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.

to love moving fast, as far back as she could remember she'd had too much energy, to the point that the Eldest had claimed she'd been hyperactive even as a grub! Whatever the reason, it just felt right

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

than five minutes, she had covered the six kilometres needed to reach the next checkpoint and arrived in a cloud of dust that

guttered in

to thank me I'll

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.

There was need! She was needed! And so, she had to go. All over the territory the Colony had claimed there were checkpoints that needed help, needed someone to come and relieve

front right leg snag on something she hadn't seen. Before her balance could fail, she snapped down her second leg and managed to catch herself just in time to avoid losing any of her speed. A

of her legs snarled in some kind of invisible obstruction, even her highly developed sense of balance

CRASH!

loud thump, she tumbled end over end and slammed into the tunnel

"What the… hey!"

just enough time for the net to drop

all

"You!"

but only with the help of Crinis! She'd forced Vibrant to sleep, for

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

Vibrant on the ground, looking down at her with

been avoiding rest," the nameless one said, "but according to the Eldest, there is something else

once,