, growing larger as if to mask the fact they were once just a single normal pair of legs instead of four (six, plus her arms) purple tentacles with no proper skin minus her altered fat.
As her upper thighs shifted, fat wrapping around the exposed muscle as it shifted into that accursed wrinkly and slimy fake purple skin, the tentacles that once could be called her legs finished plumping up, fat-skin wrinkling over as her bones, muscle and veins merged into one mass underneath her altered form.
The area inbetween her legs sealed itself shut, sexual organs melting into more muscle as something in her mind flared off, memories shifting about a little as her old skin fell away from her body. Eventually, she became a he, as his upper body’s skin began to peel back, exposing muscle and veins just in time for them to change like his limbs had done mere seconds prior.
His stomach jutted out a little as the skin peeled off of it, with her fat shaping around where it was to form a relatively small gut. His veins jutted out, bulging out and merging together, visible through his skin before it tore itself off and her fat coated his body, reshaping and recoloring itself to act as fake skin.
His neck cracked, spine twisting under his body as he felt it retract into his body, pushing down on itself and cracking under its own pressure with every push, bits of bone shooting off into his muscle only to fade away into it. Soon, his entire neck vanished into himself, as his skin peeled itself away more and more by the second, jutting veins slithering up to his head and wrapping around his back.
Four slits, two on each side, cut their way into his body as it compressed itself into a more square shape, sides growing perfectly even with one another as the slits flung themselves open, revealing brighter purple muscle over a strange, yellow glowing organ, only to flutter closed again as his body crammed itself into the shape of a rectangle, bones shattering and vanishing as this occurred, organs writhing and changing alongside them.
As this happened, Paige felt himself growing taller, the purple fat-skin growing with him, seemingly keeping itself in one piece, if only to wrinkle itself up as he grew. What was left of his real skin, on the other hand, ripped itself apart, leaving more room for his changing body to alter further, with his breasts pushing themselves back into his body before they tore themselves off.
Thankfully, his head was spared the agony of being flayed.
Unthankfully, it seemed to begin to change further, merging with his rectangular form and slowly but surely beginning to lose its skin. His nose seemingly sunk into his face, while his ears balled themselves up and retreated into his skull, both not even leaving a hole behind as the skin around them tore, the fat underneath bulging out and crawling over it in preparation to turn into new skin.
His mouth cracked, disgusting and wet snapping noises coming from it as it expanded, teeth sharpening to points in his skull as they yellowed in color, some teeth on his upper jaw emerging from his mouth. The fat-skin did nothing to hide his new snaggleteeth, and simply ignored them in favor of two large veins that had recently formed on both sides of his mouth.
His tongue writhed and twisted inside of his mouth, as Paige opened his mouth to poke it out and take a closer look, only to instantly regret it as he saw it turn a darker shade of purple than his fat-skin, swiftly growing longer and plumper, almost wormlike in form. Quickly, he shoved it back into his mouth as it gained a notable point at the end.
His eyes turned yellow, irises almost bleeding out into the sclera as they too turned yellow, merging with each other as his pupils turned red, extending vertically as they gained a notable slit to them. As the skin around them fell off, the fat formed new skin, much more wrinkled around the lower eyelids, which were black and oddly shiny.
On the upper eyelids, the merging and growing veins pulsed and settled, shaping into false eyebrows the fat-skin wrapping around his head, covering the veins and soon reaching the top of his cranium, compressing it down on itself, head flattening and bone shattering as the last bits of skin on his head fell off, finally allowing the final changes to happen as the fat-skin on his smaller forehead wrinkled itself up as it covered his large veiny “eyebrows”, and finally covered his entire body, ending his painful transformation.
“Ahh… such wondrous handiwork of mine…” The voice mused, taking in every detail of Paige’s altered body. “To think my siblings saw my plans as a waste of time…”
“Stop t-” Paige cried out, only to stop when he heard his voice, slamming a tentacle against his mouth. He… he sounded exactly like that voice.
“Oh, hush.” The voice responded. “You won’t live past this, anyway. You served your purpose. Now, let me claim my dues.”
With those final words, Paige’s head pounded. If he still had a skull, it would be throbbing against his skin and muscle as his brain seemingly tried to escape his head, foreign thoughts flooding into his mind, overwhelming any of his own. He snarled, wrapping his tentacles against the sides of his altered head as he thought to himself.
My name is Paige, I’m 29 years old, and I’m an investigator of odd occurrences around the globe… he thought, trying to keep his memories in line. I am not some weird alien, banished for unsightly reasons. Couldn’t they see I was saving this weak little planet? To think these humans actually succeeded in sealing me and my siblings aw-
He slapped himself with a tentacle for thinking that.
He wasn’t going to lose this fight. Not this time. This planet would be his, and he would show this weak little universe the glory of his kin. If only this human realized he was fighting a battle where he was damned to lose from the start, then this would all be so much easier…
No. No. No.
He could win this, he would win this… the odds were stacked against him, his thoughts were being drowned out, he could barely think, but he could win this.
He would remake this world in the image of Krang.
As the remains of Paige’s mind fizzed out, the Krang couldn’t help but laugh out into the caverns of the place of his sealing. He was free, after a thousand years!
And now, his conquest was finally able to continue.
He grabbed the key in a tentacle, placing the cylinder in the small altar in the center of the circular chamber, clicking it into place. Instantly, purple flashes of light wrapped around it, with the top of the chamber opening up, dirt and grass dropping around him as it peeled back.
Disgusting. Thankfully, it would all be gone soon enough.
He looked up into the sky before him, a purple beam shooting up into it as a black rift opened above the world, light dancing around it as it grew in size, bigger and bigger by the second as a massive sphere covered in flesh emerged from it.
The technodrome. His ship. Which meant…
“My, we weren't expecting your little plan to work out!~”
His siblings.
He turned to see two other Krang, one more reddish and smaller, one more pink and with her face lower on her body, behind him, having jumped out of the portal to his prison mere seconds prior.
“Looks like I’m full of surprises, dear sister.” He replied. To be fair, it was rather hard to even connect to this dimension. But, he managed, with some help from his brother and a lot of salvage tech from the weaker members of his race.
And time. Lots and lots of time.
A string of commotion from below broke him out of his thoughts. Walking over to the edge of the cliff, he noted several armed forces approaching the temple where he and his kin were sealed long ago, each and every one unaware of their approaching demise.
“And it appears that you’ll be able to burn off all that bloodlust, sister.” he said, turning to her and watching her utterly beam with murderous intent. He knew that she longed to kill, after all.
As she jumped off the cliff, he and his brother stared up to the sky, now dyed a reddish-pink in color, the Technodrome halfway through the hole he created.
Finally, he could continue his conquest, starting with this weak, pathetic little planet and the puny little humans on it.
And nothing could stand in his way.