After a bit of diversion for serious stories and humor, we're back to a story with an extra sharp dark edge.

It's a bit brutal, even gruesome at points, but it's also well written- and a very nice look into the almost transformation process on how Kadlin thinks and her beliefs. So if you can stomach it, read on.

Correct story this time.

Warning: I'm working on improving my description and I probably picked a bad time to do it. This piece is a dark one, and it deals a lot with medical experiments. It's got gore and some darker themes to it, and I want to let you be aware of that. It's not too bad, but you may want to read the notes anyway.

Kadlin looked around the Knob laboratory. This one was where they conducted biological research, and it also doubled as a surgery in emergencies. The place was dimly lit and there was blood on the walls, some of it goblin some not. Various chemicals were arrayed on the tables around the edges, various sizes and colors, some bubbling stereotypically.

There was a single table in the middle with various straps that would be able to bind almost any creature. Next to it was a stand with surgical implements. Kadlin checked the cupboards and bins and sure enough, they were stocked with medical supplies. There were syringes, bandages, a few ointments and such, splints.

Four sconces around the edge lit the room well, but Kadlin wasn't satisfied. "I want two braziers brought in here for more light. I can't work in these conditions!"

"I'll 'ave some'un rectify the sit'tion post'aste," the scientist beside her said. He was a short thing, his two horns small but well-waxed in fastidious goblin style. He lacked the muscle of his normal peers, but his head was larger than even a brute's. He was covered in more than his share of scars, most of them old, probably from bullying. But there were some that were only a few days old, and there were even more that came from no human, goblin, or anthroform of any sort. He wore a long white lab coat, pocket filled with medical or laboratory equipment, and white scrubs underneath it. Kadlin herself wore some of her old clothes; the goblins didn't have anything in her size.

Two hulking goblin elites in battered but polished armor escorted a third in a loincloth to the room. Loincloth looked around the room warily, and then his eyes focused on Kadlin. His escorts shoved him in rudely.

"This him?" asked Kadlin.

"Yup," one of the elites said.

"You can leave him here."

"But we's suppose to make sure he don't 'scape."

"He won't escape. He's in the one of the deepest parts of the Knob. And if he tries to attack me..." Kadlin glanced at her glaive. A glimmer of light traveled up the varnished pole till it hit the sword hilt where it stopped. "If he causes any trouble, I'll have the morgue keep watch over him."

"But, miss. No 'fense. He ken break outta the morgue no problem."

Kadlin's palm hit her face. "I meant I can kill him if I need to. You can go now."

"But-"

Kadlin pointed at the doorway. The two elites left. The pastamancer turned to Loincloth.

"What's your name?"

"Gryznx."

"I take it you didn't volunteer for this."

Grynx slumped down. "No, after I got caught with the cap'n's missy, he was gon' kill me. Was either this or the axeman."

"Hmm... Well I want you to know this is the best thing that could happen to you. You think you were a strong warrior before? You'll be unstoppable when I'm through with you. You're in good hands."

"Will it hurt?"

"I won't lie to you. It'll hurt a lot, but it will be worth it. Have you ever been shot with an arrow before?"

"Yup."

"And how much did that hurt?"

"Like my chest was on fire."

"Well, the next time that happens it will not hurt any more than a pinprick."

"That'd be nice."

"Let's get you prepped."

"I'm not sure I like dat. Can we jus' get me ready for surgery 'nstead?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Okay, like I said, the process entails a certain amount of pain."

"You mean my guts er gonna be damaged!?"

"No, you're going to feel a lot of pain. So I want you to get drunk beforehand. Plastered if possible."

"Serious?"

"Indeed. It'll help a lot. Here's your first bottle. Now you'll want to" *burp* "Okay, that was quick. Have another."

Gryznx finished a second, and a third, and then a fourth.

As he wiped the froth off his mouth with a hairy arm Kadlin asked, "So what's this story about you and the captain's mistress?"

The goblin handed Kadlin the empty bottle and received a fresh Willer. "Well, she was--glug, glug, glug- workin' for the guy, but she din' wanna, you know? The cap'n was--glug, glug, glug--forcin' her to. Said he'd have her killed if she didn't."

Kadlin handed him his eighth Willer. "How was he able to do that?"

