Xb sighs as he flicks his tail. He's been confined in Hypno's squid tank for a few days now and it's getting pretty cramped. Although he is set to move over to Xisuma's abandoned combat arena sometime soon.

The hermits have been working together to make it a nicer place to live in for a while until they can come up with a solution.

They had put a roof in and placed a floor partway in the water so if he wants he can pull himself out of the water for a while.

Footsteps sound from nearby so Xb swims up to the surface to greet the person.

It's Biffa, "Hey Xb, how's it going today?"

"I'm fine, it's just I can't move around in here," Xb softly admits.

"Well, I think you'll be happy to know you'll be moved over to Xisuma's today."

Xb smiles softly, "That's good."

"Can you move your fins for me?" Biffa asks.

Laughing Xb complies and flicks his fins, "I've got that down."

"That you do," Biffa agrees. He sits on the edge of the tank and sits with him for a few more minutes.

After a while, Xisuma walks in his tail swishing, "I come with good news. We're going to move you in a few minutes.

Xb's face breaks into a shark-toothed grin. As the others bustle around getting everything together. Xb is pulled out of the water and Impulse inspects his scales and fins one last time.

After a few minutes, Xisuma takes his hand and they disappear to the jungle. They land with a soft splash on a shallow ledge. Xb chitters softly as he looks around.

The area looks nice and has lots of water plants. Flicking his tail in the water Xb talks with Xisuma as the others show up.

"Ok, Xb can you roll into the big pool?" Xisuma asks as Xb slinks partway under the water.

He nods and rolls off the platform and grips the edge. He flicks his tail and gently ducks under the water.

As he lets go he sinks under the water. It's the first time he's been fully submerged without any sort of panic or being squashed. It's really nice actually.

Nothing but the calm water encasing him. Xisuma nods and Xb lets go of the ledge. He flicks his tail experimentally and accidentally rolls over.

Squinting his eye he flicks his tail again with the same result. He stops and takes a moment to feel the water, "Right, fins," He murmurs to himself.

This time when he flicks his tail he moves forwards. Grinning he swims forward. When he reaches the wall of the arena he tucks his fins in as he flicks his tail and turns. Deciding to try something a bit more intense he kicks hard as he swims back.

He's fast, slowing down is a different problem entirely. Panickally he wriggles around and stops. As he comes to the surface he smiles up at the others who had gathered.

Impulse is sitting on the ground a ways away from the edge of the water. The others are standing a bit closer.

"Is this good?" Xisuma asks, he's sitting on the edge with his tail dipping into the water.

"It's awesome," Xb says.

Biffa grins as he sits next to the water, "You picked swimming up really fast."

Nodding Xb puts his arms upon the ledge and sets his head on his arms. Hypno walks over and sits next to him. He gently pokes at his horns a bit.

"How are you doing?" Hypno asks gently.

Sighing Xb slumps over, "I don't know, I just want to be normal again."

Hypno places his hand on Xb's face and gives him a hug, "We're all here for you if you need us."

With a sad smile, Xb leans on to his arms. The whole thing has been getting to his head and he's been having a pretty hard time. The others try to help, but the size difference is a constant reminder.

Doc had put a switch on the back of his communicator that would make a screen that fits his size. It was a kind gesture that Xb never even thought of.

Xisuma's voice draws him from his thoughts. He looks up and spots the admin looking at him with his deep green eyes, "Xb, you with us bud?"

Shaking his head Xb blinks at Xisuma, "Sorry, what did you say?"

"It's ok, if you look over here we've made you a bedroom."

Swallowing hard, Xb looks up at Xisuma, his eye welling with tears, "Thank you."

"Hey, it's alright," He murmurs, he flicks his tail, shooing the others away. Biffa stays and kneels down next to him.

Biffa smiles and gently pats his shoulder, "There's an opening over in the corner, can you swim over to the box over there?" He asks as he points to a large concrete box over in one corner of the arena.

Xb nods and swims up, when he emerges he's in a tall room half-filled with water the half without water has different areas with different things. Places for the others to stand and furniture that's been scaled up so he can use it.

