A Miscalculation - Part 3 (Commission for @ThickGreenFluff)

TAGS: Alien Abduction, Growth, Destruction, Growthlust

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In that moment, control passed entirely to Thomas’ hands, even if he himself hadn’t become fully aware of it; all it took was him reaching that conclusion, that he was going to grow more than he had already, for the power dynamic to irrevocably shift in his direction, as now there would be nothing that could possibly stop him. Much like the secret to breaking wooden logs with a well-aimed hand chop was learning how not to restrain oneself through fear of pain, so too was the secret to the drox’s freedom the simple lack of care for himself and his own safety. He was huge, after all, and this meant that regular injury just wasn’t something he had to worry about, as his body was surely sturdier than it had been before; it was this certainty, no matter how misbegotten it may have been, that gave him the confidence necessary to just plow straight through the wall where he knew the door was, not even thinking about how easy it had been compared to his previous attempt. One moment it was there, the next it had turned into… goop? A thick, syrupy substance that only served to confirm the dragon-fox’s suspicions that the whole structure was made out of some high-tech nanite compound, not that it mattered much now that he’d thoroughly destroyed it. Thomas expected to see a wide-open space on the other side, almost as if his cell was the zoo exhibit and the aliens were just waiting to unveil it to an expectant public; instead, he emerged into a well-lit but otherwise unremarkable corridor, one whose walls were smooth apart from the occasional, evenly-spaced plates with odd writing on them, which he could only assume marked the entrance to rooms similar to the one he’d just broken free from. If he was still in control of his better judgement, then perhaps the budding giant would have freed whoever might’ve been there, would have spent time and effort in liberating those whose lives were unjustly ripped away from them… but he wasn’t. There was little in the way of common sense in Thomas’ mind, very little of his self-restraint or sense of decency; in fact, once he saw just how long the hallway was, the only thought in his head was how now he had an even bigger reason to grow taller and larger, as clearly the only way he’d ever be able to release all of the reptilians’ prisoners would be to completely destroy whatever facility he happened to be in, rather than going door-to-door and knocking down the walls keeping them contained. It was yet more motivation, and with a manic, near-crazed grin stamped on his face, Thomas turned to one side of the corridor and started walking; he had no destination, but he knew that if he just kept going he’d reach somewhere important eventually. Besides, it made for some wonderful entertainment after he noticed that there were lizards all around him, dressed in a myriad of colours and all carrying an assortment of tools that surely would help them do whatever job they were tasked with; very few of them held onto such paltry things, however, when they saw the utter behemoth breaking free from its cell, and wisely decided to turn around and run to safety as fast as they could. How little did they know that this “safety” of theirs was an illusion, that no matter how fast they sprinted, no matter how far away they got from Thomas, they would never be safe from him. They took the drox from his home, kidnapped him and expected the man to be the latest addition to their zoo, so as far as the colossal fox-dragon cared, anything he did to them was fair game; if they were willing to so callously take him from his home and strip him of everything he held dear, then it was only fair that they should be ready for the same happening to them. Besides, it was about time they learned a lesson in humility… or at least, Thomas assumed it was, as he also assumed that the whole abduction business had been going on for longer than his own. In the distance, alarms were already blaring, speaking in the lizards’ language; though the dragon-fox had no clue what anything meant, he could tell from the tone and the constant blaring of sirens that it had to whatever their equivalent of a code red was, especially if all the clanking of metal around him was any indication. How droll, they were trying to lock him in! The ceiling opened to reveal large slits at even intervals, each one deploying a large, solid slab that slammed hard enough against the floor that it would’ve surely cracked any standard material; much like he’d seen in movies, Thomas noticed how the blast doors were being deployed from far behind him, approaching at high velocity as they closed off the corridor in chunks. Presumably, this was because he picked the right direction, and was headed towards some form of control room, meaning the deployment order was such that it allowed any personnel still in the facility to escape on time… and if the tiny little lizards could get away, then surely he could as well. Thomas wasn’t about to sit around and wait for the blockages to catch up with him, nor was he in the mood to break down slabs of nano-metal that were probably thicker than his torso. He could probably do it, given enough time and motivation, but he had better things to do, like find where the extraterrestrials were keeping all the good energy bars and devour them all, like lording his size over those who gave it to him, that they may regret everything they did. And to that end, he began sprinting, doing