The goblin finished that beer and took a ninth from Kadlin. "Well-glug, glug, glug--he say she'd plotted against the King--glug, glug, glug--when she'da never do somtin' like 'dat." The goblin's grip tightened on the bottle and it shattered. Blood ran down his hand and rained down on the glass shards below. Kadlin reached out her hand to heal the guy, but her powers didn't do anything. Odd.

"Well, I was gonna kill the guy, but she say no, let's just go. You see, we was lovers. But the cap'n found out, sent me to the brig. Beat her near death."

"How many of those Willers you need?"

"It usually takes me about twenny to be sloshed."

"Well, there's another couple cases there. Drink up. I want you to have at least thirty then. You'll want to be barely conscious for this."

"I'll be 'sleep by then."

Kadlin shook her head. "You'll stay awake."

"Iff'n you say so."

* * *

A half hour later, the team had assembled. Kadlin was the team leader, with the scientist from before to handle the material part of the operation. There were three lab assistants in their pink scrubs. Around the outside were five junior knob chefs who would channel their magic when needed. They were gathered at five points of a mystic pentacle, with lines drawn in bats' blood sprinkled with Jankin root to act as channeling points for the magic.

On the table, strapped in tightly was Gryznx. He was asleep, as promised, but that wouldn't last long. The two braziers had been set up, and they illuminated the workspace immaculately.

Kadlin turned to the scientist "Rabnok, get started on the hormone treatment."

"What do you want?" the little man replied. "Growth hormone? Steroids? Mutagens?"

"I want the works. I want everything that will make him into a hulking brute."

"Pardon, ma'am but that'll kill 'im."

Kadlin steeled her face. "It won't."

The biologist pulled out dozens of syringes and began injecting the subject. "No," said Kadlin, "That's not enough. Double the doses on all of it except the Clanatrine."

"But, everytin' I gave 'im already'll give 'im maliotrasial femolina in the next minute."

"You have your orders." The goblin frowned but complied.

"You sure 'bout this?" the Rabnok said, injecting the final drug.

"The alcohol has slowed his metabolism. The depressants have lowered his neuron response. Normally he'd be dead almost immediately. As it is, he'll survive for eight minutes longer in his condition, even if we do nothing to him. And I don't intend to do nothing."

Chanting words of power, Kadlin began sending life energy into the subject's body, letting it course through his veins. The faint green glow flowed into the subject and permeated every cell in his body, then began changing its surroundings to match its sender's will. This life energy was being improved--lesser fools would say corrupted--by the sword attached to Kadlin's staff. And it was most powerful.

The subject's cells began receiving the chemicals they were drowning in and responding to them. Under normal conditions, any of these drugs would take days to reach their full potential. And some like the steroid treatments would need to be applied daily for weeks. With the addition of this energy, and the magical chanting that drove it, the cells began responding immediately.

The goblin began growing. Bones warped and shifted. They lengthened, spread, and thickened to support more mass. Muscle tissue swelled under the nutrient solution coursing through nearby veins, and it grew and grew and then divided, only to grow and divide more. The goblin went from seven feet tall to eight, then nine. His skin struggled to keep up with the change, sagging in some places from being too loose while splitting and oozing blood in others, blood that was a stinking brown from the various chemicals in it.

Kadlin knew what she was talking about when she said the subject would be unable to sleep. He was awake now, screaming in terror, the pain he was experiencing worse than any nightmare he could possibly have been dreaming. His voice box was warping as he screamed, making him sound like some wild animal being torn to pieces. His teeth grew into sharp fangs and his horns lengthened, the right one almost twice as long as the left.

Now his skin was changing color, from a dusky orange to a deep brown, becoming thicker and much harder. Bone spurs began protruding through the skin, leaving a trail of gore wherever they did so. But these same spurs would protect from damage while ripping into any foes who challenged the subject.

He was eleven feet long and still growing visibly. The manacles on his hands and feet were biting into the flesh. "Loosen his bonds," shouted Kadlin. The assistants were stunned in horror, so Kadlin unleashed a dark fireball near one of their heads. "Do it now! Before he is damaged any more."

"But-"

"Now! If his growth is impeded then it will be a bitch to fix later."

The assistants began frantically undoing the bonds and the subject knocked one into a wall, but the body he was used to wasn't the one he was using, and his flailing was mostly ineffective. Kadlin could see from the deep gouges on the assistant's torsos and limbs that the claws and bone spurs were effective, if anything a bit too sharp. Sharp cuts sliced cleanly. Dull ones tore ripped through flesh.

