A Joytoy’s Journey to become a Hive-Queen [A SCS Fanfic]

Chapter 75 – Shapeshifting is way too cool!

“As outlined in the proposal, we can make a lot of money by making action figures based on every different form she has been seen taking on. Production would be a bit more expensive up front, but in the long term it will net us serious profits.”

“I’ve read the proposal. It does sound rather enticing. What steps are taken to ensure plausible deniability?”

“We have decided to adjust certain features to be more in line with other IP’s. That way we can claim that this is simply a new line of alternative designs based upon the IP’s we own.”

“What about the branding?”

“That’s been a worry. In the end, we decided to brand this as a non-existing, fictional Samurai, while taking broad inspiration from the original and some of our own IP’s, although a fake Samurai name has not yet been decided upon.”

“Make sure it’s not something that’d agitate her too much. She has already made it clear that she doesn’t want to work with us, so we need to make sure that she has no reason to come after us.”

“Of course, sir. We have already decided to adjust the lore of the character to fit more in line with our target demographic. Our marketing experts are certain that they’ll eat it up like breakfast.”

  -  Leaked conversation between Nimbletainment Inc. executives, 2057

Waking up was a bit strange. I wasn’t so much waking up, as the feeling in my body came back, the familiar prickling sensation of your limbs having fallen asleep. It was quite unpleasant, since it was all over my body all at the same time, but luckily it didn’t last too long.

Opening my eyes, I blinked a couple of times, trying to get used to the new senses. They were quite sharp, even compared to my previous ones which had already been upgraded, just now with the addition of a much sharper sense of smell and touch.

It was a bit weird, since I could feel the exact texture of the bed I was laying on, still naked. At the same time, though, it was also quite nice. A part of me wondered what hugging Chloe or Jenna would feel like now? Probably even more heavenly than it was already.

I smiled at the thought, sitting up and trying to get used to my new body. Inspecting myself, I found that I looked just about the same as I’d done before, with only minor changes. That wasn’t a surprise, the body mods weren’t meant to change my looks, for that I had my shapeshifting.

That said, there were some differences. While I had never looked sickly or unhealthy, despite my drug-filled and malnourished past, I also had never quite looked at the peak of my health either. It was minor things that were hard to describe, but seeing the differences first hand, it was obvious. At least to me.

With a nod, I stretched, before I got up and bounced lightly on my feet a couple of times. I felt surprisingly strong and nimble. Some of that might just come from being well rested, but I was almost certain that it was also because of my new body. A suspicion that proved correct when I tested my new range of motion.

I had always been quite flexible, partly due to my job, but the lengths to which I could bend now were orders of magnitude bigger. It was quite nice, being able to do a perfect split, then overstretch my legs, while still standing, or being able to more or less fold my back in half. It was superhuman, no athlete, no matter how flexible, would ever hold a candle to me, considering the constraints of human anatomy they had to deal with.

With my first inspection of myself complete, I turned my attention to my shapeshifting. This was the thing I was most giddy about, and something that came naturally to me now. I wasn’t sure if it was instinct or something else, but no matter the reason, shifting my body was as easy as a thought. It wasn’t like operating my augs, it was more similar to just moving your arm or hand. You could just… do that.

My body shifted, subtly, my view rising a little in height as my body adjusted. There was no discomfort or pain, just a really strange feeling of change, before it stopped only a couple of moments later. Looking down at myself, I found the changes as I had envisioned them.

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I was now a little bit taller, only a couple of inches, with a more pronounced chest and curves, two long and fluffy tails at my back. My armor settled around me, changing to perfectly fit my new form, and I clenched and unclenched my fists, checking myself over.

The form was just as I had wanted it to be, although again, it wasn’t as if I had to visually envision my new form. I just… knew what to do to achieve what I wanted. 

Another thought and my body shifted again, this time growing even taller and a bit more muscular. Shifting only took a couple of moments, and soon I found myself looking identical to Chloe. There were some differences, since I wasn’t quite sure what her internal anatomy was like exactly, especially with the muscles around her stomach, arms, and legs, but unless you had a keen eye for that kind of thing, I would be indistinguishable from my girlfriend.

Snickering, I took on the form of Jenna, before I returned to my newfound Kitsune form. Utilising one of the Nursing drones nearby, I inspected myself, adjusted a few things to better fit with the look I was going for, before I nodded.

This was amazing! I was already loving my newfound capabilities, even if they were limited at the moment. I’d need a lot more biomass to take on the larger forms, but that could be rectified relatively quickly, considering the surplus of biomass we had available.

Granted, I wasn’t looking forward to that. To get the biomass into my system I had to eat it, and, considering that we only had antithesis biomass, the thought was a bit revolting. But we still had some surplus, and it would be a waste to spend points on this, considering that we very likely would need all the points we still had in the near future.

And it wasn’t like I didn’t know what antithesis tasted like.

