Chimera stared out at a sea of L-shaped bodies, all of them doing their best to not meet her eyes.

  She grit her teeth a bit at the site.

  I have not even had a chance to do something, so what brough this on. They’re making me look like a tyrant right now!

  She shook her head as she walked away from the bowing heads, not even attempting to acknowledge them as she moved on.

  Her eyes were tracking the lanky man, who conveniently was standing behind all of these meat shields.

  Like a deer in headlights, the Elfari seemed to realize that she was heading in his direction, and noticeably took a few steps back as she approached.

  “Give me that bastard and I’ll let you all go.”

  She pointed at the whispy man as a look of abject terror crossed his face.

  “W-Wait! Miss Mera, please, we can talk about this! Yes?”

  It was one of the bodies that was bowing their head at her that spoke, and she pushed the woman aside as she kept up her march.

  “Miss Mera, you can’t!”

  “He’s the captain! If you kill him, the ship won't move!”

  Chimera only scoffed, “I can make the ship move all on my own, I don't need a freaking bastard like him to do anything!”

  In her head she calculated that the odds of her actually being able to do something like that were pretty slim.

  But they weren’t zero, and that meant the lanky captain was about to get a whooping of a lifetime.

  More bodies pleaded, more shoved out of the way as she made her death march to the bastard responsible for placing her in a dark box.

  She was about to grab the man’s head when another Elfari stepped in front of her, one that she recognized from their brief encounter.

  Her name was Bayleaf, and Chimera recalled that she was the one that she had gifted, and probably the reason for this entire ‘enslavement’ situation she found herself in earlier.

  “Move.”

  Bayleaf didn’t.

  “Please, allow me to explain before you do anything to Captain Bark.”

  Chimera tsked, finally getting a name for the fool she was about to pummel.

  It did make things harder when he had a name, it was easier taking out some nameless enemy.

  Still wouldn’t stop her from getting her pound of flesh from him.

  “Okay, you talk and explain, and if you can give me a sound reason before I kill him, you win!”

  Chimera bent around with her body, using her space power to fold the space between them, allowing her to bypass the doctor sized wall in front of her, and allowing her to now face the Elfari captain himself.

  His skin was sweating, most of his white hair had a greasy appearance, and everything about him reeked of fear and regret.

  “Can I explain my reasoning at least?”

  “Why talk now? Because your stupid cage prison didn’t work?”

  Chimera decked him, softly, in the face, breaking a tooth that went flying out as he backed up.

  He rushed to use magic, but Chimera batted his hands, canceling the conjuration he was attempting, and back handed him into a wall.

  He moaned in pain as he tried to stand, but Chimera only punched down on his body.

  Again, only lightly.

  She wanted the bastard to live, so she couldn’t use her full strength.

  Still wouldn’t stop her from making it hurt.

  Quillpig poison spines erupted from her fists as she landed a flurry of blows on the captain’s body.

  After her run in with the crew during her escape, she gained a smorgesborg of junk DNA, fat and energy cells from waste, and most importantly.

  Some of her old abilities and traits returned, once again attached to her main power structure.

  Her quills, spines, poison, and animal traits started to cover her pseudo musculature, granting her increased strength and speed, along with a faster metabolism to crush and recycle her food with.

  Which helped her P.E.Gs cycle their energy more efficiently.

  She had one before the escape, but now four of the generators were whirring and providing her with life energy afterwards.

  “Mera! Please stop this!”

  Chimera turned to stare at the doctor once more.

  “You worried he’ll die?”

  The Doctor nodded, “the captain is over five centuries old. His body can’t take anymore damage, and it is true that he is necessary to pilot the ship. I know he deeply regrets what he has done, so please. At least give him the chance to explain himself before…”

  The unspoken words were clear, and it made Chimera frown.

  They actually thought Chimera was going to kill the bastard.

  In exasperation, Chimera pulled out one of her tendrils, a wicked looking spine at the end of it that was shaped like a syringe.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Before the doctor could even speak, Chimera jabbed the needle directly into Bark’s spine.

  “AGHHh! Ahh Goddess it hurts!”

  For a moment Chimera stared at the doctor, almost daring her to attempt anything, but found that the doctor was only staring at Captain Bark in amazement.

  The oldman’s body was knitting together, the broken flesh and skin, the knotted bones and degraded limbs that were the result of the passage of time, faded away before her eyes.

  And not just hers, the rest of the crew had crowded around the three as Chimera continued to alter the genetic structure of the Captain’s Body, giving him a youthful appearance, the mana organ that she once took from Ms. Magicka back home, and absorbing and storing his waste and dead cells within her.

  She wanted that DNA most of all, for the same purpose that the crew wanted their captain’s life saved.

  If she could figure out what made him tick, then space travel might not be out of the question for herself.

  Let them think I’m being forgiving, because I’m gone once this whole space tree stuff is mine,

  “There, he’s healed.”

  She socked him in the face one last time, bruising his eye. As she turned around to leave, the Captain called out to her.

  “W-What was that for?”

  “Lying to me, you old bastard.”

  “Lie?!”

  Chimera twisted her head around 180 degrees, making a face that would haunt Bark’s nightmares for years on end.

