Chapter 195: Beggars Can't Be Choosers

The force was like getting hit by a truck, and thankfully I couldn't feel the pain of it. Tagsig was clocking out at MACH nine, and all I could do was watch us move across the mini-map like I was on some game loading screen.

It didn't take five minutes, it took just over a minute, and the moment we slowed down, my body finally caught up with the drastically increasing damage. Even though my body kept up with the frame damage at that speed, the drag was playing hell with all my systems.

It took a good moment before I could even speak; it wasn't my frame that took the damage; it was all the small systems in my body. Now I had to wait for everything to fix itself; we had time.

"Ashia? Are you okay?" Serria asked as the safety belts released us both. 

I had to assume since my motor systems were still not functional yet. I could move, but not the parts I needed, like my waist gyroscopic motor to turn my body without twisting. 

"Yes, I am okay, just some of my small systems were damaged," I called out, but then I felt her hands come down on my shoulders.

Suddenly, my body started to heal faster, and within seconds all my systems were restored. Of course, Serria would be able to heal with her NekoBee; I should have known that, but I was glad for it regardless.

"Thank you," I said to Serria as the glass cover lifted off us, and we were able to float up and out.

As we did, Tagsig split, and we were all floating above the canyon, but then both men came over to me. The two started apologizing to me for causing me so much damage, but I just waved them off.

"Don't worry about it; I can heal, and Serria was able to heal me even faster. Plus, you two got us here so fast that Gamble hasn't even checked up on me yet! I thought for sure that he would already be asking me for updates," I said, but then Gamble spoke in my ears like he had been listening to the entire time.

"I have feeds from all of you, and once the boys transformed, and then you all got in, I did a quick scan before you disappeared. That is incredible how fast that you were able to travel, but I will only be checking up with you if I see something on one of your maps or scans. The rest of the time, I will be focusing on the Hive and the interactions with Lexia. We will arrive in roughly two hours, so I need to prepare," Gamble explained, and that made sense.

"Yes, that sounds good, keep in touch and let me know if anything happens or goes wrong, and let me know of the Miscreants status once the package is retrieved," I said to Gamble, and I got confirmation from him.

The Miscreant was Bob, but we didn't want to use his name to mention him directly. No matter what we assumed about Bob's power or Leafa's ability to lie about what she saw about me, we could take no chances.

This was too important to be left up to chance, and if it worked, the Predators would be done; there would be no way for them to stay ahead of us. That was the plan, but anything could happen between now and then, so precautions were a must.

"Everyone ready to drop down?" I asked over the microphone, and I got three confirmations, so we began to descend into the canyon.

I hadn't got to see the weird snakeskin teepee village that Trent had forced the Snake woman, Seshia, to build. Seeing that alone would have told me that something was seriously wrong here just from that.

Though, they would make for excellent outdoor greenhouse covers for the residential areas that might want to grow different fruits and vegetables. For the people that were living inside of them, it must have been hard.

Beezli and the others had done very well and had only injured Seshia, but she had been healed, and the Lichtar removed right away. Thankfully we were able to help these people before things had gotten worse and the Predators had come and taken them over. 

I stretched my map out, and looked over the two possible routes down, and decided on the longer one. I had no real reason, just a gut feeling, and this one was only slightly long by about three hundred feet.

"Are you all ready to get going inside? I don't know what we are going to find down there, but I would be pretty, and it is going to be extremely dangerous. There also might be traps as we get closer to our destination, so I want everyone to be on guard. I have one thing I want to do before we go," I said and floated over to Tag and Sig.

I pulled up my skill menu and activated the Queen's Blessing, and touched the men. A Bee with dragon wings burned into their chest, and then the boys started to change.

Tag's armor got thicker, and his eyes were leaking red energy, and his claws grew longer. Sig got taller, and his eyes started to pour Green energy, but nothing else changed for him, so I assumed it was inside.

"Thank most, awesome Queen! This is intense! It's almost like I evolved again! The power that you have given me… I will defend you with my life!" Tag said in a much deeper and rougher voice.

"Yes, I just got a system update for my MACH Weapons System, so you have nothing to worry about! I can produce multiple cannons to fire Air Bullets or turn into a gun that Tag can use according to my new specs here," Sig said as he looked through a display window that was floating in front of him.

I was still surprised when I saw how far these two had really come over that last month since I had arrived here. Now, it was time to try and rescue the person that had tried to kill me at birth, my three-armed sister, Pendra. 

I really wondered how she was going to feel about it being me to save her? Beggars can't be choosers.