I had the memory of Snuffles eating them, as well as the experience of devouring a good chunk of the body mass from the model Fifty-Four-H during the simulation. Sure, those memories were from the memories of proper Hexclaws, who would have different preferences, but that could easily be rectified with my new shapeshifting.

With a sigh, I shook my head, before I turned towards the massive pile of biomass stocked up in the opposite corner of the rooms, quickly depleted and replenished to keep our broodmothers going.

Assuming a smaller version of Snuffles’ body, amused at the strange shift in perspective and the unusual way of walking, I began to dig in, pushing my doubts about it to the back of my mind. I only had to do this once, unless I lost limbs or something, so it luckily wasn’t going to be a daily thing.

It took me the better part of half an hour, until I felt my biomass storage getting to capacity. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, Kaysa had told me it had to do with dimensionally shunted storage containers somewhere inside my body, but I also didn’t much care for a more detailed explanation. Now that I finally had obtained my body mods, the worries I had about the entire ordeal before were gone.

Assuming my Kitsune form once more, careful to keep the adjustments the way I wanted them to be, I finally left the broodmother room, entering the main hangar. There was a lot going on here, multiple Sentinels loading and unloading shuttles, weaving between those of Us who were unloading biomass from the shuttles and Vultures.

With a thought, I reconnected to the chatroom Bobby, Chloe, and Jenna were using. We’ve been in contact, of course, but I still wanted to chat with them a little on a more personal level.

“Hey everyone. I’m back! Body mods are done.”

“Hey!” Chloe replied cheerfully, even if I could hear the concentration in her words. From the rest of Us I knew that she was currently finishing up cleaning out a cave. “How’re you doing?”

“Glad to hear you’re back,” Jenna added with warmth in her voice.

“Aye, good to see you’re back,” Bobby added, then stopped when he dealt with some xenos in front of him.

“Good to be back. Can’t wait to put these new forms to the test! Shapeshifting is damn awesome.” While I spoke, I walked over to the main hangar ramp and looked out.

I could just get into one of the shuttles, or even the Vultures for that matter, but I was feeling giddy and I kind of wanted to try flying by myself. I had, afterall, gotten the Dream Learning Course for it for just this eventuality.

“I can imagine,” Chloe said with a giggle, “Now our nights will be even more interesting.”

“Oh, my love, don’t tempt me like this. I need to go fight aliens, and I can’t do that if I’m all hot and bothered.”

We both laughed, before I continued. “Actually, now with my body mods my libido is firmly in my control. So tease away, I’ll be able to endure it.”

“But that was half the fun of it!” Jenna complained with a mock-whiny voice.

“Listen, I don’t really wanna interrupt your fun, but we could use some help down here,” Bobby chimed in.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m on my way then. Time to learn how to fly, eh?” I said with a wide grin, before my body shifted once more, slowly morphing into a slightly adjusted variant of our Envoli Raptors.

With a few flaps I tested my wings, trying to get a handle on this new form. Even with my Dream Learning it took some getting used to, since I now had an actual bird-like body. Luckily it wasn’t too big of a deal, with all the other Dream Learning courses I was prepared for drastic shifts in anatomy. Still, better safe than sorry.

Only when I felt safe did I flap a little stronger, trying to get a feel for where my liftoff point was, before I nodded and jumped out of the Hangar.

My Queen’s Guard was behind me in one of the Vultures, so I was not without help. Something I appreciated greatly, because flying was a strange feeling to experience. I never had any fear of heights, but that was different from flying under your own body, in a body that was decidedly not human.

At first I kept things slow, making sure I didn’t mess up my movement and taking my time to get used to this new experience, before I sped up a bit when I felt more confident. And oh damn, flying was awesome.

While I made my way over, I mentally reviewed everything that had gone down in the last couple of days, just to make sure I was up to date with what I could expect.

It had been a bit weird, watching the rest of Us while I was out. Not that it was a new feeling, I’ve had dreams like that before, of course. The most memorable one was when the Hive-Mind upgrade first finished.

That had been my first real experience with being a Hive-Mind. At the time none of it had made any sense, even if that changed relatively quickly. I could still remember that I felt like I had to visit an asylum or something. 

But even afterwards, I often wasn’t entirely lost in dreamland, more watching over everything at a remove. Sure, with the Dream Learning that was a bit different, but generally I didn’t entirely lose track of what the rest of Us were doing.

This time, though, things were a bit weirder than normal. With my body being in an induced coma, and our chorus being much more harmonious, it felt different.

I had, of course, taken part in the chorus when I could. It wasn’t like I had much else to do, and considering the circumstances, every last bit of help was needed. We were quite worried about the worsening situation, especially after the higher digit models had been spotted.

For days we had worked without pause, trying to help where we could. At this point all of Us were quite exhausted, both physically and mentally. I might not be as affected, since I did have some nice rest, but for the others that was a whole lot different. It took a surprising amount of effort to keep the harmony going, something a few of the Burdened put down to the physical exhaustion all our bodies were facing. 

We pushed through, of course. There was no way that we would surrender our efforts, not until the expedition was done. Even if it wasn’t easy.