Kadlin bent closer to the subject. "You're in the laboratory. You're being reforged, like I said. It's me, the woman who talked to you earlier. You'll be okay, eventually, I promise. The pain is just temporary."

Whether the words got through or not, Kadlin had no idea. The chemical soup he was on would be wreaking havoc on his mind, but he seemed to thrash only half as much as before.

"Orderlies!" Shouted Kadlin. Four elites, pressed into service as orderlies barged into the room. "Hold him down!" She said.

Each orderly took a limb that was now sprouting claws in place of finger or toenails. They held on desperately, but each of them was barely strong enough to keep a single of the subject's limbs in check with their entire body. Some of them were bleeding or bruised already.

The Knob chefs in the background were chanting and sending their mana into Kadlin's form, allowing her to reshape it and channel it into the goblin. Kadlin was making good use of that energy, sending another growth spurt into the goblin. The dead bodies of goblins who had died in the recent war were stacked nearby. Kadlin channeled energy through them, dissolving parts of the corpses and moving that mass into the subject's form, providing the raw mass for the transformation to continue.

The subject grew another ten inches almost immediately, and continued to swell. His alien scream reverberated down the corridors of the laboratories, making it all the way out to the living areas where it would wake dozens of families.

The table cracked and snapped under the weight, dropping the subject onto the floor. The brute staggered to its feet, moved a yard or two on shaky legs, and then collapsed. Kadlin ordered the assistant to take the table shards out of its back while the orderlies picked themselves up to hold the beast down again.

One of the chefs was busy righting a brazier while his fellow picked up the hot coals and began putting them back in, his elemental affinity to hot making him immune to any damage. Kadlin ground the last coal out under her boot. "Back to your post. I need your magic." The cook complied.

By now, the subject was fifteen feet tall, his rate of growth barely perceptible. Kadlin sent out another wave of life energy, this one more concentrated, more focused. It wrapped around the subject's skin, changing a thick hide into tougher scales. It washed over the face, elongating teeth into fangs, and funneled into eyes, the making them like a cat's as they headed for the brain.

As they coursed through the brain they located the centers for anger, rage, and fear, and amplified those structures. They wound around the adrenal gland so that when this beast needed to fight, it would be strengthened far beyond its normal capacity. This would fuel a berserker rage similar to Konall's. No, superior.

The energy went down the spinal cord and pooled between the beast's lungs, warping the tissue it found there into a second heart, next to the first. It branched into the lungs, improving them so they could get enough oxygen even at the highest altitudes while making the creature inexhaustible at anything lower. By then, the energy had petered out.

The creature had stopped growing now, seventeen feet tall. Kadlin sent another wave of energy, and then another after that. A half hour went by while Kadlin exhausted herself reshaping a howling lump of flesh into an unstoppable warrior.

"Kadlin," said Rabnok the scientist, "His hearts're stopped."

"What?"

"He's dead."

"Nonsense, he's still shouting in agony."

"That life energy you pumpin' into 'im is the only ting keeping' him functional. Soon's you stop, he expires."

"Well, get his hearts beating then."

"E's nearly exsanguinated. You needa stop."

"Not another one. That's the fourth in as many days." Kadlin slumped to the ground, realizing too late she was in a pool of the subjects blood. Maybe if she... but no. It was done. "This was a failure," she said.

"Not completely," said Rabnok. "You're learnin'. There's gonna be a few failures. Summa da lesser peoples will give their lives so you ken master you knowlij. But inna end, it'll be worth it."

"I hope you're right. Okay people. One hour break for everyone, then we start again. Except you, assistants. Clean up this mess, get the body down to the trash heap, and then you're relieved. We'll have some replacements."

Kadlin went to take a long bath, scrub the blood off her hands and wipe it off the rest of her. She hoped this work wouldn't require too much more death. It wore on her. Sometimes she even felt guilty about it. But it was a necessary thing. She had to keep remembering that.

Konall's roleplay was posted twice originally, but the writer edited it to show this one here, thus the disclaimer in front of the disclaimer. Be honest, were you expecting him to die? Either way, although it didn't directly involve the main missions, this was a useful and necessary development for the Feline Empire's new identity. We still have an epic number of tales to go before we get to the Mission Finale of the Season Finale.

Let's check up on Konall and his psychos next!