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In the sequel to Involuntary Test Subject, a group of commandos led by a dragon named Lesharl are sent into a lab that has been on lock down in order to try and retrieve research and other evidence on the top secret Project Wyrm before the entire building is sterilized. While it's his job Lesharl is hoping to also find potential uninfected survivors, with one in particular being another dragon that he had lost contact with before the lab went dark...

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It had been several days since the incident of the containment breach inside the facility, but while the rest of the world were unaware of the danger that lurked there were quite a few that did. The second that the call had gone out that Project Wyrm had been compromised the entire building had been completely sealed off so that no one, not even any management that happened to be inside, could escape from it until they could mount a response. Within the week a number of military vehicles and trucks came onto the campus and put up a giant tent around not only the building but also the operations facilities that were around it in order to keep any prying eyes from seeing what they were doing. The fact that the project that was currently contained in the facility was beyond illegal meant that special care had to be taken, that care being a team to go into the quarantined facility and downloading the hard drives before activating the sterilization procedures to remove any physical evidence Project Wyrm existed.

For Lesharl that meant a quick and hopefully quiet entry, the black and purple dragon pouring over the blueprints to prepare a swift breach into the special tunnels that only the highest of management and now the quarantine team knew about, and a secure download before telling the facility to self-destruct. Naturally there were bonuses for the extraction of any other files or samples but the briefing had told them that any creatures they found were to be considered casualties, not captured. "Got done reading the files they gave us on Project Wyrm," a voice said next to the dragon, Lesharl looking up to see the wolf man that was his second in command toss a stack of papers that were heavily blacked out with only a few words exposed. "Informative as always, at this point they could just save the toner and say that it's need to know and we don't need to know."

"It's so they can say that we are aware of the risks when we down there in case we don't make it back up," Lesharl replied, which caused the wolf to fidget. "Riggs, calm down, you're going to make the rest of the team start to get antsy. We've done this before, we just need to go in and get the data, make a sweep for survivors, and then leave."

"Survivors?" Riggs said in slight shock. "I thought this thing devastated the entire base, I heard total loss."

"They always write these things off as that," Lesharl grumbled in response. "Just tell the others to get suited up and we're going to get ready to breach in fifteen. Make sure everyone goes to the bathroom too because once we're in there they're sealing us back up and not letting us out until the mission is complete."

The wolf just nodded and went back to where the rest of the team was gathered, and as Lesharl turned back to the blueprints he sighed and lowered his head. He hadn't been entirely true with Riggs at that moment; the company had told them that there would be no need to look for survivors, but the dragon knew someone inside that he wanted to find and hopefully save. While it would be a long-shot considering they were using hermetically sealed skinsuits to go in, which meant some sort of chemical or biological contaminant, he had specially gotten on this team once he had heard this facility was the one that went dark. He just hoped that it wasn't as bad as it looked as he went over to the rest of the group and frowned when he saw what they were holding.

"We don't need the security restraints," Lesharl said as the others attempted to hide them from the view of the dragon. "This is a sanitation mission, not a retrieval."

"Yeah... but..." the tiger woman said as she held up the rather larger bridle with muzzle lock. "You never know?" As the others just grinned sheepishly the dragon looked to each of them before he motioned for them to fess up on what they were doing. "Alright, don't be mad, but Dez may have snuck a peek in the management server and saw something very interesting."

"Damnit Dez, again?" Lesharl said with a snarl as she looked at the python man. "You know that's the entire reason that you're down in quarantine clean-up instead of in IT like you were, right? If they find out you did this then you're going to be going on the next run completely naked!"

"Whoa, wait, before you get too upset I want to tell you what I found," Dez said with a big grin on his face as he looked around before handing Lesharl a tablet. "They were talking about the facility and I happened to catch wind of it, apparently they are lamenting the loss of something that they have codenamed Hive King, and there were talks to try and capture it. Now ultimately they went against it because whatever this Project Wyrm is seems to be bad news, but I opened a back channel and they said that if we can capture this Hive King then he will make sure that he makes it worth our while."

"All I just heard was that we're dealing with some sort of insects or something like that," Lesharl said with a sigh as he put his hand against his head. "Is there any sort of reference or other picture that we can go off of?"

The rest of the group looked at Dez, who chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Unfortunately I may have corrupted the file that had the picture," Dez admitted, causing the two sets of eyes on the dragon's head to roll. "But it's some sort of dragon, and I guess it has on rubber? Just keep a look out and I'll tell you for sure."

"A dragon... wearing rubber..." Lesharl said as eh looked down at himself, which with their sealed suits over their armor gave them all a shine since the material was synthetic in nature and suctioned in to prevent anything from getting in. The others laughed at that as they put on their helmets and connected the air tanks that were attached to their backs as Lesharl looked at Dez. "Don't worry, I'll definitely keep a look out for any other dragons, whether rubber or otherwise."

The python just sighed and shook his head before he put on his helmet as well and joined the rest of them towards the steel door that led down into the facility. Along with the dozen in the squad they also had a few moving container units that would follow behind which contained extra ammo, gear, and the restraints that they had shoved in there to capture the Hive King. It was unlikely they were even going to see such a creature, Lesharl thought as they saw the doors begin to open and everyone raised up their weapons. The only thing that exited was plumes of smoke from the incinerator sprays that were used to clear the area and allow them to go inside unhindered.

