As he rounded a bend in the
intestine, he saw the flicker of the creature's tendrils in the beam
from his belt-mounted flashlight. It quickly vanished into the
darkness, but Ray wasn’t about to let it escape, not again.
He
bolted as fast as he could, his feet slipping a few times on the
mucus that lined every surface.
But the creature was gone.
“Dammit!” he shouted out in frustration.
The
creature could definitely move fast
when it wanted to, far
faster than he was at his size. Then
again, considering the length of its legs, he doubted he would be
able to catch it at any size. At least any size while still being
able to move freely within
the confines of the intestine.
“I guess I’ll just have to get a little bit bigger and see what
happens,” he muttered to himself.
Truth
be told, Ray didn’t like altering size when he
was inside people, not that
he spent a lot of time being
in people. He had to admit,
though, that
there was a girl back when he was in high school that he wouldn’t
have minded getting inside, and he meant that
in every way possible.
He
pushed the errant thought out of his mind as he focused back on the
task at hand. He needed to
be bigger, but still small enough so that he was able to move freely
within the confines of the small intestine. Though judging by how
far he had traveled, he suspected that it wouldn’t be too much
longer and he might just find himself in the large intestine.
He
also noted that he hadn’t seen much sign of those egg-looking
things that had lined the
walls. They seemingly had
been localized to the upper
part of the small intestine and he wondered if that was due to them
being able to absorb more
nutrients?
“No
time to dwell on that now,” he
said as he grew fifty percent bigger. “I think I’ve spent enough
time in this poop shoot. Time to finish the job and get some fresh
air.”
He
began to run once more, growing another seventy percent bigger as he
approached yet another turn.
He slid around it and came face to face once more with the creature.
“Time
to get serious,” he said. “You’ve
spent enough time leeching off my friend. It’s time you were
evicted.”
The creature turned to flee, but with only a couple of steps, he
caught up, grabbing a hold of two of its tendril-like legs before he
yanked it back. It offered quite a lot of resistance, enough that Ray
found himself being pulled forward instead.
“You’re going down!” he yelled as he threw a foot forward,
striking it in the center of mass.
It let out a strangely distorted hiss then threw out a limb like a
whip, striking his arm hard. Ray let out his own hiss of pain.
He took aim with one of his laser cutters and fired. Much to his
surprise, it tried to block it, and it would have worked too if it
had been wearing cuffs like Wonder Woman. Instead, the end of the
limb was lopped off, though it had many more left.
The creature let out a scream and coiled its tendrils around him,
then slammed him hard against the fleshy wall before slamming him
down against the ‘ground’ causing mucus to explode everywhere before it held his arms apart.
He managed to kick at one of its limbs but it didn’t do him much
good. It had so many that there was little he could do about it other
than hope it gave him an opening to use his energy cutter or let him
go.
The creature began to move down the intestine, which opened up into a
larger cavern.
They had entered the large intestine.
He wriggled more in its grip and somehow managed to get an arm free.
He took aim as quickly as he could and fired, only to miss as the
creature yanked his hand hard to the side. It then continued to move
him further along the large intestine and Ray assumed it was taking
him to the anus to evict him.
Somehow, the reality was much stranger.
As they approached a large curve, the creature began to slow down. As
they rounded it, he saw a lattice structure constructed into the side
of the intestine. As the creature approached, the lattice opened up
revealing a tunnel made out of the same material. It was definitely
something the creature had made, though as to where it went, Atom
dreaded to think.
Whether he liked it or not, it appeared that he was going in.
*
Diana held her gut. It almost felt like there was a war being waged
in there. It wasn’t painful, but it was rather unpleasant.
“Is something wrong?” Batman asked.
While Batman was known for glaring, at that moment Diana gave one of
her own. “If you were unaware, I am in a hospital bed due to being
infected by an alien parasite. Though I am doing much better than I
was thanks to the doctor here.”
Her response was dripping with sarcasm and yet she felt she was going
easy on him.
Unfortunately, things got worse a few moments later as the door
opened and John Stewart stepped inside along with Supergirl in tow.
“More visitors,” the doctor said unnecessarily. She sounded about
as happy to see them as Diana felt, which was not at all.
“How is she?” the Green Lantern asked.
“Irritable,” Batman answered, further irritating her. “She and
the doctor seem rather caged about the treatment.”
“So what?” Supergirl asked with a shrug.
John agreed, much to Diana’s surprise. The two hadn’t exactly
gotten along in the past. “Treatments are between the doctor and
the patient. Let her do her job. I know if I had something running
around inside me I wouldn’t want everyone knowing everything about
it.”
“Exactly,” Supergirl said. “Stop being so anal, Batman. Give
her some privacy.”
He scowled but said nothing. He probably knew he was in the wrong.
While deep down, she appreciated his concern for her, this was a bad
and very inconvenient time to be showing it. She knew that she could
just tell them the truth as to what was happening, and a part of her
was starting to consider it, but she still didn’t want anyone else
to know that The Atom was inside her. For one thing, Batman would be
extremely jealous, and secondly, she knew it would be embarrassing
for both her and The Atom.
With extra visitors, it only meant a delay in contacting The Atom.
With the twinges and stinging sensations in her gut, she had to
believe that something was happening. Her only hope was that it meant
something good.
*
Ray had no idea what part of the body he was in, though he did have
his suspicions and he didn’t like it. If he was correct then he was
currently being taken down an ovarian tube and for the first time, he
was glad he was recording, not because of anything nefarious, but
because it was proof to Wonder Woman that he was taken there against
his will.
As to why the creature would have a direct line to her reproductive
system Ray had absolutely no idea but it felt wrong. Really
wrong. There was also the
question as to why it had brought him there, one that it would either
answer through its actions or with him figuring it out.
He hoped he figured it out because
he knew that whatever it had planned for him, probably wasn’t good.
At least not for him or
Diana.
Without warning, the parasitic creature slammed him against the soft
flesh and like a spider began to construct something around him.
Unlike a spider, though, it wasn’t a web, but the same lattice
structure that had connected from the bowels.
He tried to move, but it held him
down with its strong limbs, holding both his arms and legs in place.
He was going to end up cocooned deep inside Wonder Woman and
there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Some men would dream to be able to be so deep inside her, hell, so
would he, but not like this.
As the strange structure covered his face he let out a muffled
scream.
He had to find a way out. But how?