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?