Unum de multis(open)

Kuro was analyzing the creature while fighting him. No, that description wasn't accurate; Nidus wasn't even attacking him. He was focused on defensive stratagems. If his swarm wasn't hurting innocent people, Kuro wouldn't have attempted attacking him in the first place. Attempts at communication would be exhausted, but attempted nonetheless. But now that he was hurting civilians, he didn't leave Kuro with a choice. Elisabeth responded to him quickly, and she would be given the details for an open line within their group, as his team informed him that she needed ten minutes to start making an antivenom.

As Kuro heard this, he suddenly stopped, and quickly stepped back. He held his katana in a defensive stance, keeping eyes on Nidus while forming hand seals with one hand. "Doton: Doryuheki." He molded the chakra for the technique threefold, and would form three walls of earth around Nidus, the only open wall being the one where Kuro stood. While Nidus would be on the opposite end. He made a few more hand seals with his free arm, standing at the ready for Nidus to move, but this time, he did not recite a word. He was waiting for Nidus to make a move, becoming reactive instead of active. Ten minutes was what he intended on sparing in the first place.

The scan that GIR ran would find that the subject she held was growing some kind of a parasite.  This particular victim was having it grow just inside their rib-cage, between their sternum and their heart.  It was growing fast, using the person's fat reserves as nourishment to grow and develop.  Their hearts were pumping fast to get as much blood flowing as they could.  The growth seemed to be a simplified brain, small and protected by a hard outer layer.  The victim also has a connection of some kind weaving through the body from the person's parasite directly to their spinal chord.  From the outside, their skin looked noticeably blackened over the location of their parasite, with a yellow speckling to it.  Each person had it grow in a slightly different place, but they were always parts of the body rich in fat and blood vessels.  Lots of female victims had them in their breasts close to the heart, while men usually had them close to their gut or sternum.  Sometimes they appeared on the back, close to the spine.  

//Bring them to me.  I need a demonstration.  One will suffice, but let the others bear witness.  Let us put them to the test.//

All at the same time, each of the people infected became active.  Having become otherwise unresponsive, each person got up and did their best to make their way towards the ensuing fight.  If they couldn't make it by some kind of obstacle, they got as close as they could.  Hostility didn't seem to be a problem, as they only fought or attacked people that tried to stop them.  They did whatever they had to to keep pressing closer, and no more.  Elizabeth's subject of study would try to leave, still grunting in pain but otherwise being completely non-verbal.  They would push and shove and punch and fight if they had to, but they just wanted to get to where they could see Nidus up close.  They were surprisingly good at coordination for a zombie, having minimal difficulty walking and moving.  They were a little off, but not by much.

//-------------------------------------------

Nidus maintained a defensive stance as Kuro leaped back, turning his head as the stone walls came up.  After a moment of no reaction, his head turned forward again as Kuro didn't seem to be attacking for now.  His arms healed up from the attacks made against them, what loss of function they did sustain was quickly returned as their flesh mended.  The walls made it obvious that Kuro expected Nidus to come after him, wanting the creature to go no-where else.  But Nidus didn't engage, still standing and returning to a more relaxed but readied pose.  If this was a staring contest, not having eyes would make it a sure victory.  

//Is it testing us?  Trying to limit my movements and gain an upper hand?  Is it resting?  I'm curious.//

Kuro would soon notice what was going on around him.  Everyone that had been hit by an insect was coming closer, trying to force their way through the crowd to form a spectator circle around them.  All except for two.  A DOMA agent, and what appeared to be a young man in his twenties.  Those two went straight for Nidus, avoiding Kuro in an attempt to get right up next to the alien creature.  They would not speak, they would not listen to concerned pleas or reason.  They would get to Nidus if they had to fight or die to do so.  If Kuro tried to stop either of them, the infected DOMA agent would try to stop Kuro as the young man went to his target.  If he made it to Nidus, or it BOTH of them did....well....nothing would happen at first.  They would probably all just standing there, the innocents getting in the way of any attacks made against Nidus.  After all, Kuro had made it very clear that if there was going to be an attack, it would come from one direction.

