(Woman to Xenomorph Queen; Mawloc)
(Woman to Hive Tyrant; Xenomorph Queen)

“No, no. I’m telling you—a Tyranid could totally kick the hell out of a Xenomorph.” Ryan crossed his arms as he looked at Jared, a familiar frown on his face.

Across the room, Cassie and Lisa, the two newest members of Vennmura University’s wargaming club, watched the two men fight like boys.

“Honestly…” Cassie started, trailing some of her red hair in her hand. “Do you know what they’re talking about? Because I don’t…”

Lisa shrugged. “I mean, I’ve seen Aliens, but I’m new here too. This whole talk of tear-un-ids is a little past me.”

They watched in growing amusement as the two older members contested the matter hotly. Point and counterpoint were thrown and deflected, like a masterful swordfight about the most banal of matters. It continued on for an embarrassingly long time, finally settling with a loud proclamation.

“I say we settle it in the arena!” Jared shouted melodramatically, his finger pointed aloft. “Two Venned humans, one a ‘nid, one a bug! We fight for the honor of the franchises!”

Ryan arched an eyebrow. “Since when did Alien heal any of the damage done by the third and fourth movies?”

Jared opened his mouth to retort, then closed it sharply. Then he opened it again. “Shut up. My point is, we need to fight it out.”

Ryan shrugged. “I mean, that sounds fair… But wouldn’t we be a little biased? We’ve both spent so many fights as Tyranids, we know how to pilot them by heart. And I’ve never seen you as a Xenomorph, so…” He trailed off, looking meaningfully at Jared.

Not missing a beat, the brunette turned to the two girls, pointing at them with a smile. “Which is why we have two fighters who are completely new to the subject.”

“Um. And new to Monster Wars…” Lisa raised a hand, realizing the conversation had shifted to include her.

“And I’m kind of terrified of bugs… You mentioned bugs, right?” Cassie added nervously.

Jared and Ryan looked at each other, then back to the girls. “No?” They asked in unison.

Ryan hurriedly followed this up with a “But relax, it’ll be fine. We’ll show you what you’ll become beforehand, and then you get to fight it out. It’s totally fun and safe! Besides, most student organizations fight in the arena, and they usually choose boring things like real animals. You can get an edge over the competition!”

Cassie frowned a little, looking to Lisa. “Well… It could be fun?”

“Okay, this is going to be a lot of fun.” Cassie amended her previous statement, alone in the Venn booth with Ryan. She gazed with starry eyes at the image of what she was supposed to become: a Hive Tyrant.

It was one hell of a beast, with a slavering jaw and four sets of arms that ended in arms that clutched at swords grown into its body. It was plated with thick, ridged armor, and stood on massive hooves that possessed bladed ankles.

A long and sinewy tail trailed from under it; with a clawed tail on its rear. Even its head had a long spike on it, like a rhino’s tusk—as if the sharp and slavering fangs in its mouth weren’t enough to make the beast deadly.

Perhaps better yet, it didn’t look at all like a bug—it was closer to some sort of armored nightmare dinosaur. Cassie’s competitive streak was brought back to the forefront as she looked at the creature she’d become, and the girl grinned with delight. This would almost be too easy.

“I have only one question: does it come in pink?”

A few minutes later, Lisa was in a similar situation. She looked at the image of her new form and frowned curiously. “Um… A Xenomorph queen? Are you sure that that’s fair?”

“Hm?” Jared tapped away at the interface panel, finalizing a few more muscles; adding a little sharpness here and there.

“Why would you make me the biggest, baddest bug there is? Won’t that be a little unfair for whatever Cassie’s becoming?” The girl frowned, looking at the reference picture again. “I’m not too sure that this is a good idea…”

“Nonsense!” Jared tapped in a few buttons on his panel. “Now hush, I need to just put in the last few details to the muscles.”

Lisa tried to speak, but a Xenomorph’s stinger shot from her mouth, clacking at the air menacingly. She retracted it with a twitch of muscles she didn’t quite realize she had, and the girl pouted, glaring at Jared.

“Hey, sorry!” Jared chuckled, transforming the girl one part at a time to get her acclimated to the new body. “I can’t have you disturbing me; I might mess up and put something in the wrong place.”

Lisa rolled her eyes a second before she lost them; a blank dome cloaking her head and leaving her almost senseless. She floundered for just a moment before realizing how acute her sense of taste was now; it was almost like she could see without seeing!

Then her new ‘vision’ kicked in, electromagnetic coronas giving her a new view of the world. As though that wasn’t enough, her skin started to release countless pheromones, tagging things and giving her an acute outline of her immediate vicinity.

