“Eee, eee eeee.”

  “E! Ee ee. Eee e.”

  --Spot and Stripe, plotting The Great Hotdog Robbery of 2032.

  The bck ooze hits my chest, spreading out to cover every inch of my body, creeping up over my face. I hold my breath and shut my eyes, but the expected rush of fluid up my nose never comes and, after a few seconds of nothing happening, I open my eyes again.

  I see a smooth bck silhouette staring back at me in the mirror.

  The Symbiote finished bonding with you while you were panicking. It can now be controlled with simple mental commands.

  Pouting and trying to ignore the teasing tone in Cyon’s mechanised voice, I silently will the Symbiote to release my head. The darkness splits down the centre, peeling away from my face and sliding down to stop at the top of my neck, letting my hair flow down my back freely.

  I look down at my hands and rub my fingers together, feeling the thin, slightly soft material covering them. It doesn’t feel particurly robust, but when I extend my cws underneath it stretches instead of tearing.

  My gaze is quickly drawn away from my hands as I realise the Symbiote appears to have eaten my old clothes, leaving me with only the second skin of warm bck slime that I think I can feel breathing?

  The amount of muscle I can make out through the Symbiote surprises me. I’m certainly not compining, but it feels weird to have a six pack suddenly.

  I look back at the mirror again, standing on my tiptoes to try get below my waist into the image as I turn, admiring my new feminine silhouette. My eyes automatically flick to my swishing tail and swaying hips as I peer over my shoulder, and a small frown creases my brow.

  I think about my old trousers and almost instantly the Symbiote squirms, bulging out and taking the shape in my head. I touch them and find the feeling almost identical to my old clothes, only slightly softer.

  “This is great,” I chirp happily, picturing more pockets and watching them form all over my legs.

  I’m gd you like the purchase. Now, if you are finished checking yourself out, can I suggest you test the stealth capabilities before moving on?

  My face flushes bright red and my ears press ft to my head as I realise, I completely forgot the coolest part of the suit.

  As if reacting to my desire to disappear, my body suddenly vanishes, leaving only my uncovered head visible in the mirror.

  “That’s so cool,” I whisper quietly, my shame only growing as I stare at my face in the mirror.

  The Symbiote climbs up to cover my face, making it vanish as well, leaving the mirror empty. I swear I can feel the thing moving back and forth on my head like it’s trying to comfort me, but I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.

  A second ter I fade back into existence in the mirror, but I leave the mask on as I leave the room.

  Be warned, the Symbiote will feed directly from your bloodstream to keep itself functional. The more you drain its energy with added capabilities like the invisibility, the more you will tire as well.

  “Will I run out of energy quickly if I use it? Aren’t my super muscles already sucking me dry too?”

  You received a slight boost to your endurance when you spliced yourself with raccoon DNA, however, further upgrades to your digestive and energy storage systems would be highly recommended in the future. You can currently sustain thirty minutes of invisibility before you will need to consume more nutrients or risk harm.

  “Thirty minutes of sneaky time. Got it.”

  I nod confidently, freeing my face and leaving the suit at the top of my neck again as I drop back onto the sofa.

  My ears twitch and I hear a few nearby gunshots from the Monkeys’ stronghold, but I ignore them and pull Spot into my p, uncovering my hands and giving him some belly rubs.

  “I have four hundred and ninety points left, right?”

  Four hundred and forty when your emergency medical funds are subtracted.

  “Okay, four-forty then. What should I get?”

  I would recommend unlocking the Css I Prolotor Bacterial Genetics catalogue for one hundred points, then purchasing a set of Nano-Injecting Cws from your Melee Weapons catalogue for forty points.

  The image of a pair of slick bck gloves with vicious-looking spikes extending several inches from the fingers and three empty gss vials on the back of each appears in the air in front of me.

  The cws can be loaded with anything you want injected into your target.

  The gloves turn to present the empty vials on their backs to me which fill with a thick, green solution almost identical in colour to Antithesis blood.

