Swarm Infestation [Complete]

Emerl kept switching until something red caught her eye. The character on the show wore a red coat and hat and was flying through the screen to the beat of a song. It was catchy and colorful. Emerl fell into a trace and even started muttering the song.
"Where in the world is Carmine SanDiego."
Her head bobbed with the beat and then it stopped to show a woman running from some man and brown at night. The girl was officially hooked. The only time she broke away from the TV was when she smelled food warming up. Lucky for her, a couple of chewed candy satisfied that urge and she returned to the show.

Siren set the food out so they could watch and eat at the same time. After a while, she checked outside and saw it was getting dark, "Alright, we got darkness to cover us now so we can go for a walk now if you want, or I can carry you. Your choice."

With a full belly, Emerl was jittery. She kept tapping her foot and fiddling with her fingers. She had never been so inactive before. The TV was magical in that it allowed her to remain still. Still she did want to go outside. So when the Alien made the offer, the girl was alright running upstairs to grab her cloak. Then she dashed back down stairs and effortlessly picked up the alien and put it on her shoulders. Then Emerl looked around.
"Where outside?"

"Anywhere you want, and don't worry about getting lost. I can easily portal us back here once you're ready," Siren said with a giggle before pointing dramatically, "Lead the way, partner!"

"No... How leave house." Emerl giggled. Sometimes she had trouble speaking. This became especially apparent when she was excite or in high emotions.

Siren blinked, "Oh...right..just go out that door there and lock it behind us with this key before giving it to me," She levitated over said key, "Also, I'd recommend sticking to the rooftops as we'll have less risk of drawing attention to us. Sound good?"

Once a direction given, Emerl made a wild dash to the door ducking as she passed through. Then she would look around and try to capture what was around her as this was the first time she had been outside the safe house and she did not know exactly where she was.

There were tall buildings and apartments all around the pair and as they explored from the rooftops, Siren would start to fill Emerl in on the various bits her new friend needed to know about this world. That included the importance of various technological breakthroughs, tidbits of history, and so on.

"...So, yeah. Despite their faults and shortcomings, humans have done pretty well in the past several thousand years," Siren summed up, "...Do you have any questions so far for me? I know it's a hefty amount of info to digest at one time."

"AHH, too much... Its like talking to Mechin. So much words and stuff in tiny head. Head going to explode." Emerl grabbed her head jokingly. Before running to one edge of the roof and looking down. They where so high. How could people live this high? Even she hasn't been this high with Anax. Pulse would love this though. Emerl sighed before sitting down with her feet off the ledge. "I do... you and everyone call me and you meta human. But you are not human. You are alien and I am from different world. Blue man he used word almost like it was bad. I feel like being meta human here is like being Turman in my world. Does that mean I will not be safe even after people forgive me?"

Siren went to sit next to Emerl and sighed, "That is a difficult question to answer because, really, I'm not sure there's such a thing as being totally safe for any of us. After all, there's always gonna be something out there to cause people grief, be that another evildoer, a natural disaster, a disease, and so on. It's just the way things are..." She glanced over at her new friend, "But right now, you need to worry about you and what you want to do with your life from here,"

Siren made a dismissive gesture at the streets below, "Don't worry about what those people think. They'll think whatever they want. Find a path that will bring you and those you care about happiness....and I'll be right here by your side the whole time..."

The alien smiled...only to hear a loud explosion ringing in her ears and a glance down at the streets would reveal Charon going on a rampage. Upon seeing Siren, it formed metal tentacles and lashed them out, "Look out!" Siren would float protectively in front of Emerl and slice and hack the appendages with a telekinesis-reinforced blade, only to have one loop around her arm and slam her down into the pavement, leaving a crater.

Emerl lowered her head. This dirt world was not so different. People were people no matter where you went. What Emerl wanted to do with her new life, a life she did not deserve or want. That was a question. She started chirping like a grasshopper before leaning backwards. A life without him, after everything they been through was not life. It was just...

Before her thought could finish, a loud explosion sent her antenna into the air. She rose to see a giant golem. Sending metal arms at them. Emerl rolled backwards ready to flee but Siren held her ground and attacked back.
"Siren!" Emerl called out as one tentacle pulled her under.
Emerl moved to the edge of the building and watched a cloud of debris reveal her friend in a crater.

"No No No... not again..." She started trembling.
She wanted to leave and run away. There was nothing to gain from this fight. If she lost control, who knows if she could come back. This was too risky, too dangerous. So why did Siren just stand her ground. She was being dumb. She helped so much without asking for anything. She could not die... not alone.

