Author's Note

For those of you who read the original chapter 1 of this story, I urge you to re-read it because I have fixed it. If you are coming to this chapter fresh off of chapter one then ignore this message. Thank you all so much for reading! I hope I can prove to be a decent author. I'm still relatively new to this experience, though I have a few stories under my belt. Any criticism is accepted and encouraged! just don't be mean about it. Other than that, enjoy!

-FixerFox

Oi, Fixerfox again here. I wrote that earlier bit I think last year? I'm back with this story again, that first chapter is still kinda not good but I don't wanna change it again. Please trust me, I'm gonna get this story going, you'll like it, I just gotta get it past this sort of... rocky bit. Most of chapter 2 was also written about a year back, but I've hopefully fixed it a bit? From here on it should go a lot smoother. Have a happy ThanksGiving!

-FixerFox

The Hive and... a friend?

I don't know how long I flew around in that weird void but after a long while my vision sorta... well, I blanked out. though after a few moments, my vision flashed back into focus. I found myself in a strange place, the walls were greyish black, and a green transparent material covered the entrance. I was laid down on what looked like a half-hazard carved sleeping spot into the wall. In my time in the void I had grown accustomed to my new legs, I swung them down onto the floor and stood up. Immediately I shivered from the coldness of the stone, my fur standing slightly on edge. 'Oof, guess I'm not used to not having shoes yet.' The second thing aside from the cold sensation I noticed was the pain throbbing from my forearms and from my wings. I held my arms in front of me and studied my injury.

What surprised me was that I didn't find any burns or anything, instead what I discovered was a bunch of blue cracks spiderwebbing all across the top of my forearms stretching to the tips of my fingers to my elbows. 'Yeesh, that left a mark..' Craning my neck around to the left I managed to get a good look at one of my wings, and what I found made me wince. The left one had been entirely broken in half. The only evidence of the wing was the half circle left behind of what used to be the engine. Craning my head to the right I found that wing still there but with many blue cracks stretching across it, similar to the ones on my forearms.

"Well, looks like I'm not flying out of here then..." Suddenly from the other side of the entrance, the queen appeared, startling me into jumping backward.

"You most certainly will not, My drones saw to that. The right one was damaged in the crash, the other was Pharynx. What a loyal little drone he is, In fact, he will be in charge of supervising you during your stay here at the hive."

Without even a second of hesitation I responded "Jeez lady, you make it sound like a resort. Though I presume this isn't one I can leave now is it?" It was sort of odd, though on the outside I did my best not to portray my confusion, on the inside I was a cloud of confusion... I wasn't normally this quick on my feet with words. Hell, I'm amazing I lasted as long in that little scuff as I did! I'm crap at fights too. 'Wait shit, you're talking to someone. Pay attention damnit!'

By the time I zoned back in the Queen was looking annoyed, clearly she had noticed me not even listening. I don't think she liked that much, She just scoffed and turned to leave. Then a drone with red and purple colorations stepped into the doorway, Aside from the standard green he was purple in the eyes and wings, and red along that weird little attempt at hair along his neck. He looked pissed, but the moment the queen was gone his gaze shifted to neutral. I was surprised when he bothered addressing me rather than being all aggressive and stonewalling me.

"I zone out in her speeches too. They've been getting longer... Sorry bout the wing, had to put on a show." He shuffled a bit, and double glanced behind him before shutting the door all the way. 'What the hell? he's talking like, he didn't originally want to damage the wing?!' Clearly catching on to my confusion he spoke up. "Look, I want what's best for the hive, and She's been getting more and more out of it. Detached, Random... Half the time even she forgets what she's ordered of us. And my brother, Thorax... He hasn't come back. When I asked her about it, she said he'd left. No rhyme or reason, Just.... gone. And I don't believe it. You may not be a good fighter, but you held her off for at least half a second. All I'm asking is for you to get out, and find him... And I want you to take our sister with you."

Was this guy fucking MAD? They kidnapped me, locked me in a cell, and now he wants me doing favors for him? what the hell?

I held up my hands, er, paws? Fuck it hands. And said "Woah woah woah, We JUST met. Moving a bit quick right? So you're sister? Your brother? and Crazy queen? Okay, I get that last bit, Seen it myself. And you think just by talking to me for four seconds, supposedly destroying my wing, and seemingly wanting "What's best" for your hive or whatever, I'm just gonna trust you? Fat chance! And what am I supposed to do, find a shapeshifter in a world of creatures I hardly know anything about?"

The drone sighed, his wings buzzing in an annoyed fashion... How'd I know that? I didn't know anything about these creatures, how can I pick up on their body language? Agh damnit off track again FOCUS!

When I focused in again he was looking at me, apparently having given some form of quick and concise speech. When he noticed me having not paid attention at all, he sighed again and summarized. "Point is Our queen is treating us like ass and my brother got sick of it, and my sisters catching the flack for him. Get her out, I can handle myself. I'll meet up with you later and hopefully, I can convince you to help us get help taking out our queen and replacing her with a better option. Deal?"

This guy was serious, He genuinely wanted to take out the queen. By the Stars, this must seem like amazing timing for him, a prisoner who recently went toe to toe with the queen and didn't get immediately dead. But for me, It couldn't be any worse timing! I still barely knew anything about myself, how anything worked, or what ANY of these creatures even were! I get that they are shapeshifters or whatever, and some form of hive. But beyond that, I got zip, nada...

I sighed... I could already feel the headache developing, my arms ached, my back ached... and my wings hurt... What the hell! Let's do it. "Look, you're assigned to me now, right? Fine, if It'll get me out of here? Whatever, I'll help your sister escape. Just... Give me a few hours to sort myself out, I'm not in any good condition right now."

He nodded and slammed left, slamming the door shut. And i... sat down in the sleeping crook spot or whatever... It was cold, and hard. By the stars what had I gotten myself into? What even am I? Am I some form of Cat? But whats with the metal wings? the glowy blue energy? That weird void place? I hadn't really stopped to think before, I just jumped right in cuz what the hell! But now that I'm properly thinking? How'd this even happen? I was.... I was.....

My vision blurred, and I felt a slight shift, and suddenly I was sideways... everything hurt. Everything was too bright! And then... Wham. Some form of Circle filled my vision, it looked sort of like... a loading bar? what... what did it say?
"Alert! System Corruption Detected! [Potential Cause: Incorrect Startup.] Initializing reboot!

'Wait... REBOOT?!?!' And then my vision went out again.