  I would recommend loading them with DogEater K1, a strain of specially designed Antithesis-eating bacteria, for an additional twenty points. The strain is designed to target the unique nervous systems of the Antithesis, killing them quickly before rapidly replicating to consume them from the inside out, turning their corpse into poison for any other pnts that try to harvest them for biomass.

  The gloves turn, fshing the long, sharp bdes at me as the green solution pours from the tips, running down the length of the bdes. I want those.

  A single, deep scratch will be enough to kill most low-level Models, however, if any Antithesis manage to survive you using it and return to a nest, they will likely adapt, and the strain will cease being effective.

  My excitement immediately dips at the disappointing news.

  “So can I only use it for a bit?”

  DogEater K1? Yes. Though K2 through five are all also included in the Css I catalogue, and there are two hundred and fifty-six other strains that could be used to the same purposes.

  My mood rebounds immediately as my ears perk up and my tail begins to sway behind me.

  “Stop teasing me! I want them!”

  Understood.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  New Purchases!

  Css I Prolotor Bacterial Genetics – 100 pointsNano-Injecting Cws – DogEater K1 – 60 points

  Total: 160 pointsRemaining points: 330

  _____

  A pin box falls on the sofa beside us, and I pop it open to see two bck orbs with three familiar vials filled with green liquid.

  I reach out to touch one, and it immediately turns to liquid and runs up my hand like my Symbiote did. The new bck liquid coats my hand with another thin bck yer I can barely feel, so I tap the other orb to equip the second glove while thinking about the bdes Cyon just showed me.

  As expected, the gloves morph with my thoughts, stretching out into a set of threatening bdes that slide through the back of the sofa with terrifying ease when I test them.

  “Nice,” I mutter, pulling the bdes back and storing the gloves in the convenient form of two bck cuffs at the edge of my living second skin so I can keep petting Spot. “What should I spend st two hundred and eighty points on?”

  I would recommend you use the points to start upgrading your siblings. You can purchase the child impnts for your D.E.N for thirty points each, along with a drug, Human Thoughts, to help temporarily boost their mental faculties for an additional ten points each. Then, I would recommend purchasing them Opposable Lotor Viral Samples for fifteen points each and restocking their grenade bags with DogEater Needlers.

  “Sure, buy away. Add some armour for them to my list next as well please. I don’t want them getting hurt.”

  Noted.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  New Purchases!

  Mark IV D.E.N Child Impnt x 3 – 90 pointsHuman Thoughts x 3 – 30 pointsOpposable Lotor Viral Sample x 3 – 45 pointsDogEater K1 Needler Grenade x 18 – 90 points

  Total: 255 pointsRemaining points: 75

  _____

  The bag still strapped to Spot’s back visibly swells, surprising him as it pushes him up into my hand, and three white boxes appear on the sofa beside us, each with a different image printed on the top. One has a pin bck dot, another a dash, and the st one has a cartoon French fry.

  I nod in approval before popping open Spot’s box as he rolls over in my p to look at what I’m doing.

  Inside I find two disks for an aug system and three syringes with different coloured solutions.

  “What first then Cyon?”

  Apply the application pads then inject the viral sample on the left into his chest.

  I take out the pads towards Spot.

  {Do you want a brain computer? It might hurt.}

  He looks up at me, tiling his head before pushing it towards my hand and speaking a response.

  {Yes!}

  I pat his head before pcing the pads on his temples and pressing the injector to his chest.

  The moment the syringe is empty I toss it away and pull him into a hug. However, instead of squirming in pain, he just shuts his eyes for a few moments before opening them again and looking up at me in confusion.

  [{Sister?}]

  He doesn’t move his mouth, but I hear him squeaking in my head.

  I hear him in my head? The moment I think about it, I realise that I can tell he’s confused because I can feel it, like a second stream of emotions leaking into the back of my mind.

  Funky.