As they were beginning to strap down the latest batch of subjec- erm, volunteers, Bayleaf was starting to count herself lucky that she was knocked out when the changes occurred.

  Most of the Harriers, as foolish as it seemed, stated that they did not wish to be put under anesthetics for the procedures to enhance their physique, a misplaced sense of showboating Bayleaf assumed.

  Mera was only happy to oblige them, resulting in the first batch screaming their heads off as their bodies were forcefully and irrevocably changed.

  It was for a lack of a better word horrifying and mystifying all at once.

  When the first batch fell to the ground in convulsions, Mera’s tentacle hair stabbing into their abdomens, most tried to run away.

  All failed spectacularly, which was quite a sight for Bayleaf.

  All of the batch were men, half naked, scrambling for their lives to get through the reinforced blast doors the medical bay set for quarantine measures, and yet could not break through it quick enough before Mera stabbed them all with her hair tendrils.

  It was like she was watching one of those scenes in a corpse walker movie, where the mindless undead tried to force open a locked door with nothing but their combined weight and single minded purpose.

  Only to be eaten by a space monster.

  Ironic.

  Bayleaf leaned against the wall as she witnessed the second batch going through a now familiar setting of trying to escape the alien monster that was most definitely playing this up for fun.

  The mind reading she received from Mera worked wonders to pick out the mood of the visitor from the stars, and she was positively relishing this.

  She had shifted to what Bayleaf assumed must be her true form, a humanoid shaped blob-like entity with tendrils for hair and bending elastic arms and legs, and was chasing the screaming and crying females of the second batch.

  “Ahhhhh!”

  “R-Run! Don’t let it get you!”

  “It already got Mira! How did it get on the ship?!”

  “Call the Captain!”

  Bayleaf did her best to look like she was already ‘stung’ by one of the tendrils in order to play up the fear factor.

  It was hard to tell, but she swore that Mera actually winked at her for doing that.

  I mostly did this so that I wouldn't have to explain myself, but hey, whatever helps.

  She smirked back as she laid her head against the wall.

  “B-Brains! Give me your brains!” Mera shouted, slowing her pitch like she struggled with each word.

  Bayleaf almost chuckled, but cut herself off in time to make it look like a convulsion like the others that went through the changes.

  “It even got Bayleaf!”

  “No!”

  It was a bit enjoyable to scare the daylights out of the crew, but after a few hours of doing it, Mera finally broke the illusion and started to help out the rest of the crew, not just the Harriers.

  The changes as she thought before were rather graphic, and Bayleaf couldn’t help but notice the way something seemed to move under the skin of the patients whenever Chimera was making the changes.

  Bayleaf walked towards Mera as she was working on the latest member of the mechanics crew, the ones that were in charge of the engineering sectors of the ship. They helped maintain the ship's engines, power and sub systems as well as other key systems of the vessel. Though Bayleaf rarely ever interacted with them at all.

  After all, she was supposed to break enemies and fix up allies, not machines.

  Mera’s tendrils were stabbed into several areas of this crew member, who seemed to have lost a hand to an accident of some kind.

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  The man was knocked out, twitching at times while Mera worked on him. Flesh that looks diseased or burned sloughed off of the man like an old snake skin. His eyes moved erratically, but still refused to open.

  Whatever Chimera put in those sleep spikes as she called them must be powerful indeed.

  A few minutes later, the now younger, handsome crew member woke up, their eyes scanning their surroundings in… not fear, but Bayleaf could see they were more alert than before.

  “W-Where am I?” the startled crew member said before they turned to address Bayleaf.

  “Still in the medical bay, beds are over there if you need to rest.” Bayleaf motioned with her hand to the expanding restroom, complete with beds and toilets to give the crew a chance to hurl if they needed it.

  “Thanks ma’am, I think I’ll ‘hurl’ I’ll take one of those.”

  A few minutes later Bayleaf started to hear the tall tail signs of vomit, mostly the noise.