Not to sound arrogant, but at this point we were pretty much the major reason why things hadn’t gone to shit entirely yet. Even with our dwindling numbers, we were still able to mostly hold an entire Hive on our own, sometimes even managing to send help out to others.

That didn’t mean the others didn’t chip in, of course. There were many Samurai who had gone above and beyond; I was struggling to think of anyone who hadn’t pushed and pushed and pushed until they were forced to step down. Either by their AI, the Family, or the simple fact that their bodies could no longer keep up.

But nobody apart from Us had the necessary capabilities to work on the sheer scale required to keep an eye on everything. Even if that was slowly changing.

Jenna had grown her forces immensely, becoming the cornerstone of our defences. Two days after my upgrade had started, she had begun to expand her operations, utilising the new biomechanical technology she had acquired to put up defences wherever she could. It had cost her a lot of points, which did suck, considering her future plans, but without her, we were pretty sure we’d already have suffered so much more and so much harder.

Once things really went downhill, she had doubled down and gotten even more equipment, almost entirely exhausting her point pool. By this point she had the entire area surrounded by a cordon of defences, be it troops or fortifications. It was the only reason nobody worried about a potential outbreak too much.

Turning my attention back to the call for a moment, I addressed her. “Everything good on your end, Jenna? Need Us to send some help over?”

“No, thank you. I think you’re more needed elsewhere, so far I have things under control.”

I smiled inwardly at her warm tone in her voice.

“I think at the moment, our biggest problem is the northern Hive. Neuron Salvation has the second northern Hive under control, but that one will be troublesome,” Chloe chimed in, and I nodded, quickly checking my memory about what was going on with Neuron Salvation.

She had grown quite a lot during my time in the induced coma. While she didn’t really focus on killing xenos as much as she did her therapist side, she had gotten a whole host of new bodies that worked as additional defences around the second most northern Hive, the one we had lost the Samurai in.

It took a lot of pressure off from the rest of the expedition and enabled them to focus on the last Hive, with the northern Hive still under lockdown. The fact that we had half of the four Hives under control with just two Samurai, both of whom were relatively new, was a miracle in and of itself.

She was supported by Pipeline, who had turned into the backbone of our logistics department, organising a whole host of things and spending his points to keep the entire operation running smoothly. At this point he was the primary supplier of medical supplies, ammunition, and low tier weapons, most of which were used by Neuron Salvation. Together with Jenna, he made sure that the expedition could continue and prepare for any eventuality.

“I might see if I can’t help Pipeline with some purchases,” I mused as I circled around the air, watching the activity below me and trying to get a feel for where I should best begin with my help.

“I think that’d be appreciated,” Bobby said with a nod in his voice, “The guy’s been spending points like crazy. If it weren’t for Nym and him working together, I think he’d have long since run out.”

Nym the Scourge was another relatively new Samurai, who focused on rats and other critters, mostly as scouts, but also as carriers for biological weapons. From what we could see, she didn’t like engaging directly with the adversary, but she was more than capable of laying down some hurt, utilising stealth and slow acting toxins.

It was a godsend to keep the northern Hive in check. Not only was she able to halt the antithesis attempts to leave, her rats were also scouting out the deeper parts of the Hive. The images we got from that weren’t great, her rats were meant to be cheap and to be deployed in large numbers, but it gave Us our first idea of what we could expect there.

And it didn’t look good.

“Yeah. I’m really impressed with everyone, we have two Hives more or less dealt with with just two Samurai, and one which is nearly locked off with another one. Truth be told, I expected things to be a whole lot worse. Not that they don’t suck now,” I muttered, watching Nym through another one of Us.

“When you get here, we should probably chat about our plans going forward. At this point, I don’t think we can press on too much anymore, we have most of the outer circle cleared, and the inner circle is a damn minefield of xenos. Not sure if we are ready to delve deeper into that entire mess.” Chloe’s voice had lost a bit of the amusement it held prior, obviously more thoughtful now.

“We really aren’t,” Bobby replied, and I could hear his annoyance at the situation in his tone. “We’re all tired as all hell, and without some more backup we’d be ripped to shreds in no time flat.”

I interrupted their discussion. “Maybe I can help? I’m all stocked up on biomass, so I should be able to manage one of the larger forms.”

“Uh, sure? I guess you could, I’m just not sure how much of a difference that would make.”

“Sweetheart, I’m freshly rested, have over 300k points to my name, and am really excited to finally try out some combat forms. I think it’s time for you all to take a break.”

“I won’t complain,” muttered Bobby, “But make sure you’re careful, yeah? Wouldn’t want to need to pull you out of the ditch.”

I chuckled at his words. “Yeah, no worries. Let me quickly give Pipeline a helping hand, and then I’m going to take your place for a while so you can rest a bit.”

Changing course once more, I began to fly over to the Headquarters. Time to put all the points we saved up to good use, before I could finally test my new combat forms. This day was turning out to be hella awesome!

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