Chrysalis

"Dammit, Vibrant! Get back here!" Advant yelled, her scent filled with impotent rage.

"No chance!" laughed Vibrant as she raced away.

"We're trying to make you stronger!" the exasperated soldier tried to reason with the fast vanishing form of her fellow council member.

"I-can-do-that-myself-okay-so-I-don't-need-your-help-bye!" Vibrant replied with rapid fire speed, her scent fading almost as fast as she did.

In the end, all that remained in the section of tunnel was Advant and her escort, slumped in defeat as they tried to catch their breath.

"Damn that Vibrant!" she growled, "why does she have to make everything so difficult?"

She had been tasked with finding the second most powerful warrior in the Colony and bringing her back to the nest so they could pour their collective resources into her and raise Vibrant as the second powerhouse of the Colony, but so far she just wasn't cooperating. She'd heard out Advant well enough when she'd first caught up to explain the idea, but had flatly rejected the Colony helping her in any way, insisting that she would do it her own way before speeding off into the distance. Everytime Advant managed to catch up to her, the same scene repeated itself, with Vibrant slipping away no matter how hard they tried to pin her down.

With nothing else for it, she gathered her energy and pushed herself back to her legs, following along the trail of the speeding ant at a more sedate pace. Vibrant would have to stop and fight at some point, which was when they would next catch up to her. Hopefully the next time would go better…

Further down the tunnel, Vibrant raced away having already put her latest encounter with Advant out of her head. Who had time to worry about that sort of thing? There was so much fighting to do! And it was everywhere! No matter how fast she managed to get from one checkpoint to the next, it always felt like she should have gone faster, which was exciting! No matter how fast she was able to run around, it wasn't fast enough! This was a novel situation for the fast moving ant and she was loving it.

For a brief moment she wondered where all of her followers were, only to remember a moment later that they'd given up on chasing her because she'd run even them into the ground. Instead, one of the generals had organised them into roaming packs spread across the territory of the Colony, doing much the same thing Vibrant herself was doing: rushing from one flashpoint to the next, just on a smaller scale than their leader.

through her antennae and over her carapace and for a long moment, she just indulged herself in experiencing the joy of running at full speed. She didn't know exactly when she'd begun to love moving fast, as far back as she could remember she'd had too much energy, to the point

a blur on the edge of her vision. She'd had to mutate her eyes to be able to work properly moving at these sorts of speeds, an investment that she didn't regret. In fact, it only ignited her desire to go faster! On and on she raced through the tunnels, several times passing by a soldier busy grappling with a freshly spawned shadow creature, but she didn't stop, couldn't afford

covered the six kilometres needed to reach the next checkpoint and arrived in a cloud of

guttered in the sharp breeze

to thank me I'll get right to work and then

soldier threw herself into the fray, dodging and weaving through the hordes, working her mandibles with relentless energy, cleaving legs, shattering hides and piercing demon flesh. She was a whirlwind more than an ant, never ceasing her rapid paced movement, finding ways to dodge and slide through gaps that an ant half her size would never attempt. Seizing on the momentum that her intervention had brought them, the rest of the ants leapt forward into battle, shoving

moment the tide of the battle changed, Vibrant turned around and dashed away, leaving nothing but the scent of her "Have a nice dayyyyy!" lingering on the antennae of the ants who momentarily had to wonder if she had ever been there at all. There was need! She was needed! And so, she had to go.

fail, she snapped down her second leg and managed to catch herself just in time to avoid losing any of her

kind of invisible obstruction, even her highly developed sense of balance wasn't

CRASH!

end over end and slammed into the tunnel wall

"What the… hey!"

just enough time for the net to drop down

came a scent she knew all too

"You!"

ceiling like a filthy spider came the small ant who had captured Vibrant last time, but only with the help of Crinis!

you want?! I'm busy helping the Colony! I haven't even been avoiding

ants emerged from the shadows and they surrounded Vibrant on the

one said, "but according to the Eldest, there is something else you

for once,