Hive Mentality

In the distance a figure appeared, it looked green, dark, somewhat large, but nothing really mattered to Bee at this point, he was dead and he knew it. It was probably just some trick of King Yemmas, that torturer who banished him here just like the rest of us, what a poor soul Bee thought. As Bee sat there cowering behind the barrel in the open desert his tears soaked his hands and face, dried and then soaked them again. It was a perpetual things as most things were here.

It felt like seconds, it also felt like years. Bee had no idea how long he and Ant had been sitting here at the oasis Bar with this demon. Bee cried away, Ant was seemingly enjoying itself. Ant had only just stretched his little worm body for a short time on Earth before his life was put to an end, the cruel way of things, but Ant knew only this as existence and this new stage as the appropriate next part.

The figure in the distance had grown and gotten much closer now, Ant paid it no mind, neither did the demon who sat beside Ant continuously drinking. Bee however was quite aware and terrified the closer he got. Bee could see it was some kind of alien, different looking than anyone or any soul they had seen so far whilst here. He looked terrifying. Bee blinked his eyes and the figure was before him, he shot himself into the barrel, water splashed up into the air.

“What! There's water this whole time?!”
Bee dunked his head further into the water in an attempt to drink it but it was hot as fire and dry as sand.

The figure announced his presence and dove directly into an attack. Bee had pulled himself out of the water just in time to see this and try to warn Ant!

“Ant! Oh my god! He knows about your tummy! Ant! Run!”
Bee shouted, his mouth full of sand.

Ant turned quickly, his large body annihilating the bar and stools into millions of splinters. The demon that sat beside Ant was flung into the air and floated there above, his drink spilling along with his tears of thirst. Ant let out a high pitched scream and pushed the alien with his hard head to block his attack and in an attempt to push him back. Ant laid their in the sand, his large mouth wide open, his many tongues exposed and widely whipping around, their mouths too snapping and grasping at the air.

---

PL: 105,000

Ant Transformed 35,000 x 3 = 105,000
Ant Headbutted Gandigan to block his attempt and push him back.

6/6 KP
1/6 MP +1 (Post)
0/250%

WC: 429
TWC: 824

“Hey! Leave him alone! He’s not bothering no one! He’s just a little baby got dammit!”
Bee picked up and threw a plank of wood that had been part of the bar directly at the alien’s back.

Ant opened his jaws wider and screeched so loud that the wind from his throat would attempt to push the alien back even further. Bee climbed out of the water barrel, soaking wet and still thirsty. The scientist gathered his glasses from his breast pocket whilst dropping the pens that lived within. His footsteps were heavy and damp as he placed each one, the remaining footprint would evaporate within seconds as he slugged forward.

“What have you done now Ant? Who else on earth could you have wronged? You were only out of my sight for a few days, a week?!”
Bee stood beside Ant and hugged his arms around Ant’s large snout of a head.

Bee laid his head against Ant’s and continued on.

“What do you even want from him, we are already suffering enough as it is can’t you see?”
Bee’s tears trailed downwards onto Ant who closed their jaws in response.

Ant could feel Bee, he wanted to protect the scientist even more so than protecting himself from this alien. One thing Ant knew was pain was an inevitable part of life and maybe death, so whatever was to come next would be expected.

Pl: 105,000

Wc: 235
TWC: 1059

“Aman-who-what?? I just got here I don’t even know where we are!”
Bee’s face was full of tears, they poured from his eyes like waterfalls crashing against his pale face.

“My name is Bee! Dr. Bee! And my friend here is Item-11! Or Ant! I call him Ant!”
Bee would fall to the ground either by his own wrigglyness or because the alien was tired of getting wet by his tears.

As Bee sat on the ground Ant slithered over and would surround the scientist with the length of his long body.

“And aren’t you the demon? This is hell after all! I mean, look at you and look at us!”
They would all exchange glances at one another, Ant of course would mimic the behavior through his ability to sense Ki but was blind in the normal sense.

“I don’t even know why we are here, Ant is innocent… I’m the freakin’ murderer ok! I did it! I killed Shamoy! I did it, you hear me Yemma! I did it!!!!”
Ant was in a literal pool of his own tears, Ant was wearing a raincoat and hat now.

“Eyyy uhhh… Would you lads like a drink?”

The Oni from earlier who was floating in the air once the bar was destroyed was not back sitting atop a stool at a new bar stand that was just a few feet behind the group.

---

PL:
105,000

WC: 233
TWC: 1292

“Mercy?! Mercy… Yemma is no god of Mercy… *hic!*”
The Oni at the bar guzzled more of the liquid sand and hiccuped.

“YoU know What!? I deserved mercury…. Mercy! *hic!* I’ve been here for oveeeerrr a millennium AND HAVE I RECEIVED MERCY?! *HIC!* Nope!”
The Oni guzzled even more sand from his pitcher.