his best to keep up the pace even though he had to keep himself hunched over just to be able to fit in the hallway at all; after a short while, he gave up doing it the traditional way and just fell on all fours, taking on a feral posture and somehow managing to sprint even faster because of it! It was liberating, even more so than when he’d broken down the literal walls to his cell; it was a cycle, one where he hopped forwards, his entire body raised in the air for just a moment before he came crashing back down, shaking the structure all around him and leaving pawprints on the floor, ones that the nanite compound apparently decided not to fix. It would repeat itself, with Thomas thundering down the hallway, too quickly for the containment protocols to catch up with him, so quickly that he actually gained ground on the little lizards trying to get away from him. So many of them panicked that they decided to just take refuge inside the nearest cell, hoping perhaps that whoever happened to be inside wouldn’t seize the moment to try and escape; in fact, had the drox looked back to see his work, he would’ve noticed a multitude of creatures emerging from their rooms, kicking their captors from in front of them and joining in the escape. Several would unfortunately end up trapped by the falling blast doors, but that was fine; as soon as Thomas was big enough, he’d just rip the roof off from the prison and then gently pry whatever obstacles were in the way, freeing whoever was still inside to do as they wilt, now that they had a whole world to explore, a whole civilization to pay back unto. Already the dragon-fox was thinking of how he’d use his newfound power, ways in which he could make the abductors pay for thinking they could get away with what they did; it was fair, it was just, and above all, it was right that they taste their own medicine. Any civilization which had progressed to the point of taking other sentients to be put in a zoo had surely grown too complacent and decadent for their own good, so clearly, it was Thomas’ job to give them something to think about. They wanted entertainment? Well, he’d give it to them! He’d give them the biggest show they’d ever seen, and quite literally at that, just as soon as he got to the end of the hallway… and end he could finally see, off in the distance: a simple door, albeit one made of whatever nano-metal comprised the rest of the building, with a crowd of panicked lizard folk desperately trying to get through it while they still could. Their yelps of panic could be heard even at a distance, growing louder the closer Thomas got; his eyes narrowed, his toothy grin widened, and by the end, he made his choice. He could’ve kept going, could’ve used his momentum to barrel straight through everything and end up on the other side, but why should he? Pointless injury and death, when instead he could use this as an opportunity to impress upon those little ones just how thoroughly outmatched they were, and how little their plans mattered anymore; better that he skid to a halt just a few inches away from the very edge of the ball of lizards, looming over them as he did his best not to slobber all over the nearest alien while still keeping his sharp teeth on full display. It was only then that he rose to his two feet, returning to a normal posture and ending up looking even more threatening because of it, every single one of his former captors shrinking away, as if that would do anything. The crowd became more compact as its constituent members tried to find any space in which to flee into, only succeeding in clogging the door to the point where no one could get through, and the damned thing couldn’t be shut to protect those who’d already made it to the other side; not that it would do much, as Thomas was certain he’d be able to break through anyway. For the time being though, he figured that it was time to flex his dominance a bit, and thus he raised a hand; he kept it up, before slightly clenching his fingers to reveal his claws, his body language making it evidently clear that he was about to perform a swipe. Everyone there knew it, and plenty of the reptilians had their eyes closed as they made peace with whatever deities they believed in… only for Thomas to gently bring his index finger to his teeth, picking them in a mocking gesture despite having nothing to pick from them, chuckling loudly enough that it’d be clear to everyone listening that they had just been played. Even then, what were they going to do about it? They were tiny and he was huge, so all it took was him actually growling seriously for the whole group to resume trying to cram themselves into the control room on the other side of the door, just as the last few blast doors crashed into the floor behind Thomas. All the drox could do was stand there and stare at the display of incompetence, having to stop himself from cackling as his newest playthings acted like headless chickens, crabs in a bucket all trying to escape at the cost of everyone else and themselves; really, when he bent down and plucked one of the lizards from the crowd, carelessly sliding them over behind him, he was doing them a favour, since at least now they didn’t have to worry about escaping anymore. Thus, he kept pulling more and more of them, thinning out the group far faster than it was taking care of itself, until most of it was safely behind him, terrified and cowering, and the door to the control room was nice and open for him to go through. It was only then that Thomas came to realize that there was no challenge to it anymore, and this left