Lisa hissed with amusement, then grunted in surprise as her body rapidly gained in height, the changes coming on faster and faster as her changing time was running out. She had to give Jared credit: this was one hell of a way to transform, and it definitely gave her a better image of what she was becoming.

She worked her long arms and her new stubby set of arms in her chest, flexing them menacingly. Her whole body felt armored, and as her skull sloped out to a large and flared plate, her tail clicking as it grew to its full length.

Lisa shot out her stinger in the air, already tasting her victory. She could see some massive electromagnetic presence in the arena, and the new Xenomorph queen turned for the door, stalking out to meet her new prey.

She was confident; she was the best. She was going to demolish this… Frightening… Sword wielding… Um.

Lisa’s thoughts ground to a halt as she realized how outmatched she was. Or at least, evenly matched. She certainly wasn’t Cassie’s superior, like she’d thought upon first changing. Lisa let her instincts take control, dropping low and letting a loud and challenging hiss erupt from her throat as she braced for combat.

Across the field, Cassie clicked her laws with amusement. Then she arched her spine backward, her swords crossing over her head as she let out a terrifying, ear-piercing shriek.

It was almost too much for the Xenomorph queen’s senses, and she had to shake her head to clear what passed for her hearing. When she looked up, she found the Hive Tyrant charging towards her, its head angled low to spit Lisa upon its horn.

Alarmed, Lisa swept to her right, her tail flicking forward to spear through Cassie’s head. Only Cassie had seen that coming, turning her thick shell to deflect the oncoming attack.

Lisa hissed louder, hurriedly trying to pull her tail back to her body and defend herself.

She was a second too slow, and the Hive Tyrant swept its bone swords towards Lisa, carving her tail into three pieces.

Wounded, Lisa shrieked, realizing her mistake a little too late: She’d led with her strongest attack. While it was a good idea, her opponent was ready to counter the blow, crippling her in the fight.

She needed time to rethink this; time to come up with a battle plan. Of course, Cassie knew this too, and sent her own tail to snap its pincer around Lisa’s domed skull.

With a deft flick of her strong muscle, Cassie pulled Lisa off balance, dragging her closer.

Lisa shrieked in distress, her arms flailing as her stinger shot uselessly at the ground. This wasn’t right; she was supposed to fight and win; there was no way for her to lose like this!

Cassie shrieked louder, blurring Lisa’s senses as she took a large bite out from the back of her friend’s neck, savoring her flavor and shredding the Xenomorph’s nervous system in the process.

Her instincts took over, and she sent all of her swords down, dicing her friend into bite-sized chunks. Then the Hive Tyrant began to feed; to consume more bio-mass for her Hive.

“Well, crap.” Jared sighed. “That doesn’t count.”

“Doesn’t count?” Ryan scoffed incredulously. “And why, pray tell, shouldn’t it count?”

Jared tutted, shaking his head. “Because you made Cassie into a Hive Tyrant! Of course a Xenomorph queen would lose to one of the strongest Codex: Tyranids units! It’s like trying to pit a hamster against a blender.”

Ryan winces. “Vivid.”

Jared nodded to the happily munching Hive Tyrant. “Fitting, though. My point is, you should have chosen something weaker.”

Ryan chuckled. “Like you did?” He arched an eyebrow. “Last I recall, the queen is the strongest bug around.” When Jared started to sulk, Ryan laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll humor you. You keep your queen; I’ll make Lisa into a Mawloc.”

“Lisa? Don’t you mean Cassie?” Jared asked with a chuckle.

“No, we need to switch them. That way they get equal experience as the queen in case we need a tie-breaker.” Ryan chuckled, hopping towards the arena. “Now, let’s see if I can get Cassie back to her senses…”

After thousands of apologies, Cassie found herself inhabiting the big and bulky body of the queen. She liked how delicately Jared had changed her; but personally would rather have it all at once. Nothing quite beat the classic Venn transformation; regardless of how honed his technique was.

She waited eagerly for her opponent to make her entrance, hissing to herself with a chuckle. She couldn’t explain how she knew it, but the girl felt like she was a Venn natural. There was something about how well she could adapt herself to any form. Even this utterly alien form felt like she’d been born in it.

Cassie swept out with her senses, scattering her pheromones across the field in anticipation. Already she could see a large electromagnetic disturbance forming on the opposite side of the field from her.

Good. That meant Lisa was ready. Cassie’s mental eyelids fluttered as she sank back into the beast, letting its mind take the reins. Her lips peeled back to reveal sharp fangs, dripping with saliva in anticipation of her last meal. She couldn’t wait to see how Lisa tasted in a new form.

And yet… There was no Lisa, no prey. Rather, the signal vanished, seeming to disappear into the ground. Confused, Cassie hissed loudly in challenge, stomping forward and swiveling her head from left to right in search of her next meal.