When everyone and everything was inside the door slowly closed once more, and once it was sealed shut Lesharl gave the signal for everyone to move ahead. As the dragon took point he noticed that much of the tunnel looked rather normal aside from the charred concrete, and thankfully the facility still had power which allowed them to see. He hoped as they reached the secondary doors and opened them that the run would be this smooth the entire way down as they waited for the metal to move back. Once again it revealed nothing but the main lobby of the facility and as they walked inside and did a comms check the tension of the mission started to falter.

Several wondered if maybe it had been a false alarm, though Lesharl was quick to counter that they wouldn't do a full-scale quarantine unless they had checked. Everyone continued to keep their guard up as he went over to a thermostat and popped it open, revealing the control pad underneath and punching in the code. The bookshelf that had been next to it fell over with a loud crash that caused everyone to turn and raise their weapons again, only to hear a collective sigh of relief as Lesharl went into the tunnel followed by the others. As they went down the seemingly endless staircase the dragon gritted his teeth as the next door would expose them again even if it was a short jaunt to the server room.

When they got to the bottom and Lesharl put in his code the dragon was surprise to find that despite the display being green the doors refused to open for him. He tried two more times and on the last the door did manage to open a crack, only to have some sort of glowing green goo ooze out of it. Everyone immediately backed away and when Lesharl looked at the rest of the opening he could see thick strands of a shiny substance that looked like some sort of rubber stretched across it. Beyond that it was hard to see and with the door unable open it snapped shut instead.

"Oh gross," one of the squad members said. "There's something moving in the puddle." When Lesharl knelt down he noticed that there were small rubber creatures that were slithering about, all of them glowing a similar hue as the slime they were coated in. Though he wasn't a biologist the dragon thought they looked a bit like worms, something that caused several to make a noise of disgust as they seemed intent on trying to get towards them.

"Alright, looks like the direct path is blocked," Lesharl said with a sigh. "If what we saw right here is indicative of the rest of the lower levels then we're going to have to assume any alternate routes will be compromised as well. Looks like we're going to be taking a more traditional tour of the facility, so make sure to keep your eyes open and guns up."

The others nodded and made their way up the rickety metal stairs towards the entrance while Lesharl heard several of them say that the hunt was on. That mattered little to him but as he looked at the shiny goo, which started to solidify, he felt the chances of finding his friend dropping significantly. There was something more here than just some biological contaminant and without more information on Project Wyrm they were going to be going in blind. All they really knew was that they had to wipe the evidence and destroy the project, and if anything else that was what Lesharl intended to do as he caught up to the others.

As they climbed all the way back there was some speculation among the squad on just what they saw and what Project Wyrm could have been, at least until Lesharl told everyone to keep the comms clear. No doubt there would be private channels still open amongst them though and the dragon found himself speculating on what it could be. Shiny goo and worms... combined with the fact they were wearing hermetically sealed suits made him wonder if this wasn't some sort of plague. He had heard of some pretty terrifying ends with such things and made him want to be in the facility even less as everyone got back to the lobby.

The squad took a second to regroup and as several pulled out tablets in order to look at the map downloaded on them several others decided to check just a bit ahead despite the orders to stay in the lobby. As Lesharl looked at his own map he saw that the way down to the server room through the facility itself was anything but straightforward and would take them through several areas that were marked with a deep red that indicated extreme contamination. Even avoiding the worst spots meant taking extra time for the detours, but as the dragon began to plot a route that would be patched into the visors on their helmets a loud scream suddenly caused them all to look up. Everyone grabbed their weapons and quickly but cautiously made their way through the hallway that they had heard the noise from.

As they rounded the corner and got into the main atrium Lesharl stopped everyone, though most did so on their own as they looked down the long hallway. The dragon's eyes squinted almost as if he couldn't believe them as he saw the two that had defied his orders being carried in the arms of a huge behemoth creature whose skin glinted in the light. While he considered himself to be rather big he could tell even with the distance between them that he would have to tilt his head up significantly in order to meet them eye to eye. It was clear that the creature was also very strong as he held the squirming soldiers despite their best efforts to escape with one arm each, but as they began to head towards the elevator shaft it snapped Lesharl of his shock and ordered the squad to move forward and fire with any clear shots they had.

The atrium suddenly became filled with the echos of gunfire as the other squad members switched to single fire and fired off several rounds into the back of the creature while making sure not to hit the others. Though it was hard to see at first as they closed the distance between them they found that their bullets were hitting the behemoth, but it failed to stop him as he lumbered towards the elevators that were covered in goo. When the creature got there he held out the first soldier and Lesharl gasped as he knew what was about to happen, but before they could get halfway across the atrium another rubber creature dropped down and let out a loud roar that caused them all to stop. This new monster briefly stood on all fours before rising up, its muscular body completely smoothed over with rubber to the point that it lacked most features save for the toothy maw and long gooey tongue as well as thickly clawed hands it brandished at them.