Wings sprouted from Emerl's back as she covered her head with her hood. Red composite eyes formed over her eyes. She slid her hand into her cestus. Her wings hummed, lifting her off the building. Then she dived down as fast as she could and slammed down on the tentacles hopefully breaking it in two. Then she buzzed her wings as hard as she could and let out a loud roar that sounded like a combination of Katydids and Crickets. Staring at the golem, she hoped it would respect that it was dealing with a Turman and flee.

The mechanical beast's tentacles indeed snapped off as a result of Emerl's attack but she might be sadly disappointed to see that her enemy was not backing down. If anything, its central red eye seemed to be scanning her, "New target catologuing...threat level of targets rising...initiating countermeasures..."

The robot began to gather up shards of metal all around its body before firing off the metal like bullets. "Look out!!" Siren would shoot to her feet and create a giant shield out of her arm to block the projectiles, "Thanks for the assist...but something tells me we're gonna have to work together if we want to take this thing down. It seems to be controlling metal somehow so I'll cover you while you attack from above."

Siren inhaled and let loose a mighty sonic scream at the machine, sending it flying back and crashing into the concrete hard enough to leave a small trench.

The battle was on. While shew as able to free her friend, the golem now a lowing red light, almost like an eye, staring at her.
"Siren... It is talking funny..."
Emerl started hovering slightly off the ground. If the golem would not run away then they would. Before she could say anything metal shards rose around the Golem. Now she was sure it was a golem. Only Mechins did such things. The only way to win was to take out the controller. Her eyes stayed locked on ready to react to all the shards. But Siren interfered with a shield. Then she screamed, blowing back the creature. This was perfect.

"No... We run. To beat mechins, need to find Controller. We need to flee now!"
Emerl dived at Siren in hopes to grab her and fly off, "Let me save you..."

Siren winced when Emerl tried to pull her away but she refused to budge, "...No...that machine is out of control...and I gotta destroy it...I can't go with you..." She shook her head and looked towards the machine as it tried to get up, "This is...my responsibility, Emerl. If folks like me with the power to do something run away when faced with a problem...who will protect them?" She nodded to the civilians who were cowering all around them.

She turned and laid a hand on Emerl's cheek, giving a reassuring smile, "Listen...if you feel the need to flee, I promise I will not judge you. You deserve to live your life the way YOU want to live it...and you are also my friend...as for me..." Siren turned and walked towards Charon, "I've already chosen my path...and whatever the consequences of my choice are...I need to bare them," She smiled back at Emerl, "I gotta go now...the people need me..."

Siren reinforced her body with a telekinetic field and shot towards the machine, grabbing it and baring her teeth as she pushed herself to lift Charon off the ground and carry it into the sky where the risk of casualties was at a minimum and it lacked a steady supply of metal to control.

Emerl released the alien who wanted to keep fighting. Trembling under the creatures words. Why could she not run. Why could she not be alive, just be alive a little longer. She did not want to stand back why others fought for her. Not once did she just sit back and run why her friends fought. It was the rule of swarm tactics. It was the rule for friends. Mauve promised it was and she promised back.

The wings and red eyes disappeared as the girl descended back on the ground. Wings were for running, for mobility. She could not use mobility to help. To fight a metal golem there was only one option. She was not happy to use it. She held her arms out and a hard exoskeleton. A slimy feeling ran up her spine into her hands. She could hear a cold whisper in her ear. With a deep breath she managed to ignore it and finish the transformation as frills grew over her body and covered most of her clothes. Then giant mantis like claws erected from her arms. It was complete. Now she just hand to reach Siren.

With these claws, it was really hard to run and keep her balance so she evolved a sort of half crawl half jump maneuver to build up speed to the point where she was in full sprint. Then she lunged onto the side of a building and started climbing, stabbing her claws into the side of the building. She would then leap up and repeat. Now all she could do was hope Siren didn't fly the creature away.

Even without easy access to metal, Charon had other tricks at its disposal. Panels opened up all along the sphere and produced a large number of metal tentacles. Its central red eye lighting up and forcing Siren to let go and dart to the side, narrowly avoiding its laser. Floating just above the skyline, the alien and the mechanical flying octopus stared each other down.

Charon attacked first, letting loose yet another beam that Siren managed to keep at bay with her shield. She looked to see one of its limbs coming around to stab her with its drill tip. However, she used her telekinesis to slow it down and direct it so it ended up in the path of the laser and got fried.

The robot continued to attack with various metal weaponry and Siren kept slipping through them, glancing down briefly to see Emerl on a rooftop, "I'll do something about those tentacles and you do what you can to damage it! And Emerl?" She flashed a grateful smile, "Thanks."

Siren would then shoot upwards like a rocket and grow in size while transforming into some type of giant plated armadillo creature that rolled into a ball and forced the robot to use all its tentacles to hold them at bay, leaving it open.