Underwater there's a hammock that has a Collection of different large pillows and a huge bean bag. Letting himself sink into the bean bag, he wraps himself in the large blanket that was placed on the bag.

Looking at the walls Xb spots a small seam. The now apparent Redstone door opens up to reveal a glass wall that Xb can see Xisuma and Biffa through. From his bundle on the bean bag, he grins.

Even though it's still early in the day Xb yawns and nestles down into the bean bag. He hasn't had a blanket or bed since this started so he quickly falls asleep. Completely snuggled down into the bean bag he smiles softly in his sleep.

It's a bit weird waking up underwater. The glass wall was covered with concrete again. Wiggling out from his blankets he swims up to the surface. When he reaches the surface he looks out the big window. It's early in the morning. Poking his head out he spots something new in the room.

"It's another bean bag?" Xb wonders as he looks over.

"Yeah, Xisuma thought you could use one up here as well," Biffa explains.

Xb pulls himself partway out of the water and sits on the edge of the water, "I can hang out with you guys," Xb chirps happily.

Biffa smiles, "Do you want pancakes or waffles?"

He hums for a moment before answering, "Waffles."

Nodding Biffa turns away for a moment and starts making the waffles. After a while, the food is done and they eat.

Once Xb has dried off he pulls himself onto the bean bag. Since this one is dry Biffa walks over and sits down near him, they sit and talk for a few hours.

As Xb swims back out to the main area he flicks his tail as he spots Keralis grinning down at him. As he swims up to the surface he smiles softly.

Keralis gasps; it's the first time he'd ever seen Xb since everything had happened, "Your scales are so pretty," He gushes as his wings flare out a little. Since his eyes can see more details and the light seems to bounces off things differently for him so Xb's tail glitters in the light.

Xb smiles a bit sheepishly and ducks back under the water for a moment, "Thanks."

Smiling Keralis buzzes and gently punches Xb's shoulder. The small spikes on top of his head bristle slightly as some orange scales stand on end. Instinctively Xb puffs himself up slightly as Keralis jerks his hand away.

Blinking Xb pokes at his arm a little, "Uhh, sorry."

"No no no," Keralis says as he carefully pats Xb's shoulder, "It's not your fault."

"I'm like a pufferfish," Xb gasps as he realizes.

Keralis nods, "If you think you're in danger you puff up," his eyes seem to brighten before he continues, "Your skin must be pretty stretchy."

Laughing a little Xb agrees, he hadn't puffed up very much. It was just enough to make him look bigger than he really is.

"It's pretty weird that you have a response like that," Keralis hums.

"What? Why?"

"It's a prey response," Keralis explains, "Things normally only evolve like that when being actively hunted."

"Aren't we though?" Doc asks as he walks over, "The meteor is hunting us down, picking one of us off at a time."

The spines that were slowly starting to deflate, puff back, "Was that really necessary?"

Doc freezes, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Xb squeaks, after a few minutes he deflates and lets Doc poke his skin. Which did actually stretch a lot more than normal.

Xb slips back underwater and starts swimming around, he'd only swam around a little bit yesterday before he fell asleep.

Flicking his tail he swims towards the bottom of the tank, something's glittering amongst the coral. It turns out to be a sea lantern. Fascinated he swims around it and gently touches it. It's pleasantly warm, settling down on the sand Xb realize something. The ground is warm.

After a moment of pushing the sand around, he realizes why there is a layer of magma blocks hidden under the sand. That's why the water isn't too cold, Xb smiles to himself. He's glad to have such good friends.

He lays down on the soft sand and looks around. Having the time to look at his surroundings he can fully appreciate the way the other made the arena for him. Currently, he's in a small coral reef, and that transitions into a kelp forest with lots of tall plants. Glowstone, sea lanterns, and sea pickles had been scattered around. There's an area with no plants that is surrounded by seagrass swaying softly.

Seeing a flash of movement Xb snaps his head over. There's fish in the tank. He flicks his tail as he swims after the brightly colored Tropical fish.