Lesharl looked past the new threat just as the chimeral creature dropped the first soldier down the chute. He could hear the other one shouting for them to shoot it but with the other creature advancing the dragon directed all fire at the one that was bearing down at them. With a soldier still down field they continued to single fire into the black rubber skin of the monster, and while at first the holes that were being created in his body didn't matter to him eventually it seemed to be enough to deter him from advancing. The creature jumped back up into the vents that it had been hiding in and as Lesharl looked back both the soldiers and the behemoth had disappeared.

"Wha... what the hell were those!?" Dez shouted as Riggs and Lesharl went up to the pool of fluid that had leaked out of the monster they shot, both of them nodding to one another as they stood back up.

"There's worms in the blood... fluid... whatever is in these creatures," Lesharl conferred to the others. "I think that whatever Project Wyrm was supposed to be about has created these monsters, perhaps maybe some sort of parasite. Whatever it is it's everywhere, so now more than ever its important to keep your suits sealed and your eyes peeled."

The rest of the squad nodded and though the idea of a rescue mission didn't come up the group knew that they were going to try and recover those that they had lost. With the route to the server room incomplete Lesharl brought up the mini map and the group made their way to the stair well, the dragon ducking down to avoid hitting the large horns he had that were the only things uncovered by the suit he wore. Since it wasn't living tissue he would have to decontaminate them later as the rest of his body was stuffed into the suit, and though it always pinched his wings he was grateful for it as they started to see signs of the strange rubber growing in tendrils over the wall. The corruption is quite prolific, the dragon thought to himself, as they made their way downwards past the first said of containment doors it was only getting worse.

"So much for those," Riggs said as they went under the completely coated doorframe. "Maybe there would have been some survivors if people actually thought to enact protocol."

"I'm sure they did the best they could," Dez replied as he looked around. "This place is giving me the creeps, like we stepped on some sort of alien planet."

"Maybe that's the plan," Lesharl commented, which caused the other two to look at her. "What, we don't know what the actual purpose for Project Wyrm was, maybe this is the intended purpose after all."

The others just shook their heads and continued down until they reached the bottom of the stairs, which was the entrance of the actual secret facility that would have harbored Project Wyrm. Dez was correct in one aspect, if the doors had gone down it was likely that they would have stopped the progress of the infestation into the upper levels where more mundane research was happening. That was where his friend worked, Lesharl mused, but given the level of damage he was fairly certain that they were just like all the others in this place. As they began to walk through the first testing hallway everyone stopped talking and slowly made their way forward, the tension in the group rising as their eyes nervously scanned for any more of those creatures.

So when the lights of the nearby containment room lit up it caused many of them to jump and back away from it, though they all had the trigger discipline not to fire. Once the initial shock had past they were shocked to find that the two squad mates that had been captured were inside, one of them restrained against the wall while the other was on the floor. They were both naked and when they tried to bang on the glass they found that they didn't hear anything, but as the one on the floor looked up it was clear that the cheetah could see them. Since they had line of sight Lesharl typed a message on his tablet that they would find a way in and to hold tight, but as he pressed it against the wall a tube could be seen coming down from the ceiling that cause the two inside of it to be concerned.

It stopped about a foot away from the cheetah's stomach and as the others began to try and chip away at the class they could see the panic on the feline's face as something slid down the tube. "I wouldn't bother," a voice over the intercom said that caused the squad to look around. "It would take you hours to even chip that barrier, and in a few moments you wouldn't want too anyway. The other door is locked too, so just relax and watch the demonstration that I have set up for you on how basically Project Wyrm works, since you're so interested."

The creature has been listening to their comms, Lesharl gathered as he told the others to stand down to conserve their energy. While he wasn't sure of the sentiency of these creatures the fact that this one spoke meant that it was quite possibly the Hive King that management was talking about, though at the moment all he could do was stare as the cheetah was clearly shouting for help as the rubbery worm quickly darted down to his groin. It left a trail of goo in its wake as it slithered over the exposed maleness of the soldier, and when the feline tried to wiggle it off it seemed to stick there. Once the cheetah stopped moving the squad were a bit surprised to see that he had started to get hard, and as the worm coiled up to the tip several turned away as the cheetah stared wide-eyed as it began to slide into the tip.

Lesharl was unable to tear his eyes away as the back of the cheetah arched and his hips jutted up in the air as the rubber worm began to push inside of him. The other soldier in the room, a fox man that the dragon knew was his friend, began to struggle in earnest as the feline continued hump upwards either in pleasure or from the bizarre penetration. Though it felt like it took ages the creature seemed to slip inside him in a matter of seconds, the bulge traveling all the way down and swelling out the goo-covered flesh until finally it reached the base. The intercom kicked on again at this point and the voice explained that once a creature has been infested like this it usually doesn't take long before the host begins to feel an increased sense of euphoria as the worms reproduce rapidly inside of him.

With no sound coming out Lesharl assumed that the wide-open mouth was a moan of pleasure as he could see the fuzzy orbs underneath the throbbing cock, which had grown completely hard, started to swell. Creatures could clearly be seen writhing within and the struggles of the cheetah were beginning to cease the bigger his sack grew. It didn't take long though before he was rocking his hips upwards again, this time with something coming out of his shaft as the same goo that the worm had began to spurt out. As it hit his fur it seemed to melt it like it was some sort of acid, though once it got to the flesh it seemed to spread out in a patch as his balls were practically on the floor and his maleness had grown in size.

