Take it for yourself.
You were unable to get any reassurance about your situation. You knew that your higher ups would reward you greatly for accomplishing this mission. This was the only thing you could find yourself thinking about as you ripped off the materials from the body and started flying around the room to seek your way out.
Your wings flapped frantically until you found a dark hole in the ceiling of the tomb. Straight through that you saw a small speck of light leading you out through the incredibly high ceiling. At this point, the blue lights had dimmed. You cared not about what the others were experiencing but you knew that if you could do your mission, you may be helping many more people other than those who you just met. You almost couldn’t help but laughing to yourself as Duke’s platoon realized how right he was from the start. Despite his chaotic fashion of leadership, you were absolutely pleased to had used that against him throughout your journey- You never liked the look of his dumb face anyway.
In the beginning, he was going to leave Buddy to die anyway. What kind of leader would do that?!” You thought to yourself, justifying your decision to yourself as you made your escape.
Now, your wings had grown more powerful- far more used to flying around with cargo at this point, after the long arduous journey you had gone; and after carrying around all those massive bodies. You brushed the sweat from your brow, thankful that you’d never have to be used like that again by anyone else.
You had to fly miles across the ocean to get back to the battleship, stationed a few miles off the coast. Something in your memory brought you straight back to the massive metal tanker as if it was implanted in your memory.
“Sergeant! I have returned with the cargo.” You said to the massive eagle, giving him a solute before you handed off the folded fabrics of the transformation suit.
“Thank you!” he said before taking it for himself. For a moment, he looked over the material, smoothing his feathered fingers over the fabric, hypnotized by the power he felt emanating from it’s threads.
“Are we all ready for what’s next?” you asked him, catching his attention. The eagle nodded and led you in through another room in the back. Your heart pumped with excitement, knowing for yourself that you were soon to be awarded with another transformation. This one was something you had been looking forward to for so long prior. It was so much more worth it to you than a random transformation found in some dead guy’s tomb. You thought to yourself about how you left the others stuck in that creepy old place and you wondered how badly they deserved it for using you like that.
“You did a good job, soldier.” Your higher up, granted you with your next transformation outfit and your eyes lit up like stars in the night’s sky.
“Thank you!” you responded.
“It was a good thing you didn’t let them get this suit…” He started. “As you know, their platoon was looking to take control of our base with this powerful source of energy.” He continued.
“Yes. I am well aware of that.” Or were you? Something seemed a bit off about his explanation, as if that was something that wasn’t already implanted into your memory when you first transformed. Whatever though, you were just ready to be the next thing- to take the next step in your endless journey.
“I’m proud of you, Solider!” he continued. You wanted to slide the clothes on then and there, but you forced yourself to have one final ounce of patience to listen to what he had to say before sliding away to undress. “We would have done anything it takes to make sure they’re not accelerating their military faster than us…” He continued.
“Wait a minute. What?” You asked him, still trying not to divide your attention that much about your new rewards. “So this was more of an arms race?” you tried asking subtly.
“Of course it is! Solider.” he continued. “Isn’t everything in a sense an arms race? Now they’ll never have the upper hand on us.”
“Wait a minute, That wasn’t exactly what I was signing up for.” You argued.
“Well it’s whatcha got! Right? Wouldn’t want that gift taken away from you so soon too, right?” he continued, silencing you then and there.
“Right.” You thought to yourself a bit more about how none of this really mattered anyway. You just wanted to get to your next transformation anyway. You thought nothing about the morales or consequences of your actions, you just wanted to achieve your next and potentially final goal of this mission. Still, you couldn’t help but think about the friend that they thought you were. They truly did trust you, and you didn’t know exactly how you felt about that as you pondered their relationships, only moments before you went off and got redressed in your future transformation.
Though it felt kinda weird. At least you were focused enough to achieve your final goal! As you started redressing yourself in the new outfit, you couldn’t help but wonder what would become of the city, what would become of the potential friends you could have made, whether or not they’d actually escape the cavernous maze of the pyramid, or if they would be doomed to be trapped forever. There was something a bit weird about your actions, considering you had in theory- cut off the deity’s people’s source of energy. Even though he warned you about the consequences of your actions, you figured that it was only a dream and that you’d never even know of the actual repercussions which everyone faced. Regardless, now you’re here, now you may never know what will happen thereafter and luckily for you, at this point, you had something else to distract yourself with.
You could feel the power of the transformation rushing through your body as you started to change.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 04 February 2022