Nothing. All she could ‘see’ was an oddly large hole in the ground a little ways away, which… Oh. Cassie picked up a faint tremor from beneath her feet as the ground quaked; then a massive Tyranid organism burst its way from the ground under her; an impossibly wide jaw nearly swallowing her whole.

Cassie barely had time to sweep away, dodging the worm’s massive scything talons and spread fangs. Her tail stabbed out at its flank, but she couldn’t have hit anything vital. The prey was still moving as though it hadn’t so much as felt the pain, burrowing back under the ground.

Cassie hissed with agitation, her tail sweeping in small circles around her as she searched for Lisa.

Lisa hissed to herself with amusement as she ate her way through the dirt. At first, the idea of being this worm-like creature had disgusted her. But when she got a closer look, she found it to be as armored as the Hive Tyrant she’d just died to. And if that things’s armor was any indication of the Tyranid species, Lisa simply had to try on this form.

As it stood, though, this beast was definitely not as protected as Cassie’s last form had been. Lisa had actually felt a stabbing when the Xenomorph queen struck out at her--though it hadn’t hit anything too vital.

Still, it was a lesson Lisa wouldn’t soon forget. She resolved to make better use of her body on its next pass. Lisa’s scuttling limbs weren’t as meant for combat as the bone swords that Cassie had sported; but her Mawloc’s tail had a phenomenally large, abominably strong pincer at the end of it.

If Lisa could get a good hit in, that’d make Cassie easy prey. And whether the Xenomorph knew it or not, its motions were giving Lisa a perfect picture of where she was. That was the best part of Lisa’s new body: she could sense the tremors above her; pick up exactly where Cassie was even though Lisa was now almost well and truly blind. And right now, that image gave Lisa a clear strike zone.

She burst from the ground a meter from Cassie, her tail whipping forwards at the same time Cassie’s did. This time, Lisa was fast enough to dip her head, letting the Xenomorph’s sharp tail nick her tough carapace along her skull.

Meanwhile, her own tail snapped around one of Cassie’s legs, tearing it clean off in a swelter of gore. Before the queen could so much as shriek, Lisa’s tal slammed into her shoulder, then her chest. Both hits were accompanied by the telltale crack of breaking exoskeleton, and Lisa roared with pleasure. She coiled her body, then sprang towards her fallen foe, swallowing Cassie whole.

That was almost too easy, Lisa thought with as best a smile as she could come up with. Then she felt a stabbing pain in her gut, and another. Frantically, the girl wracked her brain, finding no way to alleviate the distress. She was too panicked to listen to her instincts—even though they were screaming at her to clamp down her gullet and crush the offending morsel she’d just eaten.

With a wet squelch, a tail punched through her gut, and a pair of incredibly strong hands reached out from within the hole and started to pull.

Lisa shrieked in distress, bursting from the arena’s floor in an attempt to land and crush her belly’s contents. But before she could meet the ground again, the arms exerted another impossibly strong tug, and Lisa was torn in half.

Her upper body landed away from the Xenomorph she’d thought she’d bested, and Lisa had to spend the next few agonizingly slow seconds bleeding out as the creature dragged its way to her. Lisa’s senses picked up that Cassie was gravely wounded: the fall had rendered one of the Xenomorph’s arms unusable.

Still, one arm was enough, and the queen lurched her way over to the bisected Mawloc, crooning as she drew closer. Lisa’s heart pounded with fear as Cassie stalked up close, pressing her lips to her foe’s forehead.

Then, with a loud crunch, Cassie’s second jaw shot out, punching through Lisa’s left eye. There was a moment of sudden shock; then Lisa knew no more.

“Well, well, well. Tie-breaker? Carnifex versus queen?” Ryan chuckled as he watched the Xenomorph dig in, loudly crunching through her fallen foe.

“Sounds like a deal to me.” Jared chuckled, ready to see how the girls would surprise him next.

As it turned out, it was a rather large surprise. Jared stepped out from the Venn Machine to blink in shock, looking at Ryan. “Wait, why are you wearing Imperial Guard flak?” He asked, arching an eyebrow.

Ryan looked down as though just noticing. “Huh… I was about to ask why you’re dressed like a Colonial… Marine…” He whimpered slightly, looking up to the monster he’d created moments before.

Jared followed his train of thought, tensing at the feeling of an alien’s breath on the back of his neck. “Um… I don’t suppose that you girls would be willing to call it a tie?”

The looming carnifex and slavering Xenomorph glanced to each other; then back to the two Venned men before them. Slowly, Cassie extended a massive scythe, and Lisa clapped a hand to it in an approximation of a high-five.

Then, with a roar and a shriek, respectively, both Tyranid and Xenomorph pounced on their snacks.