By then the cheetah had started to pant and Lesharl saw that the goo on his groin began to spread, and as it did to coat the outsides they could see something happening to the feline. He began to shift in his restraints again as the areas of his body that were coated with rubber allowed them to see the worms moving up into the rest of them. The infestation worked fast and while the dragon hadn't been timing it they only could have been standing there for a few minutes before they saw swells and bumps shifting upwards. As the cheetah's eyes went wide the voice on the intercom explained that this was the clarity stage, where they realize they are part of the hive and how wonderful it was. As the dragon and the others watched more than just rubber began to leak out of the cheetah's cock as worms began to emerge from it, and as his body convulsed in pure pleasure he could see them moving up into his neck before more of the green goo began to leak out of his nostrils and ears.

As the rubbery parasites clearly reached the cheetah's brain the feline seemed to have an orgasm, his cock pointing back and spraying himself with more of the alien rubber as well as a handful of worms before he flopped down on the floor. For a while he remained that way until his fingers and toes began to twitch, which the intercom voice stated that there was a short term of paralysis or sluggishness as the mind was assimilated but that the cheetah should be feeling right as rain right about then. At that point the restraints retracted from his body and as the creature slowly sat up a thick stream of drool followed by one of the cock worms inside of him dropped out from his slackened mouth. The rubber was quickly converting the rest of his body and as he slowly got to his feet they could see his muscles thickening while his fingers twitched from the claws that grew from them.

Lesharl let out a snarl and turned to the intercom, shouting at the voice to stop this immediately. "Oh, but we're about to reach the best part," the voice on the intercom said with a chuckle. "These particular cock worms have been bred to be very fast acting, and with it comes the instincts of the hive to spread. Now since the two were friends I'm sure that it's possible that he can convince him to not be infested himself."

The other members of the unit let out various gasps of shock and horror as the infested feline slowly turned towards the fox, whose jaw had dropped at the other man's transformation and were glued to their crotch were goo and worms still dripped from it. Most of the spotted fur had turned to blue rubber and where the spots had been assimilated it was a bit darker as his body continued to grow bigger. The fox was saying something, most likely telling his friend not to do it, but whatever his words were they were clearly falling on deaf ears. One of the squad members suddenly backed up and shouted they weren't going to let this happen, but before he could stop him the guy fired a bullet that ricocheted off the glass and around the hallway.

The group scattered to avoid the bullet and Lesharl found himself falling into a thick patch of rubber that was near the corner, which immediately seemed to cling to his suit along with the worms that were within. Fortunately the suit prevented any sort of incursion and as everyone got to their feet there was one on the team that shouted he was hit. Their medic quickly went over to him and as she examined them they heard a hissing sound that they quickly identified as their air tank. When they turned it around they saw a fissure that had been caused by the bullet and the medic quickly applied a patch to it to seal it back up.

As Lesharl was about to berate the squad member for being so stupid they heard the intercom voice once more direct them towards the containment room once more. The group turned and saw that the cheetah was now directly in front of the fox with a finger pressed against his lips, and as they saw the mouth of the vulpine quivering his eyes slowly rolled back into his head. As they looked down they saw that the increasingly girthy cock had pressed against the fox's, which was completely erect and starting to swell along with his sack as they could see the bulge of the worms slithering within. Since this was more than one it seemed to expedite the infestation and as the rubber cheetah leaned forward and slid his tongue into the maw of the fox soldier bright red goo and worms poured out of his mouth while his stomach became distended from the creatures being pumped into him.

It didn't take long for the fox to start humping into the cheetah's cock, but as Lesharl let out a growl and banged a fist against the glass all he could do was watch as the alien creature slid his growing member off and pushed it up into the already rubberized tailhole of the infested fox to pump even more into him despite several already wiggling out of his ears, nostrils, and even his nipples while also sliding out of his completely shiny red cock. "What was the point of this?!" Lesharl shouted at the intercom.

"To show you what you are in for," the voice replied. "And to give you a choice. You can either choose to get rid of those ridiculous suits that won't protect you anyway, join the hive, and help me break the quarantine to spread my gift to the world, or you can try and do you mission to sanitize this facility and end up joining the hive anyway."

Though Lesharl was angry at whomever was on the other end of the intercom a cold pit had also started to form in his stomach. They were essentially trapped down here with some sort of parasite and from the looks of it the infestation meant that they were under the control of the hive, which meant that if he got them all it was possible that they could be used to break the quarantine. If that happened Project Wyrm would no longer be a containment mission to prevent litigation and bad press, it would become a potentially global infestation that would be next to impossible to stop. It didn't help that this place was probably filled with those creatures just like the one that had been used to capture the two for the demonstration, but he wasn't willing to give up and tossed his gun to Riggs before he went to one of the drone-propelled cases and pulled out the heavy ordinance.

"How about this?" Lesharl said as he opened the chambers and began to load them with the shells that were also in the case. "These are thermite rounds, and while your bodies may be resistant to bullets I bet that one of these bad boys would cut through you, and if you can control the hive then I bet you can feel everything that happens too. So if you don't let us pass I'm going to burn your gift and take you down with us regardless of activating the sterilization protocols."

