Evolutionary Liberator

The guns fired only a couple of shots, before the cargo hold opened, and someone in a spacesuit exited the ship, tethered somewhere in the hold. Dustin smirked, thinking they were going to try and talk to him, until he saw the strange contraption the person was holding.

The guy held it up, and shot a bolt at him, causing him to fly back into the hold. Dustin watched the bolt as it hit him in the c.h.e.s.t, and bounced off the crystal plates under his skin. Using his worm tendrils, he stopped his spin, and righting himself, headed back towards the ship. His torn skin had healed by the time he reached the cargo hold, and saw the figure tangled in his own line.

Dustin stepped into the cargo hold, noting the two small flyers that were parked there, and slapped the exterior button that closed the hold doors. As soon as they shut, the gravity field kicked in, and atmosphere began flooding the hold. Making his way to the figure, Dustin watched as he stood up and took off his helmet. There weren't any eyes to be seen on his b.a.r.e head, but his mouth opened to expose rows of teeth like a shark.

Preparing to punch the guy, Dustin was caught off guard when he swung around, holding his gun, and shot him point blank in the c.h.e.s.t. He went flying back, crashing into a wall covered in various tools. The crystals just under his skin had prevented the hits from damaging his organs, but Dustin could feel something spreading throughout his system, and was amused when he realized it was a tranquilizer of some kind.

Standing slowly, Dustin directed his system to analyze and ignore the stuff. He remained slumped over, as if fighting the affects, as the alien thug drew closer to him. The space suit was gone, and Dustin could see the thorn-like protrusions on his skin, as he stopped just out of reach, in case Dustin planned to lunge out at him.

But he didn't know Dustin had tentacles on his back. The moment Dustin saw him stop, he shot out those tentacles, with poison tips on them. If he could land even one blow, just a scratch would be enough to lay the alien out.

He was ready for it, dodging them and moving even further away. Dustin jumped at him, having reconfigured his leg muscles to allow better distance, landing on him, and shooting his tentacles down. The thug responded by holding up a small taser, and shooting him with it. Dustin was stunned just long enough for the alien to get away, while he adjusted his system again, to deal with the new form of damage.

This was starting to get annoying, and Dustin turned towards the alien, who was standing against the wall, holding a strange box. As he prepared to charge, the guy pressed a button, causing a force field to form around him. Dustin smiled, and placed his hand against the field, noting the frequency and taste of it, as he utilized the space worm's ability to eat energy.

The alien didn't waste any time, and as soon as Dustin started draining the field, he used a small crane to move a large clear box into place. Dustin sped up his absorption, but couldn't get the field to crash before the box crashed down on top of him, cutting off the field, and trapping him inside of it. Saying several colorful things, he watched the thug grin as he walked around him, Dustin noted that the box couldn't be airtight. If he went into his slime form, to escape, he would have to leave the crystal inside of him, that trapped the nanobots. Thinking for only a moment, as the alien began to secure the box so it wouldn't be able to move, Dustin made up his mind.

These guys were obviously bounty hunters of some kind, probably sent by the AI to capture and kill him, if they could. While there was always the chance, they were sent by someone else, who was ticked off by the virus on his video, Dustin doubted that very much. Anyone else with the capabilities to overcome his virus, would have had much better weapons and traps. Knowing that what they planned for him wasn't going to be good, Dustin began to change from the inside out. His slime form could dissolve just about anything, so by changing on the inside, he could focus on dissolving the crystal and nanobots first. It would be a pain in the b.u.t.t later, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. The nanobots were at risk from the AI, and anything they had on their memory banks, had been backed up in the hive mind.

The alien tugged on one of the lines, and turned to jeer at him again, only to stop when it saw him slipping through the crack of the tank as a slime.

The noise it made would have been horribly amusing to Dustin, had he been able to hear it, but he was both blind and deaf while in his slime form.

As Dustin started to escape, he was hit with a blast of cold that caused his slime to harden almost immediately. It was so sudden; he didn't have a chance to counter it. Everything slowed down, even his mind. The alien effectively froze him, and after returning him to the cage, proceeded to seal the gap he had been escaping through. Dustin was effectively caught.

XxxxX

"The hive mind said that the transmissions originated from this station," said Olivia as they came out of the jump gate. The lights were still on, but there wasn't any motion from any of the sh.i.p.s docked to it.

"Are you sure? I don't see any life here," said Granny.

"It has been several days, so maybe Dustin has everyone locked down, into a smaller area while he fixes the damage his virus caused?" guessed Olivia, guiding the ship towards the only air lock she could see.

Their first clue something wasn't right, was when they bumped against a dead body, that was floating just outside the open air lock.

"Someone must have left in a hurry, and let all of the atmosphere out," said Granny.

"Let's see what we can salvage," said Old Motha, excitedly, causing the other two to look at each other.

"You guys can do what you want, I'm going to see what I can find out about Dustin," said Olivia, directing the computer to link up to the station's computer, as she locked onto the air lock.

Only a few minutes later, her ship was emptied of Gooblens, who were ready to stretch their legs and eat the dead. Granny opted to stay by her side, but only until Old Motha directed her to oversee the Gooblens. They would need someone responsible enough to beat the crap out of them, if they tried to hurt anyone still alive, or tear into something important.