  Bayleaf moved to check on the members that were still in recovery after their changes started to settle, checking vitals and administering sleep agents for the more drastically changed. It was something else to see such changes, as almost every one of the crew that had some debilitation, or some kind of physical condition were now completely set to a normal functional body.

  It was a bit of a shock for those people, if only because they now had to relearn how to move. For Bayleaf it was a fascinating thing to experience, as she had gone something similar and now was witnessing the changes.

  Her medical brain was very happy to witness these miracles first hand, if only so she could try to understand what exactly Mera did to fix and repair these bodies.

  She decided she would do just that, and activated a diagnostic spell medical doctors used to check on the patient’s condition on a sleeping Harrier.

  The diagnostic showed several areas that took up all the space in a chest cavity were now much smaller, but more numerous at the same time. It was, to her understanding, like a space was now inside the chest that could hold more space, a sub-space.

  All of the patients organs were connected through this place, and there were redundant systems like extra hearts and livers, along with a second pair of lungs inside and surrounded by a muscular membrane that Bayleaf realized must act as a diaphragm due to its positioning.

  It was like someone took an anatomy class, half-skimmed through the book and decided to rebuild a body with that limited understanding.

  The most insane thing about this was how it worked!

  Tendrils now floated inside the body, taking the place of blood cells as they moved and delivered vital energy and oxygen to various body parts. The muscles were bonded with some kind of new ligaments, making them flexible and extremely dense all at once. Even the brain inside this particular patient was made smaller, smaller! But it was clearly working faster based on the diagnostics scan of the patients REM sleep cycle.

  Bayleaf went from patient to patient, checking each of the changes that were made and always finding something different for each patient. Those who didn’t or couldn’t use magic before now sported stronger bodies and increased physically.

  The ones who did have a magical disposition were given a mana organ much like herself, though Bayleaf noticed these weren’t as powerful as her own.

  Was there a reason for it?

  Bayleaf turned her head to notice Mera was done with the most recent crew members. Using her tendril hairs to lift the unconscious patients, she started to place them in new beds that the ship made room for.

  “Curiosity sated? You could always ask.”

  Bayleaf turned completely to face Mera as she placed the last of the members on beds, waiting for the alien girl to turn and face her.

  When she finally did, Bayleaf spoke, “would you really tell me?”

  Mera smiled back, “no, but you could still ask.” Snidely the little bitch moved to check on the rest of the patients, using some method to scan vitals.

  “I thought you were asking for trust, or was that all just bullshit?” Bayleaf fired back as she moved next to the little squirt.

  Mera bumped her with her shoulder, “we’re bonding, that’s how trust starts. Besides,” Mera looked up at her with a smirk, “got to keep you in suspense or you won’t be interested.”

  “I could just read your mind for the answer, you know?” She spoke, a little condescendingly she would admit.

  Mera only grinned wider, “that just means you lose. After all, looking into people’s heads is cheating.”

  “You literally had this skill a week ago.”

  “Didn’t mean that me using it was a cheat, just meant that it cheats you from an experience. Like, talking about your favorite thing to do and asking someone theirs,”

  Bayleaf made a motion like she was checking the patient that she was next to and happened to be next to Mera.

  “I… liked to check out cadavers as a kid.”

  “Gross.”

  Bayleaf yelled back, a bit of a higher pitch than she intended, “You eat them, I know I checked your thoughts!”

  “No, I eat dead cells,” Mera smirked back up at her, “I aint never had a corpse to eat. Don’t really plan on it either, I mean, I can just hop into someone and eat all the stuff they’re not using.”

  “So like skin cells and… that stuff?”

  Mera's eyes were deadpanned as she spoke, “yes.”

  “Ew.”

  “Says the corpse watcher.”

  “Hey!”

  It was like this for a while, Bayleaf and Mera both throwing insults and getting to know each other just a bit more each time.

  And to the crew that watched them bicker, it was a bit heartwarming to see their superior mock the eldritch monster that only a hour ago was tormenting their group.

  It was cathartic and it reminded them a bit of home.