As the dragon and the rest of the squad waited for a response they didn't find one, though as they turned back to where the transforming fox and infested cheetah were they saw that the room was empty. Two more problems to deal with, Lesharl thought to himself as he ordered the others to move forward, and there was enough knowledge in either of them that could make this a problem. All they could do though was move forward and hope that they could get to the server room before he ran out of shells as he took point. Everyone began to follow suit with the medic making sure that the one hit by the bullet didn't suffer any actual damage, and the soldier just waving her off as he brushed the goo off from where he had fallen before trailing the rest of the group while smacking his hand against his helmet.

The group continued their way down into the facility, Lesharl taking the lead with the others covering her and watching their flank. The threat of being incinerated seemed to keep the beasts at bay but as they walked he could feel their eyes watching them. It didn't help that he knew the creature had control not only over the creatures within but also the systems within the lower levels of the structure. Given its proximity to the server room it meant that they were going to have to probably face her in order to complete their quest. There was also the problem that the rubber creatures had not been idle during their time between the first infestation and their arrival as they saw a number of pods and cocoons that they passed by.

"I hate this place," Dez said as he continued to stick close to Lesharl along with the wolf and tigress that comprised their front line. "We've been to quite a few places but I have to say that this one is the worst. I didn't think that after the one where you got turned inside out that it could get any worse but becoming a host to rubber parasites and transformed into a monster might definitely be up there."

"Your grievance has been noted," Lesharl replied with a slight growl.

"You're really comparing this one to that job we had a year ago?" the tigress spoke up. "I would take this fate over being turned completely inside out."

"Are you sure?" Dez shot back. "At least once that happened it was over, this seems like you are infested forever, and who knows how long that is with those rubber bodies? They have super strength, what other abilities they have?"

"Dez, if you don't stay quiet I will take your helmet and have you ask them personally," Lesharl said as he looked back at the python, though he did he saw the one in the back stagger slightly and grab onto the wall to steady himself that caused the dragon concern. "Medic, are you sure that he's alright?"

The medic turned back and saw their squad mate grabbing onto his chest, which prompted her to go over and plug a device into a port in his suit. "This is not good," The medic said as she looked at the screen. "Everything is spiking across the board, if we don't get him medical attention soon he might go into shock. He must have gotten hit and didn't even know, even his vitals scan the first time showed he was green, I swear!"

"Damnit, this it the last thing we need at the moment," Lesharl said as he handed the grenade launcher to Riggs before pulling out his tablet and looking at the screen. "Alright, there is a medical bay one floor down, we need to double time it and hope that it doesn't look like the rest of this place. If we're lucky it should be sealed as per the quarantine protocol."

The other members of the squad just looked at one another before they helped to move the man down a level and to the medical bay. While it was a detour away from the server room that they were supposed to be heading towards Lesharl didn't feel like loosing any more members of his squad to these parasites, especially since they would have to be left here for the sterilization protocols. Part of him wanted to call the management team and ask if they could just leave this thing sealed, but given the amount of rubber and parasites that were already down there it was likely they didn't want to give the creatures within this facility any more time to fester. It wasn't the first time that he lost crew on a mission, but as they got to the medical ward they hoped that it would be the last for this mission.

To their relief the medical ward had been completely sealed off and as they looked inside it was a welcome respite to the rubbery alien hallways that they had been walking down this entire time. There was also a decontamination room that they had to go through and as the process happened they could see the rubber and worms fall of their bodies and get trapped in the containment vessels below. Considering they had just spent an hour carefully navigating through the hallways of this place Lesharl decided that this would be a good time for everyone to take a break and recompose themselves as they got into the main room of the medical bay. It was divided into two major sections and the medic told those that were helping the distressed soldier to go into the ward where she can start to perform a diagnostic on him.

Lesharl sighed and watched them strip the suit off of his body so that he could be scanned, which by this point the snow leopard seemed to have lost consciousness. Their medic also pulled off her helmet to reveal her cervine head, putting it to the side as she got the machines ready. Once the two were done taking the suit off of the feline she told them to go into the other room so that she could render the environment sterile. As the dragon watched them come back holding the suit he just sighed and sat down at the desk with his head against his hand.

As several of the others had taken off their helmets as well since they knew what the biological contaminant was and it wasn't in the ward Lesharl could hear them talking about what they had just witnessed. It caused him to shake his own head; he had been replaying the mental image in his own mind over and over and though he knew he couldn't have done anything about it the fact that it was down here caused his frustration to grow. They were trapped in a facility by literal monsters infested with some sort of parasite and not only did the higher-ups know about it but they were thinking about making them try to capture one of them for study. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew it wouldn't see the light of day Lesharl had half a mind to expose Project Wyrm to the world, though for the moment his focus was getting the rest of his squad out of here alive and uninfested.

As he sat there deep in his own thoughts he felt a hand press against his shoulder and looked up to see Riggs standing there. "Hey, you can take your helmet off you know," Riggs said with a small grin, watching the dragon nod and pull the hardened metal away from his swept back horns to reveal his two sets of red eyes and allowed the fin that ran down his head to finally extend out. "I'm surprised that you can fit all that under there."