The Oni continued to speak to himself really as he hunched over the counter of the bar lost in his own misery and thoughts. The wind blew over the sand and pulled layers of it over itself like a giant sheet again and again. The wind was strong but gave no relief to the heat they all felt; hell was uncomfortable of course.

“Guiding candle!? May… mm..mm… may I see that?”
Bee’s eyes lit up like the flames of HFLL themself.

‘If this living being can arrive here in the afterlife with such a magical item… then possibly I could reverse engineer it and return home! Or even… if I can snatch it from him… or Ant could… maybe we could just go home instead of him… no… no, that is bad… but…’
Sinister thoughts came to life within Bee’s mind.

Ant screeched and giggled as he listened to the alien speak. Since Ant was born all he could be was observant, a giant sponge that absorbed all around him and this particular situation was no different.

“Hey! Listen alien! Shamoy was no good! He was torturing Ant! You see… I was part of a group that brought this beautiful creature to life… but, their experiments would never end… I had to put a stop to it… and Yemma… Yemma curses me for this!”
Bee’s face lit up red.

“You know, you are right. No sadness will cure my ails! Maybe anger will! Tell me more about this candle please I need to get Ant back home!”
Bee pleaded with a level of uncertain anger in his voice as it cracked.

‘Sins… I’ll show this one sins…’

---

PL: 105,000

Ant
6/6 KP
0/6 MP
0/250%

WC: 331
TWC: 1623

Bee heard half of what the alien said, his eyes were transfixed on the candle in his hand. Seemingly it was an ordinary candle, average in size and weight, but Bee knew it was so much more. His focus was broken by the accusation that Bee was anything other than what he actually was.

“Hey now! What the heck is an apexle? Ape-truffle?! I am from earth, I’m human! I just so happen to be one of West City’s finest bioengineers… well I was anyway… Ant here… well, I’m in hell and even if we got back I doubt I’d be able to work for CorpCo again… what’s an NDA anyway…”
Bee sighed. The realization he was really dead was becoming more and more real with every facet he would touch on.

“So, early on after he was born he began to show signs of human-like interaction and understanding. It was like he was just like us, even as a newborn. So jokingly around the office his anthropomorphic behaviors kinda led to his nickname, Ant. That and he was created using multiple different types of dna, an earth Ant being one of them.”
Bee’s former look of grief and sadness was changed by his constant curiosity.

“Namekian… raid? You’re a raider?”
Bee felt the candle in his hand, he had almost forgotten about it and his plot to murder and steal the candle, but he was focused on the information.

“Have you… have you killed before…?”
Bee never felt more confident, this would add to the list of the rare moments.

Bee was a smart guy despite his emotional opportunities. He knew he was dead, he knew he was in hell, he wore the name murderer across his face at all times he felt, so why not dive in. Ant rubbed its chin against the sand, scratching it and easing an itch. The giant beast let out a breath, like a bored dog, and rested against the grains.

---

PL: 105,000

Ant
6/6 KP
0/6 MP
0/250%

WC: 328
TWC: 1951

“I meaan… have you ever thought about *HIC!* it?”
The Oni drooled on.

“If you really.. Liiikeee… reeallly think about it…. *Hic! hIC*! We’re all the same!
The Oni stood up from his stool with pitcher in hand and stumbled over to ant.

“Like you and you and you and you and you.”
The Oni pointed at Ant and all the multiples of Ant that he saw in his altered vision.

The Oni fell backwards into the sand and slowly sunk in deeper and deeper. Ant slithered backwards an inch as if to prevent itself from falling in this invisible sinkhole, but within a second the sand was solid again and the Oni was back on his stool.

“Yyou, knoooww…! *hicc* If you really think about it…”
The Oni continued on to himself.

‘This alien… Tuffles, Apexles, half machines… there is so much out there outside of Earth.’
Bee looked down towards the candle.

‘If I can figure out how to reverse engineer this… maybe Ant… if he was to consume it somehow and retain its magical properties… I need to experiment… I Have no lab… I’m dead…’
A tear trickled down Bee’s face.

“Wha, uh… yes CorpCo as well as Zaibatsu Corporation are two companies I have worked for atleast that involved some kind of bio or completely artificial life technology. Some of the feats are quite impressive.”
Bee wiped his nose with confidence.

“And Ant? He, was engineered to be an end to waste, he would consume all organic and inorganic waste and add to the circle of life on Earth. We never really got to the initial launch of the recycling event as… I had to… change plans…”
Bee replayed the murder of Dr. Shamoy in his own head over and over, shot after shot.

“Oh! You have then! You have killed! I knew it! Someone… such as yourself… so well… traveled of course he..hee..”
Bee ran his fingers through the back of his hair nervously.

“So then, you agree. In some circumstances, there's only so many options you can give a guy! Right? Right? When they give you no option, back you into a corner, and hurt ones you care about even? Then it's ok yea? Right?”
Bee got closer to the alien each time he asked a question, so he was pretty close by the end of his questioning.

---

PL: 105,000

Ant
6/6 KP
0/6 MP
0/250%

WC: 395
TWC: 2346