847
Experiment 847 was weary. He'd been sent through the portal to exterminate the vermin on World 239. His makers insisted that he was sent across sooner than he usually was- they seemed impatient. They wanted the world conquered; they were sick of waiting.
847 was tired. He was so tired of the endless killing. But it was the only time they let him leave his cage. He feared that if he disobeyed them, they would never let him out of his cage again. So he went, and he did what they said. But he was so tired.
There was always something about each world he went to that caught his eye. On World 117 it was the beautiful plants with wispy red petals that tickled his feet as he waded through them. When he returned to the home world his makers were disgusted that he hadn't realized they were eating his scales away. On World 198 the sky was always green. When the sun reached its zenith the sky was so pale he almost couldn't tell it was green and not white. When the sun ducked below the horizon the sky looked like an emerald abyss with stars like little shards of broken crystal.
The first thing he saw on World 239 was the dark expanse of the ocean. It stretched on farther than he could see, water in every direction. It was interesting down there. Tiny organisms flittered away from him as soon as they sensed him. Blind little things with warped bodies. There were bigger things too. Some that rivaled him in size. He passed a creature with a long head and bulbous eyes as he swam toward his destination, its long legs propelling it through the water. Its skin looked soft and smooth- not a match for his tough scales and sharp claws. Not a threat.
The threat was above the surface. Much farther away, and near the shore. His opponents were much smaller than the creature he'd passed, although they fought in larger skins.
He didn't know much about the creatures he was fighting beyond that. He'd watched his brothers and sisters fight them through the hive mind. He'd seen the first wave travel through the portal and decimate their lands.
But then things changed. The tiny creatures started fighting back. At first they'd thought they had missed the new species that came to fight them in the second wave. They thought these new creatures with hard armored skin and strange weapons had simply been hiding during the first wave. They watched battle after battle as these new creatures killed them.
He was one of the first to realize that these new armored creatures weren't actually new enemies after all. He saw his sister rip apart the armor on one, saw the small body that disconnected with half the wreckage. And through the remaining skeleton he saw another little body raise their arm and make a striking motion. He saw the giant armored hand match the movement, and he realized what was happening. He realized the little creatures they first set out to destroy hadn't cowered and waited for the inevitable. They had been watching too, and they had prepared for the return of his kind.
His lower leveled siblings were sent through the portal, and they weren't smart enough to understand this. But he did understand. It would be easier for him to fight them.
His makers had created him smarter than most of his siblings. Stronger too. He could spout flames from his mouth and change his form. It made him good for fighting. But they had made a mistake when they made him. They made him a little too smart for his own good- smart enough for him to question what they were doing. They trained him out of expressing it, but they knew it was still there lurking in the corners of his mind. They didn't make any more like him.
That was the flaw in his design that they knew about. What they didn't know was that he could disconnect himself from the hive mind. He was careful to only do so when his eyes were closed. He feigned sleep when he did. They didn't know the empty gap where his mind should be wasn't because his brain had shut down. He was waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of it.
He didn't know the opportunity would come on World 239.
He prowled the waters until he saw the armored creature appear.
It dropped down nearby, most of its body above the surface of the tossing waves. He swam slowly towards it to get a better look. If he looked closely at its strange reflective face he could make out two much smaller forms. If he took them out their hard shell would be nothing but an empty husk.
He rose out of the water and sprang at them.
They struggled with each other for a bit, but it became clear that their armor was not made to withstand his fire.
He felt the bloodlust of his siblings flood through his veins and opened his mouth to end the battle. And right as he did he saw one of the creatures inside the shell more clearly than he'd ever seen them before.
For the briefest of moments they locked eyes. Then the creature swung his gaze over to the body beside it. And in that split second he saw the creature make a decision. They could let both of the small creatures get hit by the blast, or they could take it on themselves. They chose the latter.
The flames burst through the shell and enveloped the creature, just barely missing the second one.
Through the wind and the rain he heard the screams. They cut through the storm, ringing in his ears.
He heard the remaining creature cry out; trying to communicate to the other one, but it was no use. The first creature didn't respond.
He felt...guilty. He'd felt guilty before when he went to other worlds, but those worlds gave up so fast that the guilt was short lived. Or perhaps he simply convinced himself that the guilt was gone, when in reality it had never left.
He didn't want to fight anymore. He was so tired.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice the remaining creature charge him in their armored skin. He didn't react fast enough when he snapped back to reality and saw the fierce determination in the small creature's eyes. They had something connected to their arm that was sharp enough to cut through his skin, tearing its way down his shoulder and chest.
He roared in pain and swatted the creature away, stumbling back below the surface.
He let the waters surround him again and wished the pain would go away. He wished he could stop the cries of his brothers and sisters as they screamed for blood-
And then he remembered that he could.
He was injured badly, so maybe if he cut off the neural link they would assume he was dead. He might die soon anyway, so why not live his last moments in the privacy of his own mind?
He cut off the link.
And then he swam as fast and as far away from the armored giant as he could.
Once he was far enough he realized he would be less noticeable if he were smaller. Most things of this world were not nearly as large as him.
He transformed into a creature he'd passed before- something sleek and fast, with rows of sharp teeth like his own that kept other creatures from getting too close.
He was still bleeding, but by now he realized the wound was shallow enough that it might not be life threatening.
He traveled along in his new form until the water started to clear up, and he could see the sand shifting below him. He raised his head above the surface only to realize he couldn't breathe. He sank fretfully back below the surface, looking around for something else to change into that could breathe above water.
He sulked until eventually he saw something pass far above him in the sky. Once more he breached the surface, but this time before breathing in he shifted into a new form. He bobbed along the surface and took grateful breaths. The water was fine, but he preferred air.
His new form had wings, so he gathered his strength and lifted himself from the water.
His flying was shaky, but it was passable. He didn't have the energy to keep it up for long though.
Fortunately for him, he wasn't too far from the shore.
He flew until he reached the dry ground, settling there in exhaustion. He would have been fine just waiting there until he either healed or died, but fate had other plans.
He had nearly fallen asleep when he heard approaching footsteps. He looked around, meeting the concerned gaze of someone else.
It was one of the two legged creatures that cared and fought so hard.
It bent down and made clucking noises at him, speaking to him in a language he didn't understand. Before he knew it the creature had picked him up and carried him back into its home.
It cleaned and bandaged his wound gently, shushing him every once in a while to calm him down. He was unused to someone caring for him.
It was weird....but it was nice too.
It wrapped him in something warm and soft, leaving him lying somewhere he could see the outside world, but still protected from it. He slept feeling more relaxed than he'd ever been before.