First Contact

The next morning, really that same night after I rested for an hour or so, I set up a training area. Which, as it turned out, became training in itself. I carried rocks of various sizes into the courtyard and hung a vine off the ceiling to act as a climbing rope, some sticks to land and balance on the very tips of, then placed more vines all along the ceiling to be jumped from, one to the other. I added some chonky logs from the forest outside as well.

It must've made for quite the sight, a beetle leaving and reentering the temple with various objects balanced precariously on his horns and back.

When Cass woke up, curious about what I was doing, I broke it down for her.

"An-u-me?"

"Anime training," I said patiently. "Pushing ourselves to our limits to find new strength. You down for that?"

"Hm, hm!" She hummed positively.

"Perfect. We'll do it for an hour or so five days a week, then take two days to rest," I didn't know if this world had a seven day cycle kind of week, but that was what I knew. "We'll workout our bodies. And then we'll explore. Deal?"

"Yes, Master," Cass said respectfully.

With that, I began to walk her through it. The rules were simple. No being overly brave. It didn't matter if she lifted an impressive weight today only to break her back and end up not being able to do anything else. Do enough work to sweat and force yourself to your limits, but don't hurt yourself. The Goku (Really the Roshi) method of training was key. Eat well, work well, rest well, nothing too much in excess.

First, carrying a rock across the yard. No flying for her though. She would balance the rock on her back and carry it from one end of the temple to the other, walking, same as me. I had an easier time of it, even with a much larger rock, since unlike bats, beetles are good walkers.

So in order to make it harder for me, I used only two legs at a time. Front two, middle, back, then alternating random ones. Just like that, I became as ungainly as Cass was, struggling to carry rocks on my back.

Second, flying across the yard with a weight. There she had me easily beat, even with my strength, carrying a rock back and forth a couple of times in the time it took me to do one.

Then, rope climbing, followed by rope hopping, swinging like George of the Jungle. That was followed by balancing on the sticks I'd impaled into the floor, going from one to the other and mastering our balance as best as possible.

One day, hopefully, I'd refine the method of training even more. Figure what worked best for our bodies. For now, it would do.

After more than an hour, we took a moment to rest and eat. And while we did, I engaged in my favorite activity back in my old world. Storytelling.

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"She was raised to be an assassin. A murderer. But when the time came, she instead became a great hero. It's why I think of her when I think of bats. A great hero."

I took a bite and smiled internally, while Cass listened with an odd amount of focus.

"Why… a fox name?" She asked after a moment.

Thank god beetles can't wince. I let out a humming sound instead. "Su Daji… she's a bit of a legend, in some place. A dark legend. A fox spirit that took over the body of a young girl, and used her body to seduce a king. She used her powers and influence over him to do terrible things. Horrible things."

I took another bite. "I gave you the name of one of my favorite heroes. And the name of a fox villain. If I was to say why, then my best answer is that it's a reminder. You can be a hero or a villain, Kasi Daji. I think you've got a lot of potential. I'd love for you to be a hero, a kind and wonderful person. But remember that we all have potential to be evil. To choose anger over forgiveness, hate before love, greed before generosity."

Cass nodded slowly, seeming to internalize that lesson. Thank god, because I was bullshitting most of it.

Daji had been a name I added on a whim. Cass was a Batgirl I liked. I wish I could say I had truly been some kind of masterful mentor, but I was just trying my best.

"So… Do you want to hear another story?"

"Yes! Tell me a beetle story."

"A beetle story?" I blinked, surprised. Fuck. A beetle story? What was a good beetle story? Blue Beetle? No, he was a scarab beetle, not a badass rhino like me.

Okay, fuck it. I was a writer in another world. I'd just write fanfiction. Cool beetle in a world that would feel familiar to her, with lessons that would help her.

"Let me tell you the story of a young boy with a monkey tail living in the woods, who one day met a teenage blue-haired girl whose first response to meeting him was to shoot him in the head… and their friend Beetlemon."

Write what you know, baby.

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After telling Cass a bit of a story, we headed out into the jungle. I wanted to explore the edges of the ant dead zones, and now that Cass was both ignited and trained to internalize her Qi against that vacuum effect, we could explore deeper.

The crow had called it a war. And if the ants continued at the pace they were, I was pretty sure the forest would be gone in a couple of years, destroying my new home and possibly threatening our lives. Best to discover what we were in for.

Atop of Cass, I watched from the sky as we approached the edges of the dead zones. When we reached them, Cass winced, but I felt her focus, internalizing her Qi after a moment of focus. It took her a bit compared to my own control, but she got there.

Now both safer, if still under attack by the literal world around us, we flew down towards the ants below. We landed on a dead tree above a group of them.

I say group. What I should have said was army. The near carpet of ants crawling along, chewing apart leaves, branches, mulch. I looked behind them at the remains of the forest they had already eaten.

"A desert," I mumbled. The ground was cracked, dry. There weren't even any dead trees, the remains of them probably torn apart by the ants. They were very methodical about it. Mandibles sliced into the world around them with a mechanical efficiency. I was reminded of videos I'd seen of mealworms turning apples into nothing overtime.

"This is insane. And very abnormal," I mumbled. Now, as anyone knows, ants are basically the top of the food chain across the world. They have their predators, sure. But the number of species that were as successful as ants was almost nil. Humans, of course, but the others were what? Beetles, like me? And bats were also pretty successful. Huh.

Point was, they were badasses, yes, but they weren't monsters.

"You okay flying in clos-" I was about to ask Cass.