'I'm surprised any of us are breaking our seals after what we had just seen," Lesharl said with a sigh.

"Yeah, that was pretty messed up," Riggs stated with a nod. "I probably won't be taking a leak anywhere around here but the suits seem to work and your threat has been keeping them at bay so far."

"Until we get to the server room probably," Lesharl said. "Even if we do get all the way down there they won't let us activate the sanitation measures, at that point the company could roast them all at any time. I also don't know if this grenade launcher is going to do the damage that I said it would do, but I'm just glad that they think it might."

Lesharl just nodded and looked at the grenade launcher that he had as well as the cargo boxes that they still had following them. While it had been a bit hard for them to navigate amongst the thick layer of rubber that was on the floor they had managed to get their supplies down with them so far, and with the pause in action she decided to check out the map to see where they needed to go. After they got back on track there were still two floor beneath them that they had to go and one of them had a path that led through the mess hall, which was a wide open space with a lot of potential ambush points and a chance for the creatures to spread them out. As he looked for an alternate way to get through though he heard some of the squad members speaking up about something that caused his head to look over and ask what was up.

"We were just looking to see if we could salvage the suit for extra parts even if there was a bullet hole in it," the one squad member said as he held up the black material. "But we've been looking for the breach point and haven't found it." The news caused Lesharl to get up from his chair and examine the air tank himself, which as he turned it over saw that they were right and there was no exit point. As he brought it up to his ear he found himself swallowing hard as he shook it, and while he could hear something rattling around inside it sounded like it was sticking to the walls...

"Riggs, get everyone up and ready now!" Lesharl said as he pointed to the ward. "Get the medic out now, we have to get moving!"

Meanwhile in the room the deer woman had finally gotten everything ready to do the scan as the air was being sanitized to aid with preventing infection, but just as she was about to turn the machine on she felt a hand grab her wrist that caused her to jump. When she turned down she saw the snow leopard was awake, but as his lips moved and it sounded like he was trying to say something his voice was so soft that he couldn't hear what he was saying. She told him that he was in the medical bay and had already given him an injection to stabilize his vitals, but that just caused him to shake his head and motion for her to come closer. As she did the snow leopard's voice only got slightly louder and finally she was leaning in close enough that she could feel his breath on her ear, though as she looked up while she tried to listen she saw the others in the next room running before Lesharl turned and banged on the ward window.

Before she could do anything though she felt the hand of the snow leopard grab her by the other side of her head as something pushed inside, the feline creature below letting out a hiss as his rubberized tongue wiggled into her ear and was pushing in deeper. She tried to pull away but even with one hand the snow leopard could keep her there as something began to bulge out the base of the altered appendage, his lips turning rubbery as flecks of the shiny liquid began to fly out of his maw. With the tongue sliding impossibly deep inside of her it stunned her enough to stop moving, which allowed her to see the others as they attempted to override the sanitation lock and get into stop her. But as the bulge in the snow leopard's tongue reached her head and pushed inside the look of shock immediately turned vacant, then shifted again to one of the euphoria before she slid to the ground as the infested snow leopard stood up from the medical bed.

On the other side of the door Dez was about to activate the override when Lesharl shouted at him to stop, keeping the python from hitting the last few buttons as the dragon announced that it was too late and they needed to leave. With the sanitation lock still in place the two couldn't get out, though he wasn't sure for how long as he could see the snow leopard already bulking up as the alien liquid rubber ran down his chin and dripped onto his chest. The worms could already be seen squirming around in his head as it was being transformed, a pair of fangs forming from his maw as he let out a roar and his tongue hit the window. Those that were closest nearly jumped back as they saw that the tip and blossomed out like a flower and was hollow on the inside as it began to pump out slugs against the window.

Lesharl once again impressed upon them the urgency of their departure but as the others finished putting on their helmets and checking the cargo haulers a shadow passed by the window that caught the dragon's attention. For a second he couldn't believe his eyes but as he took a step closer he could see that it was a dragon, and not just any one either. "Nyxt?" Lesharl said, though as he tried to look out there was another bang at the ward door that caused her to turn.

The deer had already gotten up and was banging against the glass door just like the snow leopard was, but as she still had on her suit that kept them from seeing her rubberization they could see other things happening to her body. The worms that were in her skull had already started to multiply and could be seen wiggling down her neck and some pushed their way out of her nostrils and ears. It was clear to Lesharl that having them in direct contact with her brain had made her part of the hive quicker, but what drew his attention as well as that of several others was that the armor of her chest had popped off and her breasts were starting to grow bigger. With the containment suit confining them they could still see the outlines of worms crawling out of her nipples and as they continued to try and break down the door they saw something in her crotch growing too.

"Now there's something you don't see every day," Riggs commented as the deer let out a gurgled cry of pleasure as the growing bulge of the synthetic suit between her legs finally tore and let the huge appendage flop out. It was definitely not a normal cock and looked more like a rubber tentacle, though it was accompanied by a swelling sack that was filling with even more cock worms like the snow leopard next to her. While the feline had a rubberized, swollen version of his own maleness though the deer's practically slithered in the air as her tongue pushed out from her maw and did the same. While the medic wasn't the smallest of the group her rapidly expanding frame filled with enough muscle to make most of the others envious as the rubber on her hands pierced through the containment door and ripped it away.