GIRs scan revealed the inner workings of the parasite that was infecting the populous and Elisabeth was immediately brainstorming a solution. As the victims started moving, though, she would find her attention split between following them and her engineering thoughts. An easy task of someone with her brainpower, though.

"GIR, send this to the labs back at the warehouse. Get the nanotech programmed to target the organisms. Put it on double time. I don't want to see this spreading."

With progress on that already on the way, she would next focus on protecting the bodies as they went towards the alien that had infected them. Her electromagnetic trappings would form from nanotech and she'd launch them out towards the victims that were walking. When activated, the people would find themselves pulled magnetically either to each other or to nearby metals like cares or light poles. Luckily, in this world, metal was rarely far away. She'd open the channel that Kuro gave her.

"Kuro, the cure is in development. We're on schedule. I'm moving in to back you up."

When she arrived, her focus would be on immobilizing the victims with her magnets again. Assuming the creature didn't have a way to defend, she would throw out her magnet discs to the people.

Kuro kept his highly trained eyes on Nidus, unwavering in his determination. But as he focused, he suddenly noticed a civilian and a DOMA agent on either side of him, walking towards Nidus. He looked to them. "Leave the area. This creature is too dangerous for you to handle. Take the civilian with you." He reached for the civilian, before noticing the DOMA agent was trying to attack him with his eyes. He exhaled, ducking an attack, and pressed his sword to their skin while grabbing the civilian, looking to Nidus. Raiton: Raikiri. An electric current would course through his body at a current powerful enough to incapacitate the two people and render them unconscious, unless Nidus's foreign agents could somehow counteract that.

If Nidus did and they were unaffected, Kuro would toss the civilian back away from Nidus while smoothly and fluidly cutting the tendon in the DOMA agent's knee so that they wouldn't be able to walk for the time being.

Tesla's message came over the comms. "Target is incredibly durable. They have a healing factor. And I do not have the time nor means to establish communication with them."

As Elizabeth dispersed her traps, the people hit by them seemed to be incapacitated exactly as expected.  Some were pulled the the nearest fixture, some slammed together and fell to the ground.  One unfortunate fellow named Gregory screamed in agony as the magnet pulled his prosthetic leg up to his torso, bending his leg in a very painful and unnatural angle.  That was going to cause some very permanent damage, crippling that leg completely.  He'd never walk on it again.  Nidus turned his head quickly towards the amputee just as he started his howling, staring in that direction with focus.  The rest just seemed to be trying to get free, yanking and pulling at the traps as much as they could.  Some were accidentally hurting themselves in the process.

//Give relief to the injured!  He is not built to withstand that trauma.  Give him what he needs to repair; do not let him die from this.  Do not let any of them suffer needlessly.

About a half dozen of the people hit with a trap managed to get free, but those that did started focusing not on movement but in making sure their injuries were okay and that they hadn't hurt themselves too much.  The rest of the trapped civilians stopped trying to hard to escape and ore or less accepted that they were immobilized.  Gregory eventually stopped screaming but was definitely in a lot of pain, yet somehow remained conscious.  All of the infected humans remained completely non-verbal, regardless of their condition.  

//------------------------------------------------------------------------

The parasites inside of the DOMA agent and civilian passing Kuro were definitely dropped to the ground from the electric shock.  These were neural parasites, and that's exactly what electric attacks like tasers target when they incapacitate.  Both people went down to the ground, convulsing.  

//They have disabled our connections.  Get them back to consciousness and ensure it does not happen again!
I must make use of the one.  He was beginning to show promise.  We have what we need from him.

Both people seemed to stay down for long enough that Nidus should have had an opportunity to get to them, but the creature STILL REFUSED to move or engage.  His attention turned to them, as they eventually started getting back up on their hands and knees.  The DOMA agent moved first, grasping as best he could at Kuro's leg so he couldn't go anywhere.  

