Dave wasn't riding the Vibriozan Earthburrower. He was *surviving* it. The world wasn't seen; it was **felt** – a crushing symphony of chaos played on his fragile form. The immense chitin beneath him vibrated like a struck gong with every lumbering shift of the creature's bulk.
Water, thick with silt and the rancid scent of disturbed decay, slammed into him, threatening to tear him from his precarious perch on the creature's upper mandible. Above, a different kind of pressure mounted – the cold, sterile thrum of Vorlag's Aetheric scan, now focused with terrifying precision on the newly revealed apex predator… and the anomalous "speck" clinging to it.
**"USER ADVISORY: CEASE FIDGETING,"** AURA's voice sliced through the sensory storm, a bizarre anchor in the madness. **"YOU ARE CURRENTLY 0.0003% OF THE EARTHBURROWER'S BODY MASS. YOUR AGITATION REGISTERS AS APPROXIMATELY A MILD ITCH. CONTINUE, AND IT MAY ATTEMPT TO SCRATCH."**
*"Scratch?!"* Dave pulsed, flattening his membrane against the rough, mineral-crusted surface. A grinding tremor ran through the mandible as the Earthburrower shifted its colossal weight, dislodging a cascade of pebbles and silt that battered Dave's silica armor. *"How do I get OFF this walking geological disaster?!"*
**"OPTION A: WAIT FOR DIGESTION. ESTIMATED TIME: 4.7 MINUTES POST-INGESTION,"** AURA offered cheerfully. **"OPTION B: INDUCE A SNEEZE. DATA INSUFFICIENT ON VIBRIOZAN RESPIRATORY REFLEXES."**
Vorlag's amplified voice vibrated through the water, sharp with excitement and command: **"Kael! Full containment protocols! Stasis field primed? I want that mandible anomaly isolated! It resonates… *strangely*."**
*Resonates strangely.* Dave's enhanced chemoreceptors flared. The sterile ozone scent of Vorlag's magic was intensifying, mixed with a new, acrid tang – like overheated metal. *They're not just scanning. They're arming something.* The realization hit him like a pseudopod to the nucleus. Vorlag didn't just want to study the Earthburrower; he wanted to *capture* it. And Dave was a barnacle on the prize specimen.
*"AURA! What's that smell? Hot metal? Ozone cranked up to eleven?"*
**"ANALYSIS: HIGH-ENERGY AETHER COAGULATION,"** AURA replied, her tone losing its playful edge. **"PROBABILITY OF STASIS FIELD DEPLOYMENT: 98.7%. EFFECT: TEMPORAL/SPATIAL LOCK WITHIN TARGETED VOLUME. SIDE EFFECT: POTENTIAL MOLECULAR DISSOCIATION FOR UNSTABLE ORGANIC MATTER. SUCH AS, SAY, A CERTAIN OVER-AMBITIOUS AMOEBA."**
*Molecular dissociation.* Fancy words for being turned into primordial soup. Again. The Metabolic Boost's furnace still burned within him, a frantic counterpoint to the chilling dread. He had energy – 85% biomass – but no way to use it. Running was impossible. Hiding was laughable. Fighting… against *this*? He was a gnat trying to hijack a tank.
Another deep, grinding vibration shook the Earthburrower. Its blunt head swung ponderously, sensing the gathering Aetheric storm. It didn't like the vibrations Vorlag's machinery was making. A low-frequency groan, felt rather than heard, emanated from its core, vibrating through Dave's very structure. It was a sound of immense, ancient irritation.
*Irritation.* Dave's mind, fueled by panic and AURA's relentless commentary, latched onto the sensation. *It feels the stasis field prep too. It doesn't like it.* A desperate, absurd plan began to form – not born of logic, but of the sheer, cussed will to survive that had carried him from gummy worm doom to this chitinous hellscape.
*"AURA,"* Dave pulsed, focusing every ounce of his being on the immense creature beneath him. *"Can I… talk to it? Influence it? It feels the threat!"*
**"COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS WITH NON-SAPIENT MACROFAUNA: NON-EXISTENT,"** AURA stated flatly. **"YOUR NEURAL NETWORK COMPARES POORLY TO ITS GANGLIONIC CLUSTERS. THINK LESS 'DIPLOMATIC ENVOY,' MORE 'NERVOUS IMPULSE.'"**
*Nervous impulse.* That was all he was. A speck. An itch. But even an itch could make a giant twitch.
*"Then I'll be the *loudest* damn nervous impulse it's ever felt!"* Dave focused his enhanced chemoreceptors, not on the environment, but *inwards*. He concentrated on the searing energy of the Metabolic Boost, the frantic churn of his overclocked organelles, the raw, panicked *will* to escape. He pushed it all outwards, not as a physical force, but as a burst of chaotic, biological static – a scream written in protoplasm and desperation, channeled directly into the Vibriozan's chitin through his point of contact.
**"BIOLOGICAL EMISSION: MAXIMUM OUTPUT. WARNING: BIOMASS BURN RATE INCREASING. 85%... 84%..."**
The Earthburrower shuddered. Not the slow, grinding shift of movement, but a sharp, localized flinch right where Dave clung. The low groan intensified, vibrating the water into a punishing pressure wave. Dave felt it resonate in his core, a physical *NO*.
