Special Needs Forces

In the morning at 6 AM (or rather at night because 6 AM should not count as morning) Crow barged in Ex-Captain's room unannounced and without knocking.

"Get up." said Crow as if she was giving an order

"No" said Ex-Captain without even opening his eyes. And Crow poured water from a watering can on him and he woke up and got scared like a cat that’s sleeping in the sink and suddenly someone turns on the water.

"What do you want, why are you watering me?" Cried Biel, pissed off, because seriously, who pours water on people without warning.

"I’m going to teach you to fight"

"Wait, for real?" Biel didn’t know if it was for real because Crow was unpredictable and had said three times before that she wouldn’t teach him to fight. He was going to ask why she changed her mind but then he thought that if he did it, she might indeed change her mind, and he didn’t want that because he wanted to finally defeat her, so he just followed her and they went somewhere outside to learn how to kick ass like a pro.

The next day Tawny’s painkillers stopped working and he started feeling like shit again, but this time he voluntarily came to med bay. There, Frezja did a complete scan and although Tawny didn't like it because he didn't like any medical procedures, he hoped that there would be some cure for his condition because he didn't like that everything hurt him and he was starting to look like some tiger cosplayer. Unfortunately, if a cure existed it was unknown, because they would have to research the monster that infected Tawny first, and no one knew where the monster currently was. Either way, the team had to learn about Tawny’s condition sooner or later, and Frezja convinced him to do it sooner rather than later. The original Thirteen was worried because they didn't want their friend to turn into a monster, but Crow wasn't so supportive. She suspected that Tawny might be the cause of the deaths of two of her teammates, but had no way to confirm it, and Tawny's friends insisted that she turned a blind eye to him for now. At least while Frezja needs him for research.

And then there was a time interval where the team was doing their team stuff, Rigel was simping to Lime all week, Lukier got addicted to reading dumb broken stories like the one you're reading right now, Captain was being trained by Crow, and Tanager probably thought he and Tawny became good friends after all the times he came to him to try to make him better. But he wasn’t better because he was looking more and more like a devil and additionally he grew a spiked tail and his stripes became more distinct. The horns also started sticking out and he couldn't cover them with his hair anymore. He didn't like looking like this, but at least the pain eventually stopped and he could walk around the base. On the other hand, his appearance began to attract Lime's attention, which Rigel didn’t like, because all his effort put into simping was ruined by Tawny, although even Rigel himself had to admit Tawny gained a lot of attractiveness due to the monster parasite.

One day Tanager and Tawny were going for a walk around the base and saw Rigel and Lime in the corridor, Rigel tried his hand at flirting as usual, but he sucked so much that Lime wasn’t even noticing his attempts. Instead, she noticed Tawny and started a conversation.

"Oh hey, you don't leave med bay too often and we never get any chance to talk"

"That’s what happens when you’re sick" he commented after a moment because he didn’t know what to answer

”Sick?, you look great. I wish I had epic claws and sharp teeth. Soon you'll be able to work without weapons, you'll just bite the monsters” Lime continued her conversation. Rigel was very jealous that Tawny was getting attention from her, but Tawny didn't want Lime's attention and would like her to go back to talking to Rigel.

"I don't know, I preferred to look normal." Tawny said, again, after a short pause, because he felt uncomfortable with Lime's comments, she was being too enthusiastic and he didn’t know how to behave in such a situation.

"Oh don't be sad, girls like monsterboys" said Lime everyone felt uncomfortable, especially Rigel who was screaming internally because he’d been simping to Lime all week and she seemed to be lowkey horny for the horned guy.

"Uhh wait a minute, come with me Tawny" Rigel grabbed Tawny by the sleeve and dragged him somewhere down the corridor and Tanager and Lime were a bit confused but decided that if they were left behind by their friends, they would go make toast or something together. Meanwhile, Rigel dragged Tawny to the bathroom because he wanted to talk to him privately so that no one would hear.

"What do you want from me Rigel, say something already" Tawny said irritated

"Okay listen, I don't know if you noticed but what Lime said is true"

"What?"

“Well, you're pretty sexy when you look like a demon."

"Rigel- are you hitting on me? Did you really fall so low? "

"Nooo! I’m not but it looks like you caught Lime's eye."

"If that's what you mean, I'm not going to steal her from you-"

"Not exactly that, just... well, I've been spending time with her and being nice for who knows how long and you two saw each other a couple times and you're probably already higher than me on the hot guys list"

“Okay, what’s your point?"

"Do you think you could infect me with the thing the monster infected you with?"

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Come on, do it for me"

"It's not just about looking cool, it's some kind of annoying disease"

"Come on, I’m trying to find a significant other for weeks and months and years and you don’t even try, you just walk down a corridor and girls come to you" Rigel said "Come on, share"

"No, leave me alone"

“Why not, what's the “sick” part? Are you feeling weaker? Or different?"

“Well, no, but I don't know what it is and whether or not it will get worse"

"What do you mean worse, you get superman powers, I heard Frezja said you recover in injuries in hours"

"Shut up Rigel, I don't want superman powers, I want to be uninfected"

"What, why? I don't see any disadvantages here, you have better eyesight, regeneration, girls like you, and maybe more and you’re complaining smh."

"Maybe you don't see the very obvious downside that everything indicates that I am mutating into some kind of monster"

“Well then consider this, if I get infected too then in case of some.. I don’t know, medical experiments or whatever? they can take me for testing and not you, I know that you don't like medical procedures. Also we don’t even know if you can infect at all, so you should try and see, do it for science and for me so I can finally be successful in flirting"

Tawny had a dilemma now because he knew he wasn't telling people the whole truth and infecting Rigel could mean Rigel eating the team like Tawny did, but on the other hand, Frezja was hiding Tawny’s recent medical records, but would probably have to stop hiding those at some point and some lab would take interest in him. He was afraid they would want to do some research on him and so Rigel would be a good distraction or a replacement in that case. In addition, Tawny knew that Rigel probably won’t leave him alone for a long time because he had no tact and didn’t understand the meaning of the word “no”, so he would probably bother him for the next week. After Tawny’s refusal, Rigel was bothering him for 3 days, and then he caught Tawny when he accidentally got drunk with alcoholic chocolates due to his newly acquired substance intolerance and then Tawny agreed to infect Rigel and infected him. As soon as Tawny sobered up and realized what he had done, he regretted doing it.