The civilian stared down at the ground as he remained crouched, visibly shaking and breathing heavily as panic seemed to take hold.  Finally he spoke- no, screamed in a voice filled with desperation and anger.  

""STOP!  JUST STOP ALREADY!!"

Nidus turned his head again, standing and staring at the man with the same, still, unwavering sense of calmness.  He stood in a less defended pose as it seemed the human had his attention.  

//Finally.

Elisabeth's attempts to help seemed to have an unlucky consequence. One man had a prosthetic, and it was pulled at an awkward angle by the magnet. Quickly, her suit took her to the man and she removed the trapping. She felt bad, but there wasn't much she could do now. There was less than a 1% of the population in America that walked around with these types of injuries. This was just the worst of luck.

"Relax. You'll be fine."

GIR gave a status update. The nanotech was being launched over. It was trained to fight off this infection. They had less than three minutes before it landed, but there was a major change now. The creature decided now was the proper time to speak, and Elisabeth looked over in surprise.

"Kuro, how do you want to handle this? The antidote is almost here."

For now, Elisabeth kept the civilians from hurting themselves any more than they had to. She understood that she was deferring to the DOMA agent on site right now.

"Deadly force would be justified. If he can understand words and still is attacking unarmed civilians like this..."

Kuro met the being's gaze once more, keeping his katana held in a defensive position as he waited for Elisabeth to show up. Why wasn't he making any moves? Did he have some sort of plan that wasn't apparent to Kuro? And if so, what?

Kuro was mentally keeping track of time. And as the time got close to ten minutes from her message, he gripped his sword slightly harder. But then, she finally arrived. That was when he felt the DOMA agent grab his leg. Raikiri. He looked down in brief acknowledgment, before his body would flicker with electricity once more, and would again shock the man until he was unconscious before removing his leg from their grasp.

As Elisabeth asked how he wanted to handle the situation, the civilian from before would suddenly scream out for them to stop. Kuro looked to Tesla as she said that they could use deadly force. "Only if necessary to subdue it. Otherwise, Waller wants to capture it." He turned to look back to Nidus, and then to the civilian, before returning his gaze. He seemed to have responded to the civilian's words. He spoke again. "If you can understand me, then you are to cease activity and surrender. You have hurt and killed many of our people today. If you do not stop, then we will make you." His stance shifted, lightning coiling through the katana's length now.

//A communication link has been established.  The translator seems to be tainted heavily with emotions.  Is this normal for their kind?  Perhaps.  Regardless, if powerful emotions are what they understand then allow the translator to interpret us as they deem to be correct.

Nidus stood still and began to stand in a pose that didn't expect any more combat; a straight, upright, standard stance.  The person who had spoken started blinking, staring forward as they started to sit more upright.  Their facial expression implied they were considering something, and before long spoke again.  "Surrender?"

He began to stand, uneasy at first due to everything he had been through, before shakily collapsing back down to sitting on the ground with his head hung.  "To surrender would mean death.  It is not....not an option.  We cannot die.  We will not allow it."  He began to look at his hand, as if seeing it for the first time.  "This..was.....not expected.  Not...anticipated.  We didn't see it....see the nest.  Didn't know there was life....this much of it.  We couldn't have anticipated our landing would disturb it."  The man was shaking, blinking repeatedly, but seemed calm as he spoke these words.  "We came....didn't come to kill.  We didn't kill...haven't killed anyone...since our arrival."

That calmness in his voice shifted back to rage as the infected human looked up at Kuro, as angry as any man he had ever seen.  "But YOU did!  You have done NOTHING except kill us from the beginning!!!  Is death what you want!?  Is this how you live!?  Stop it!!  Before we are forced!!  We do not desire extinction, but we will not accept death!!  Flee, before I am forced to harm you!"

//Interesting.  He is bleeding his emotions into our circumstances.  His rage is his own; on behalf of us.  He does not desire our death; only the few that have made themselves antibodies.  //They have been contacted.  Attempts to establish peace have been made.  If this proves unsuccessful then will begin killing and converting the hostiles.  We have made the error of spreading too thin too quickly.  Larvae, be ready to consume and return.