him even more chuffed than he could ever hope for; just a few minutes ago (or hours, it was hard to tell) he’d been stuck in a room, a prisoner unable to escape from their shackles, and now he was staring down his captors as this immense, uber-powerful beastly giant whose actions would determine the fate of so many people that he dared not even think about it, lest he lose his mind completely. Thus, there was only one thing he could do: push forward, breaking down the wall to the control room and emerging into a space that was, thankfully, significantly more wide-open than the hallway he’d just been in. Panicked screaming erupted from those within, who had for whatever reason decided not to run away the moment it became clear that the dragon-fox wasn’t going to stop; though they certainly tried to do so once the last barrier was broken down, all they accomplished was creating a second crab bucket in the one other exit they had available. Luckily for them, however, Thomas was no longer interested in looming over a hapless group of victims, not when he swivelled his head to look around and chanced to spot a large window set into one of the walls, a transparent pane that revealed a large storage room on the other side. It was covered from floor to ceiling with metallic racks, along with multiple mechanical arms whose task, it seemed, was to sort through the contents of the shelves, most of which appeared to be foodstuffs; even better, however, were the energy bars clearly on display for all to see… or, to be more precise, the very large blocks of bars stacked together, massive bricks of the delicious, growth-inducing snacks just waiting for someone to come and shovel them into their mouths. He couldn’t turn quicker; the sudden change in direction was so loud, thanks to Thomas flattening multiple cubicles and who knew how much money in electronics, that it gave the lizards trying to escape a moment of relief when they saw the escaped monster head somewhere other than the exit, very quickly followed by an intense sense of existential dread once they realized just what they were after. A few were so brave as to activate their translator collars and shout after him, telling him how he was making a mistake and how the supplements were “unstable” if consumed in large quantities; one was so stupid as to actually try and physically stop the drox, standing in front of the door before being effortlessly swept aside. Thomas, of course, could not care less about the barrage of warnings being thrown his way; he knew what he wanted, and what he wanted was on the other side of that window, thus the only reasonable course of action was to break through it and then squeeze himself through, just vaguely taking note of how the sharp glass edges failed to even so much as scratch him, let alone cause any cuts. It made sense, after all; he was a burgeoning dragon-fox god, and as one, he should be immune to physical injury, or at least so resistant to it that there was no practical difference. That he managed to push his body through a broken window with nary a drop of blood spilled was the expected norm rather than anything remotely stupendous; besides, he had more important things to worry about, like tearing apart the automated sorting system to make room for himself, squeezing between the shelves and grabbing as many of the energy bar bricks as he could. There was just so much of it that he couldn’t even begin to take it all; most of the supply would have to be left for after his next growth spurt, which was at once disappointing and yet so tantalizing once Thomas came to think of it. Yes, he’d be denied a singular glorious expansion in which he’d take the planet by storm, but, at the same time, he’d be given more time to enjoy himself as he steadily climbed to those sizes anyway. All that was required of him was patience, the patience required to wait for a few more minutes to get to the same destination that he’d reach if he tried to rush it; plus, sweet treats always tasted better when one took the time to savour them. If only he looked aside, Thomas would’ve been able to see a congregated mob of reptilians, all staring at him with various looks of dejection stamped on their scaly little faces, having given up trying to escape the moment they saw what their former prisoner was trying to do. It was as if they were trying to convince themselves still, like they’d all collectively agreed that what they were seeing was some sort of group hallucination rather than reality; the alternative was far too dreadful to even consider, even when it was staring at them as directly as it possibly could. For Thomas, however, none of this mattered; all he wanted was to taste the growth again, and quite literally at that, hence why he waited no longer than strictly necessary before lifting a whole brick of energy bars and shoving it into his mouth, stretching his jaw open just to accommodate the size of the damned thing. It was barbaric and definitely uncilized of him to eat that way, but when the flavour hit the back of his throat, it became almost impossible to give a single damn about it; in sharp contrast to how the first one of those things had tasted like wet paper, the ones Thomas slowly chewed on as he forced his teeth to go through to colossal bulk of creamy goodness were… he couldn’t quite put it into words. It was every chocolate bar he’d ever eaten, every delicious pastry he’d consumed, the best of everything he’d ever eaten rolled into a single mass, one whose consistency was at the perfect state to cause him to whine and moan from the sheer