*"IT FELT ME!"* Dave exulted internally, pouring more frantic energy into the signal. *"Do it again, you overgrown isopod! TWITCH!"*
**"BIOMASS: 83%... 82%..."** AURA counted down, her voice tight. **"INEFFICIENT. BUT… INTERESTING. CONTINUE."**
Vorlag's voice cut through, sharper now: **"Anomaly is emitting erratic low-level Aetheric bursts! Correlating with the subject's agitation! Fascinating! Kael, *focus* the stasis matrix on that nexus point! I want it intact!"**
*Intact.* The word was colder than the deepest tank water. Vorlag wanted Dave *alive* for his experiments. The acrid, hot-metal smell spiked. The water around the Earthburrower's head began to shimmer with unnatural light – the stasis field coalescing.
Dave redoubled his efforts, burning precious biomass (81%... 80%) to send another jolt of panicked static into the mandible. *MOVE! GO! AWAY FROM THE SHINY BAD THING!*
The Vibriozan let out a sound that transcended vibration – a deep, grating *SCREEE* of primal fury. It wasn't directed at Dave. It was directed at the shimmering, constricting field of energy forming around its head. The colossal creature heaved its bulk backwards, away from the perceived threat. Its massive grinding mouthparts snapped shut with a force that would have pulverized Dave had he still been near the hinge. The sudden, violent movement sent Dave tumbling, a tiny, armored pebble flung from a mountain.
He slammed into the silt bed, disoriented, his chemoreceptors overwhelmed by mud and the ozone stench of the active stasis field. The field pulsed, latching onto the space the Earthburrower's head had occupied a split second before. It closed on empty water with a silent *snap*, leaving a shimmering, distorted void.
**"STASIS FIELD ENGAGED. TARGET… MISSED PRIMARY,"** AURA reported, a hint of something like disbelief in her tone. **"SUBJECT VIBRIOZAN EXHIBITING UNEXPECTED RESPONSE TO MICROBIAL IRRITANT."**
*"Irritant?!"* Dave pulsed weakly, struggling to right himself in the churned silt. *"I saved its giant, ugly…"*
**"CORRECTION: SUBJECT VIBRIOZAN NOW EXHIBITING EXTREME AGGRESSION TOWARDS ENERGY SIGNATURE SOURCE. I.E., YOU."**
The Earthburrower, enraged by the stasis attempt and the confusing pain-spikes from Dave, had turned its blind attention towards the silt bed where he lay. The crushing weight of its focus settled on Dave like a physical blanket. He could *feel* its ancient hunger, now mixed with raw, predatory fury, directed squarely at *him*. It began to move, ploughing through the silt like a living bulldozer, straight towards the epicenter of its annoyance.
Vorlag's voice was ecstatic: **"Remarkable! The microbial agent provoked a flight response! Kael, recalibrate! Target the *agent*! Use it to herd the specimen!"**
Dave had traded imminent dissection for being the bait in an alchemist's predator trap. The Earthburrower bore down on him, a mountain of hungry chitin. Vorlag's machinery whined, preparing another stasis pulse, this time aimed squarely at Dave. The Metabolic Boost was fading, his biomass down to 79%. Pain flared from his silica patch and his overstressed organelles.
*"Options, AURA!"* Dave pulsed, desperation clawing at him. *"Anything that isn't 'be bait' or 'be paste'!"*
**"ANALYZING SUBJECT VIBRIOZAN…"** AURA's voice was rapid, clinical. **"DETECTING SIGNIFICANT THERMAL ANOMALY ALONG DORSAL RIDGE. PROBABLE GEOTHERMAL VENT SYMBIOSIS. WEAKNESS: THERMOREGULATION."**
*Thermal?* Dave's chemoreceptors strained. Beneath the mud and rage, he caught it – a faint, sharp scent like sulfur and molten rock emanating from the Earthburrower's back. *Heat. It needs heat.*
**"PROPOSAL: INDUCE THERMAL SHOCK,"** AURA stated. **"UTILIZE REMAINING METABOLIC BOOST RESIDUALS TO GENERATE LOCALIZED EXOTHERMIC REACTION AT POINT OF CONTACT. RISK: CATASTROPHIC CELLULAR COLLAPSE. SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 5.2%. ALTERNATIVE: BECOME CHITIN POLISH."**
*5.2%*. Worse odds than choking on a gummy worm. Worse odds than surviving a Rotifer raid. Dave looked at the mountain of fury bearing down on him, felt the cold focus of Vorlag's machinery targeting him, and tasted the phantom sugar of his first death.
A grim, familiar rage ignited – not panic, but the cold fire of defiance that had carried him this far. *"Screw your 5.2%,"* he pulsed, gathering the last dregs of the Metabolic Boost, feeling his internal temperature spike dangerously. *"I'll make my own damn odds."*
He didn't try to flee the Earthburrower's charge. He gathered his crippled form, flared his cilia in a final burst of desperate speed, and surged *towards* the behemoth, aiming not for its maw, but for the faint, sulfurous scent emanating from its armored back. He was a spark flying towards a furnace, hoping to cause an explosion.
Dave, burning the last of his biomass (78%) in a suicidal surge, slams into the Vibriozan Earthburrower's dorsal ridge just as Vorlag's second stasis field pulses towards him. Contact is made. Dave channels the searing remnants of the Metabolic Boost into a hyper-concentrated burst of exothermic energy directly into the creature's geothermal vent symbionts. The Earthburrower SCREEEs in agony, a shockwave of pure heat and fury erupting from its back. Dave is engulfed in scalding water and blinding energy, his form disintegrating... or *transforming*? Vorlag screams, "NO! The specimen's destabilizing! Contain the energy surge!" as the tank's ecosystem plunges into thermal chaos. Dave's world dissolves into searing pain and the terrifying question: Did he just kill himself to make a point, or stumble into his most insane evolution yet?