"Time's up!" Lesharl said as he ran towards the containment door. "Move move move!" When he got to the control panel to open it the dragon frowned as he saw the monsters had triggered the quarantine alarms, which locked down the doors. "Great, now it works... quick, you two brace the door with whatever you can find while we figure out how to open this."

The two that the dragon had pointed too immediately went over to block the door as Lesharl looked around for something that he could use. "Dez, don't suppose you could over ride that," Lesharl asked, the python shaking his head. "We're going to have to blow our way through, did we bring any door breachers?"

"Yeah, two, but that's not going to be enough to get through the medical bay doors," Riggs said. "This place was previously untouched for a reason." There was a loud bang and everyone turned to see that the two had wedged a cargo hauler in the door and had nearly been thrown forward as the snow leopard and medic had thrown their weight against the door. The rubber had completely covered their bodies by this point and what remained of the deer's uniform were in tatters on her shiny deep purple body, more of it falling away as she clawed into the door only to hunch over as a pair of bulges began to push out from her shoulders.

"They're... evolving..." Lesharl said in shock before he snapped out of it and turned to Riggs. "Look, we're just going to need a bigger bang for a buck then. Luckily we're in a medical ward."

The wolf looked at the dragon in confusion until Lesharl went and grabbed an oxygen tank from the storage area and brought it over to the door, then quickly followed suit. They put four of the tanks up against the door while Dez got the breaching charges from the cargo hauler from the one that was bracing against the monsters, which the two told him to hurry as they put their backs against it to keep the two from getting in. "Lesharl, we got another problem," Riggs said. "We have to find away to direct the explosion against the door."

"Well I'm making this up as I go Riggs," Lesharl replied as he scratched his helmet. "Wait, the cargo hauler should do it, get it up against the tanks now while I prime the charge!"

Lesharl could see the look on the face of the wolf and knew what he was thinking; between the one that was holding back the two infested and the one that would likely be incapacitated when they blew it up they were going to be out the supplies that were inside. The others in the squad were also aware of what this meant and as they took out extra clips of ammo and anything else they could it was brought up against the door after the dragon had set the charge. Once everything was in place everyone hopped behind the medical desk and he hit the detonator, which caused a huge explosion that caused the entire room to practically shake. When they looked up they saw the smoke being vented out to reveal the doors had been blown into the decontamination chamber.

There was still the matter of the outer doors but it was much quicker for them to reset it, save for dragging the damaged cargo hauler into the chamber. The second everything was in place with the remaining four tanks the group went behind the wall and Nyxt clicked the detonator again, blowing the second door out into the hallway and allowing them to pass. With the way clear Lesharl gave Riggs the grenade launcher again and told him to take point while he helped those that were holding the door. The others quickly filed out of the medical wing as well while the dragon motioned for the two to leap forward.

Even with the cargo hauler being disabled in front of the door the two mutated creatures had managed to nearly push inside, and as the two squad members endured another slam they quickly used the momentum to push forward towards Lesharl. One of them managed to get out of the way but before the second could get away from the door area something shiny slithered underneath the gap in the hauler and had wrapped around his waist. The man shouted in shock as he saw the face of a serpent on the end of a long tentacle, which as the dragon quickly traced it back he saw that the silver and blue spotted rubber appendage was actually the tail of the infested snow leopard! The other man attempted to run back and try to pull him away but as Lesharl told him to stop they saw the mouth of the snake tail rip away the suit to reveal the scaly crotch before those rubber lips latched onto it.

The squad teammate shouted that the tongue was inside his slit as he fell backwards to try and get it off of him, and as he did the cargo hauler shifted and the former medic squirmed through and pounced on the other member of the squad before he could run away. It all happened so fast that Lesharl could hardly process what was happening as the cervine creature had a pair of tentacles with what looked like suction cups in the shape of leaves on her back. She also had a pair of extra arms that had morphed out of her sides that she used to tear away the suit of the one that she had pinned up against the wall while the top pair ripped his helmet off.

Lesharl found himself at a loss for what to do and as he watched the outline of the first man's member swell out the serpentine snout of the snake maw he could already see worms slithering into it. With each one that slid into the tip of his cock it seemed to grow longer and as the rubber began to appear on his groin the squad member finally flopped onto his back and wiggled from both the insertion and the pleasure that it gave as claws could be seen pushing out of his gloves and boots. The one trapped against the wall was still trying to squirm out of the grasp of the one that held him there but there was nothing he could do, and as the lower set of rubber arms stroked his junk it was already starting to get hard from the stimulation before the tentacle cock slid its tip over the already impressive equine endowment. But that wasn't the only place that he was going to get invested as the thicker tail of the muscular creature whipped around before pushing itself into the tailhole of the horse man, bulges already racing towards the new entrance as her back tentacles pushed up against his ears and her slithering tongue pushed into his long snout.