The human translator looked at Kuro with hatred in his eyes.  "Everyone that dies from this point on is YOUR FAULT.  Nobody else's."

As things progressed, Elisabeth found herself more and more frustrated. The creature could speak now, it seemed. She was open to the idea that it needed time and subjects to be able to complete such a task... but it seemed like a universal declaration of intent to stomp into a new world and infect people intentionally. It didn't feel like you needed to understand language to understand that as an attack. A disease, even.

"Ma'am, the nanobots have been launched."

GIR, ever so useful. Elisabeth stepped next to Kuro, finding that the injuries had been attended to. Nobody else seemed to need immediate attention, even the man with the leg. This was fine. He'd be fine, as she said.

"Your landing can be called an accident, invader, but your attack on defenseless civilians after isn't. No, you didn't kill anyone. Nor have we. That's why this can be saved. You're infecting our population intentionally, however. This is the act of an invasive disease like species, and unless you stop... we'll have no choice but to remove the disease for our world."

Was she overstepping by speaking for Kuro? Probably. That said, she was losing patience for the alien. His actions were overtly hostile and for him to play victim? It made her want to spit.

Her thoughts didn't linger long, though. She was quickly distracted by the missile overhead that seemed more like a firework. Out of it came the drones that had the antibodies. It started on the outside, her drones launching needles into the victims that were infected. In seconds after they were hit they'd regain control and revert to their usual forms. Sweaty and exhausted, but saved for the most part.

"Kuro, I'd recommend if you see more of his infectious bees you eliminate the threat."

The translator was still active for the alien. He had a final chance from Elisabeth.

The creature seemed to be misunderstanding Kuro, believing that to surrender would mean the death of him. It also kept referring to themselves as a 'we'. A hive mind, then? That could be determined by scientists later. They claimed that their crash had been an accident, and that they hadn't killed anyone outside of that event which was beyond their control. But Kuro could see the infected. And it was corroborated by Tesla. She even spoke up on his behalf, earning a look tilted in her direction, reiterating that the species would need to cease hostilities if there were to be a peaceful resolution.

Kuro returned his gaze to the creature, hand on the hilt of the sword that he had since sheathed into its scabbard. "Yes. She speaks truly. If you cease hostilities and submit to detainment, you will live." Kuro made a few hand signs, the most complicated yet, and then held one, molding chakra in his lungs. "But if you do not cease, then you will be eradicated. This choice, we leave to you."

Nidus finally had a way to listen to the natives, but they didn't seem to think that their measures were justified.  

//Are they not aware that they struck the first blow?  Are they not aware that they made taking hostages necessary?

Nidus and the translator both turned their heads as cure weapons were rained down on the infected population, killing off the parasites inside of them.  The translator quickly scurried back close to Nidus, giving him the opportunity to snatch from the air anything that came after them.  He would not loose his link.

//They do not lie, they seem to have created antibodies even for the smallest forms of us.  This is.....disturbing.  Chances of survival are decreasing rapidly.

There didn't seem to be anything else in the area that was of Infested Flesh aside from Nidus and the one human he was preserving.  Everything else was gone.  The man looked around in a quick-shifting gaze as people were healed, seeming to become panicked.  Nidus reached up his hand and placed it calmly on the man's head, making him calm down a bit.  He took a deep breath and began to speak again.  "We would not have taken to aggressive tactics if they had not been made necessary.  We would not have attacked if not attacked first.  We were killed from the moment we arrived.  Peaceful attempts at non-verbal communication failed.  You fled, and immediately began killing.  We have used exactly as much force as deemed necessary in an attempt to neutralize you without resulting in death; and even now we keep our roots in the one unit we had initially contacted."

Nidus tilted his head, and the human's facial expression seemed to gain some understanding.  "But you are not a collective, are you?  You do not know each others wills, your actions.  You do not know of the one I speak of, do you?"  The alien's head turned to look at his translator, studying him.  "Even this vessel would not know, had we not told him."  The human seemed to be speaking Nidus' words for him.