enjoyment of it; he was back at home during a lazy day, cracking open the fridge and eating one of his guilty pleasures, he was sitting on his couch, unwrapping a long piece of chocolate so he could slowly nibble on it, bit by bit, until he hit the gooey center of it. It was, to put it mildly, perfection incarnate… and it was a single brick as well. By the time he was done chewing the first one into a ball that could better fit in his mouth, Thomas had already begun picking apart the second block of energy bars, not even bothering to wait as he quickly added individual snack after individual snack into the mass of growth-inducing substance making short work of his taste buds, only stopping when he realized he’d have to swallow at some point. When he did, the fox-dragon could only wish he was able to see himself the way the tiny lizards were, just so he could watch what had to be (and, indeed, was) an enormous lump travelling down his throat, bulging it out before vanishing somewhere underneath his collarbone. Hell, even without the visual spectacle, Thomas still felt as the colossal weight slammed into his stomach, practically bending him over reflexively from how powerful the hit was; even better was the realization that, assuming the substance worked as it did before, it wouldn’t take that long for the effects to be made manifest, and with so much of the stuff having been consumed, said effects would most likely be explosive, to put it mildly. So he waited; a second passed, then another, and though nothing happened in that short time, Thomas knew that something eventually would, owing to most of the onlookers having turned around and ran towards the exit, only to be stuck in the crowd still trying to get out. Another second, and suddenly the drox felt his body temperature start to rise above normal; yet another, and the sense of pressure he recognized from when he was still strapped on the table made itself known. By then, all Thomas could think to do was lie back and use several of the broken racks as an improvised recliner, a wide, toothy grin on his lips as he settled in for the long haul, waiting for that enormous surplus of growth agent to do what it was supposed to. For once, he actually felt it; rather than his body burgeoning outwards without Thomas realizing it until he interacted with the outside world in a way that made the changes apparent, he felt his form shift and change, stretching out as the pressure building deep within him expanded outwards, hoping perhaps to alleviate itself by forcing the dragon-fox’s physical form to make more room. Metal grinding and groaning filled the air once the giant’s frame began to twist the broken shelves further, the mechanisms lying on the floor being flattened underneath an ever-mounting weight; Thomas made sure to angle his paws and legs away from the racks that still held the energy bar bricks, as that was one loss he was not ready to take. Everything else though? Everything else could go as far as he cared, for it was little more than a reminder of a civilization who thought to steal him away, one that was about to be taught a lesson in humility as soon as their new god bothered to get back up. He would, eventually, though mostly because even that enormous dosage of growth agent would run dry eventually, forcing him to consume the rest of the stock; hopefully, by that point, he’d have become large enough to consume all of it at once, hastening his ascension towards the heavens. Thomas’ one regret was that the building around him wasn’t built out of standard construction materials; clearly, the nano-compound that made up the cells had also been used for the rest of the structure, denying him the sight of crumbling plaster and rebar collapsing onto his growing body as he slowly outsized the very building he was in, destroying it just as much as he turned it into his personal cocoon. Though, what would emerge from it would not be a beautiful butterfly, but rather a monstrous giant of a size so terrifying that all those who laid eyes on them would run in terror from the sight, for all the good that did to them… and it was this mental image which fueled Thomas’ hunger even further, crystallizing his intent to impose himself upon the world around him, whatever it may be, however it may look, that he might be worshipped like the deity that he was, the deity he’d turned himself into. It was only fair, after being abducted without so much as a “please and thank you”; really, if his captors didn’t want him to turn the tables on them, then maybe they should’ve thought twice before kidnapping him and then providing the very means of their destruction. How exactly the other zoo specimens never thought to do this was beyond him; maybe they were so broken down that they never tried, or perhaps, as Thomas preferred to think, he was the first person whose body reacted that way to what was, by all accounts, a nutrient supplement designed only to improve one’s physical condition. Perhaps, as he had come to believe, he was blessed with the unique ability to just keep going, whereas others had a physical limit to how much they could upgrade themselves; it would certainly explain why he was taken, and why the observation team didn’t do anything as his body engorged and grew to such ridiculous proportions… not until he broke through the wall and made it their problem, of course. Thomas smiled; everything had gone so perfectly that one might be forgiven for thinking the dragon-fox had planned for it, rather than it being the fortunate result of a series of happenstances he had no control over.