  “Yeah, you said that you came in peace, and then proceeded to try and exploit me for your stupid empire. Be thankful we need you to run this ship or I would have eaten you.”

  To make her point, she filled her child-like smile with teeth, filed sharp and jagged.

  Then she made the teeth appear on her eyes and ears, along with tendrils reaching out and grabbing the air.

  Chimera smiled even wider as she saw some of the crew faint at the sight, and while she didn’t have her eyes, her blob sight, a 360 degree bubble of awareness, allowed her to ‘see’ everything clearly.

  Chimera started to move from the Captain only for the doctor to stop her.

  “Thank you for sparing his life. I know this doesn’t make anything okay or even forgiven… but still.”

  Chimera side-eyed the doctor, “Bayleaf, I don’t forgive people easily. I also don’t know why you are being nice to me when you already have a gift from me.”

  She leaned in till her face was up next to the doctor’s, “that seems suspicious.”

  Doctor Bayleaf gulped audibly as Chimera stared her down.

  “I-I understand that you were just wanting to escape what you thought was a hostile situation-”

  “-It was a hostile situation doctor, don’t try to sugarcoat it.”

  “Sugar? Not something I have heard of before.”

  “It’s sweet, overtakes all tastes around it. My point is, get to the bloody point already.”

  Bayleaf paused as she gathered her resolve, “I… believe that we can come to an agreement where you get the help you need, and we receive services from you.”

  Chimera laughed, a spiteful one filled with mirth, “Why, oh why, would I need your help? Or any of your help? Let’s get this straight Doctor, you lost the chance for nice ‘Mera. Now you get Bitch Chimera, and I am not above smacking a bitch up if I feel wronged.”

  Chimera moved away from the doctor, marching back to the spot where her cube prison once stood.

  “Don’t come at me with half baked apologies and bullshit contracts Dr. Bayleaf Bristlebranch, I’m not about to work with you fuckers anytime soon.”

  “Please Mera, we can talk about this! I know this isn’t ideal and certain things were done with less than… appropriate goals, but I know that if I had the chance I would start over. Can we not do that now? Give me one last chance to prove to you that this will work!”

  “What will work? You screwing me over? Or slaving me using that magic I saw in your mind? Don’t worry Doctor, I know all too well that you and your people enslave animals using magic.”

  Chimera turned to sit on a crate in the cargo hold.

  “But sure, let's do another try at this.”

  Chimera could see the hope in Dr. Bayleaf’s eyes as she bowed her head slightly.

  “Thank you, for this chance.”

  Chimera only shook her head as she closed her eyes, “don’t fuck it up then.”

  The crew left after that, leaving Chimera with her thoughts, and one guard that stood next to a gate.

  Chimera stared at the woman, who chafed under her gaze.

  “D-Did you need something?”

  “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

  The guard shook her head, “I’m to defend and watch over the cargo in case of intruders or pests. I have to be here.”

  Chimera sighed, “okay, then mind helping me out with something?”

  The guard nodded hesitantly, “I suppose that would be alright.”

  “Good, come here.”

  The guard obeyed, standing before Chimera as she held out some tendrils in front of the guard’s hands.

  “Please grab hold of them.”

  The guard stared at the tendrils, “you want me to grab those things?”

  “Yes.”

  “W-Well… okay, then.”

  The guard obeyed, and Chimera grasped the wrists of the guardswoman.

  “Good, this is going to hurt, but bear with it for a second.”

  “What’s going to Hur–IEEKKKK!”

  Chimera drilled her tendrils into the guards flesh, sending out a webwork of her flesh into the body of the Elfari guard.

  She felt the body, surfed through her DNA, and destroyed and built as she went.

  All the while absorbing her DNA and features.

  Chimera took a long time to do this, and the guard was in a state of pain and euphoria for most of it.

  Finally, after what must have been an hour, Chimera released the guard, newly enhanced and looking younger and fitter than ever.

  “Thanks, you can go back to your guarding or whatever.”

  “Thank you mistress Chimera!”

  “Hey, cut that crap out.”

  “Yes My Queen!”

  Chimera sighed as she went back to sitting on her crate.

  Though she had gone through several different Elfari during her time on the Meras-102, she had yet to get a full DNA chain from the race of elves.

  With the guards help, Chimera now had an entire blueprint on Elfari DNA, from their mana channels to their extra livers and kidneys.

  Another template to add to her collection.

  Lets see it then.

  Meditating, Chimera chose an image for herself based on the Elfari genome, morphing and reconstructing a body with the template.

  Before her stood a child-like version of herself, only with the pale skin, long pointed ears, and iridescent eyes of the Elfari.

  She nodded at the sight.

  “This is pretty good, but I think I can make it better.”

  She morphed parts and pieces, using the template as a stable structure to allow her the opportunity to test and replace parts with others.

  Once she was finished, she placed herself inside the new body, and let the sensations of the new form envelop her.

  Opening her newly ruby eyes, she smiled tightyl as she stretched out the muscles and skin, testing for pressure and context as her new connections formed with the Elfari body.

  Everything looks good, nerves appear responsive, body’s inner flora and fauna are cycling. Hair is still red, despite trying to change its color.

  She nodded.

  Overall, a success.

  …