A buzzing sound filled my ears. The smell of acidic pheromones coming closer. I extended my senses. And there, a small bit of Qi tugging, hiding under the general aura of the area, seemed to scream at me as it approached.

It hit me like a small bullet, smacking me off of Cass. My wings snapped open, barely guiding my flight down enough for me to face my attacker.

A flying ant. A fucking big flying ant, with large wings, angry red eyes, and it- HOLY SHIT THAT'S FAST.

It zoomed towards me, smashing into me again. I dropped down, landing on the floor. A floor covered in ants.

"Oh… shit," I mumbled when I saw them all turn to face me. The flying ant landed amongst them, pheromones flaring up. I didn't need to speak ant to understand 'get him' in every language.

A full set of ants rushed me like a wave.

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I've been scared before. We all have. The most scared I'd ever been was the time I'd nearly drowned in a river, desperately praying for a savior before my dad managed to get me out.

But I'd never faced death from another being until I became a beetle. And now, with the ants coming, I froze up.

You have to understand. They weren't just ants. Imagine an ant the size of an ATV compared to you. Now imagine it's mandibles twitching, antennae waving, eyes on you as it slowly begins to approach. Now imagine it moving faster, faster, running at you fully. Now imagine more of them. More. Running towards you across desert sands, making an unholy noise as they crawl at you.

Of course I froze. But on instinct, I charged, unleashing a burst of Pursuit Arrow at the same time.

My body speared through the wave, sending them flying like bowling balls. I saw dozens of them fly upwards, others off to the side.

A warning from my right middle leg told me one had grabbed onto it, mandibles digging scratches into the chitin there. I lifted and kicked outwards, sending it flying. An ant approached me from the front, and my lower horn smacked down on it, crushing it in the dust.

I charged forward again, sending them flying more, but they were just impossible to truly get rid off. It was like being in the middle of the ocean, charging out at it, and accomplishing diddly-dick.

"SCREEEEE!"

Relief came in an air attack from above. Cass' soundwave attack slammed into the dirt around me, shaking me up, but sending the ants flying a lot worse. I grabbed another ant in my top and lower horn and suplexed it into another, charged into the next and I impaled it on the tree behind it, then turned to face the flying ant that had started this.

It wasn't moving, only staring at me with unnerving focus. My senses brushed against it. And I felt something. I had to dodge a pair of mandibles trying to slice into my side, but I still felt enough.

A line of some sort, a Qi connection of some sort. Not a physical thing, it was so… ephemeral. Like feeling the wind pass over your palm, a force that felt almost physical, but would avoid any chance of grasping it. The line extended out, across the army, yes, but also beyond. I couldn't feel anything else but that it was watching. Watching us.

Cass flew overhead, dropping a few more powerful blasts of sonic force. I crushed another ant, briefly feeling another one dig its claws into my shell, cutting through and sipping of my Qi before I could roll over and crush it.

A buzzing sound drew my attention. "Cass! Above!"

"Eh-"

Three flying ants divebombed into her back. She squealed, dropping down onto the ground as they drove her into the dirt. Ants surrounded her in seconds, mandibles slicing into her.

"Master!" She screamed in pain, blood pouring from her wounds as she struggled in the dirt.

Something snapped inside me.

I charged forward in a wave of force and Qi. There was an ocean of ants before me.

I part the seas.

The waves broke before me. Ant bodies shattered into gore in my wake, chitin and sickening smells flying apart. I smashed into the three ants on Cass' back. One tried to slice into my neck. I grabbed him with two front claws and pushed him down onto her back.

"NOT HER!"

I then twisted my head so my lower horn was pressed to his thorax before pressing.

Beetle horns aren't sharp. They're meant to grapple, throw, wrestle.

But even blunt objects can stab.

The flying ant died on my horn. My wings unfolded as I grabbed Cass below. "Fire down at the ground, full force!"

"KEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

My batgirl unleashed hell. The waves of sonic force smashed into the earth, shook the air, ripped open the cracks in my shell further. I forced myself to fly upwards, boosted by her sonic abilities to get launched up into the air.

"We're leaving," I announced uselessly, unable to be heard under Cass' voice.

There was no way we could win. Not just because we weren't ready. Even if we had been stronger, we were outnumbered by creatures that could eat our Qi. It was like two gorillas against an army of chimps. We were stronger, but goddamn they would tear us apart soon enough.

The worst was, fighting inside a Qi vacuum as we had been, we had no way to refuel. We only had what we went in with.

So. Running.

A flying ant flew up towards me, ready to force me back down. I was ready for this though, outpacing him with Pursuit Arrow and leaving them behind.

"Master!?"

I looked down. Cass had a pair of ants on her legs, climbing up and trying to bite at her. I flew upwards, then let her go, diving down to slam into one of the ants. It landed on my back and I felt that horrid sensation of my Qi being sucked out as it bit deep into one of the dozens of cracks across my body. I twisted to look up at Cass who unleashed her wings in a spray of blood, biting deep into the other ant as it tried to slice into her neck and spitting it out.

I twisted in my flight so that I was headed back up towards her. Cass, seeing the ant on my back, blasted me directly with another sonic attack. The ant was blown away, while I shuddered feeling my body break just a bit more.

I flew above Cass and landed on her back.

"Home!" She shouted. "I'll bring us home! Just hold on!"

I swallowed slowly. "Home. But fly carefully girl. Last thing we need… is to get jumped again."

Cass panted, flying unsteadily through the air. I let out my own wings, wincing at the unsteady way they unfolded. Still, it was good enough to let me help her fly by giving her lifting force, letting her focus on direction.

We made our way slowly home, bleeding and wounded.