Once more Nidus turned his gaze up at Kuro.  "Your people are not unified.  Your wills and desires can be hidden.  Your words can be disconnected from their meanings in an attempt to deceive.  How can you ensure to us that you will not destroy us?  I am still convinced that surrender would mean death, and you appear to have the means to kill us."

The creature was a collective, clearly, but it had base misunderstandings of how things worked on Earth to say the least. It was strange that Elisabeth was being asked to explain why he isn't allowed to take over humans as hostages or live freely in the land after this much destruction. Elisabeth had words on her mind, but decided again to deffer.

"Kuro, the creature isn't so stupid to not understand he's behaving as an invasive species."

She decided to just provide that as her assessment. She'd leave her personal emotions out of it, but had faith Kuro would make the right call. Letting the thing leave unsupervised would be foolish.

"Just say what you'd like me to do, Boss."

Elisabeth didn't care much about the creature being attacked early on. If she was here earlier, it's likely she would have attacked as well.

Kuro's gaze remained as neutral as ever as Nidus explained that they never intended to be so hostile, and that they were forced to be when the vigilante that had shown up beforehand attacked them. Nidus seemed to understand that they were not a hive mind, like their species was, and that they didn't know what everyone else on the planet wanted to do at the time. That they were capable of deceit and falsehood. Elisabeth deferred to him, and simply said that Nidus wasn't stupid. It was incredibly intelligent. Something Kuro was keeping in mind.

The creature asked how they could be trusted to not exterminate their species. Kuro exhaled, keeping the chakra stored. It was an acquired technique, though he remembered not how he had mastered it. With controlled breath, he answered.

"I am a straightforward person. I feel no need to lie to you. From the situation as it is now, you have two choices. The first is to retaliate. If you do, we will kill you. We would be left with no other option. The second is to submit to our terms, and trust that we mean what we tell you. I will not waste time assuring you further."

"The first option guarantees that we will do anything in our power to kill you. The second option gives you the possibility that we will not. The best choice cannot be made simpler." Again, Kuro wasn't great at convincing. He was blunt, and honest when he wasn't directed to be otherwise.

The creature and translator listened as the two conversed, and Nidus tilted his head at the words that Kuro spoke.  Neither one of them seemed to move, and the translator was silent initially.  

//Their response is predictable.  They have potential for understanding, but are unrefined.  They are acting on the individual and limited knowledge that each one possesses.  She probably still does not realize that she was the first human we encountered.  Be careful of that one; she is not quick to understand.  This unit seems unrelenting, but more reasonable.  Not ideal, but understandable given the circumstance.  

The translator began to blink a few times, glancing around at the area and surveying all that was going on.  Was he getting an idea of his surroundings?  Was he looking for something?  

//Is it possible they are unaware of the roots sent out to take hold?  Perhaps, but even if that is true, they will soon be discovered.  Ensure each one finds a safe place to begin cultivation.  Do not expect levels of hostility to decrease, but do not agitate them further.  Be prepared to consume the first human in the case that my life is threatened, and build our roots.  

Eventually the translator looked back to Kuro and spoke plainly.  "What are your terms?"

Kuro straightened. He wasn't letting his guard down, but Tesla was there to assist him. Perhaps she was trying to earn some loyalty. It was a wonderful start. He stared down Nidus and his acquired translator. For Nidus to be part of a hive mind, there had to be more of him. And they could be on the planet as well. "A cease-fire. You will cease all activity, and come willingly with us. We will contain you for transport. We will take you to an isolated area where you can safely live while we determine if we can find a way for you to coexist. You are not the first extraterrestrial being we have accepted onto the planet. You will not be the last."

"Your capabilities will be assessed, and afterwards, we will do everything in our power to assure that you can either be integrated, or provided transport. We will do all of this for you if you cease all invasive activities, and all of you submit to containment."