"Join us..." the voice caught Lesharl off guard and when the dragon turned his head he gasped as he saw that the snow leopard monster had already managed to get through into the ward as well, though he just stood there and seemed to look at him. "Lesharl... you can experience the pure bliss that comes from my gift, you just need to accept it."

"So you know my name, it's not that impressive," Lesharl said as he looked into the eyes of the monster even as his snake tail continued to pump worms into the lizardman on the floor, who even with his suit on he could see that his internal testes had started to push out the increasingly shiny scales of his legs. The horse on the other hand had completely went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head as his throat could be seen swallowing more of the worms while the ones in his cock was quickly inflating it to the point where it was almost inside the fawn that was infesting him. "You can't think that any of us would want this."

"You'd be surprised," the snow leopard replied with a grin growing on his muzzle. "We're all connected, we all feel the pleasure, our bodies all grow stronger. You saw these two, we are adapting, evolving, and all you have to do is let it in and we can change you too, you can become a part of something that Project Wyrm only dreamed about."

There was a loud bang and Lesharl jumped as the snow leopard suddenly recoiled from taking a bullet in the shoulder, the dragon looking over to see that Riggs was back as he switched from his pistol to the grenade launcher. "I think the time for chatting is over," Riggs said as the two monsters roared at him, which turned to three as the snake detached from the huge rubber cock of the one it had been sucking off and allowed the rubberized lizardman to stand up and take off his helmet to reveal his more serpentine face. "Let's go Lesharl!"

Lesharl looked at the two that had stood up and saw that the lizardman was still transforming, a second cock emerging from his slit with both of them dripping worms as liquid alien latex dripped form his maw. When he glanced over the deer turned rubber tentacle creature had pulled away from her prey as well, whose stomach was so swollen it looked like he was pregnant as his body quickly rubberized from the number of worms in him. The dragon was quickly finding himself outnumbered and nodded to the wolf and backed away as the sound of the horse's groans grew deeper, his suit quickly tearing as his body bloated with the cock worms that were slithering inside of him to make him into another behemoth. The other three just stood there and watched them leave, and once they were clear of the medical bay Riggs prompted Lesharl to run until they got back to the other four.

"Where were you?" Dez asked as he watched the computer screen he had hooked up to one of the panels in the room.

"Oh, our leader was just having a pleasant chat with one of the monsters," Riggs said as he handed the grenade launcher roughly back to the dragon. "Are you insane? Any one of them could have infested you and then you'd be joining them to pump us full of those cock worms or whatever they called them."

"Yeah, sorry, it's just..." Lesharl said as he looked back down the hallway. "I'm starting to think it's not the grenade launcher that's keeping them from attacking us, I think they're letting us go down to the server room even though they know what we're planning to do."

"I don't think so considering we just lost half our squad," the tigress said as she looked around nervously.

"Well, they may have been opportunistic," Lesharl stated. "I think this Hive King or whatever they want to call it is trying to show us that we shouldn't blow up the facility."

There was a moment of silence as the rest of the group looked at one another, Dez standing up and scratching his helmet. "Um, Riggs, we sure she doesn't have one of those worms in her?" the python asked, which prompted the wolf to snap his head to look at him. "Listen, I'm just saying that he's talking crazy! We're fighting for our lives down here and it sounds like he wants us to go down there and just have a little chat!"

"It's more than that!" Lesharl said with a snarl, the others recoiling slightly as the dragon realized that he had overdone it and pulled back. "We're thinking of these creatures as feral monsters incapable of thought or speech, but what if they're sentient enough to form an actual community? We still have no idea what Project Wyrm was supposed to do, so what's to say that despite the way they're acting that all these creatures in here are still who they were, just... different?"

As the rest of the squad looked at one another worriedly Riggs motioned for them to hold tight and had Lesharl step to the side with him. "Lesharl... there is something else going on here besides you wanting to preserve a species that just turned half the squad into monsters," Riggs said in concern. "Now I know that you had volunteered for this task as well, so what is going on here that you're not telling me?"

"It's... someone that I knew," Lesharl said finally with a sigh. "We were best friends and they worked here, so when I found out that this place had gone dark naturally I went in to try and save them. Now I know what you're going to say and I had written them off too, but while we were in the medical bay I could have sworn I saw them walking by before all hell broke loose. Then... when the two transformed and I froze, I saw that they weren't moving to attack me and it made me wonder..."

"Lesharl... are you saying that you think that your friend might be the Hive King?" Riggs asked, the dragon sighing and nodding as the wolf looked back to the others. "Alright, if that's true that means it's not that they're not attacking us, it's that they're not attacking you. Keep close to us and be our shield to get to the bottom level and maybe we can get out of this in one piece without any extra passengers, just make sure that you don't tell the others this since they already think that you might be one of them."

The dragon just nodded in response and as they went back to the group the python let out a hiss of success as the screen turned green before the doors opened. When Lesharl asked what they were doing Dez explained that he had noticed that there was a trunk line that ran through here which might be connected to something, and if that was the case they could potentially patch into the servers without having to bet here. It also was a more secure route then having to go down and pass through the mess hall, and as the dragon just gave a thumbs up and followed them he already was having his doubts. If Nyxt was trying to guide them down to the main control room then he wasn't going to do something like leave a backdoor open that would bypass their meeting...