Blowing a stream of bubbles out of his mouth he watches as the school of tropical fish swims around. It's fun to watch and he settles on a stone outcropping and watches as they swim.

Every so often a fish will swim a little to close and he'll swim after it. He realizes that it is a bit weird to chase the fish but, it's also weird that he's twice his normal size and half fish so it evens out.

One fish; a cod, swims up to him. Xb stays perfectly still as it draws near. Once it's in range he darts forwards and grabs the fish in his teeth.

Spluttering he spits the fish out and swims back to the surface.

Doc gently pats his head, "Don't drop it next time."

"I'm more concerned with the fact that I just tried to eat a raw fish."

Xisuma wanders over, he had finished some work around his base and was stopping by to hang out for a while, "That reminds me, how are you eating?"

Xb shrugs, "I don't know, it's complicated. I can eat meat just fine but if I eat too much of anything else my stomach hurts."

"What do you mean by, too much?" Doc asks as he motions for XB to swim into his room.

Once everyone has settled Xb sinks into his bean bag as Doc places a blanket over him.

"So uh, it only happens if I eat more than like a bowl worth of each non-meat thing," Xb tries to explain, "I don't really have measurements for anything."

Xisuma pulls his notebook out and starts scribbling notes down, "I might have an idea, you probably need a lot more protein, and since you don't have many options for plants and other things you're probably really good at processing that stuff."

Doc nods, "That could be it."

Xb groans and pushes his head down onto the bean bag. His tail flicks as he rolls over, "That's just fantastic."

Frowning, Xisuma walks over and hugs him, Doc joins a moment later. He does his best to hug him as well as possible with the size difference.

After a while, Doc curls up next to Xb and falls asleep.

Smiling softly Xisuma explains, "You know he doesn't sleep enough with the meteor active. His creeper side took over and well, He's sleeping."

Xb smiles and fully lays down, Xisuma joins a moment later. Before long all three are asleep. They are awoken by the sounds of a camera clicking softly.

Xisuma and Doc are up in an instant, Doc hissing at the disturbance and Xisuma growling quietly.

From the startle, Xb puffs himself up showing his spines. He looks up and finds a guilty-looking Jevin, Wels, and Biffa.

"Uh hi," Wels says as he waves.

"Sorry about that," Jevin laughs.

Biffa shakes his head, "You can puff up?"

"Yeah," Xb laughs as he looks at his hands.

"That is a hazard," Doc desids, "Do you have a sponge?"

"I do," Xisuma says slowly, "Why would he need that?"

Wels answers, "Most sea animals with spines are toxic."

Xb once again buries himself in his blanket, "Wonderful."

The others smile softly and get a sponge. They cut it up into smaller bits. Xb lets them stick them on his spines. He's kind of annoyed about the whole being affected thing and finding out that he probably has some sort of toxin, so his spikes refuse to deflate.

The others sit around him and talk to him. After a while, he's calmed down and he starts to deflate. The others realize the sponges probably aren't going to stay put a moment too late. The sponges shoot off in every direction. Most bouncing harmlessly off of whatever they hit. One smacks Jevin in the face and gets sucked into his slime.

He starts laughing as Wels pulls him over to a chair. Pulling his communicator out he sends a message in chat.

IJevin: "I've got a sponge stuck in my head

RenDog: Oh is that a song?

IJevin: No literally, [Open Image]

RenDog: Rip dude.

The image shows Jevin's head with a small bit of sponge stuck inside, Wels can be seen on the other side.

Wels shoves his hand into Jevin's head and with a squelching sound pulls the chunk of sponge out.

"Sorry," Xb grins, "I didn't think that would happen."

Jevin waves him off, "It fine it happens."

They hang out for a bit, just talking and messing around. After a while, he's left alone. It really doesn't matter to Xb, he's happy to have a little alone time.

Looking at his face he frowns, he looks weird, he's supposed to haw two eyes. The shark-like teeth and scales he doesn't mind too much, they look pretty cool. The tail is pretty cool but it does make it impossible to move around on land.

A small chitter draws his attention over to a small form floating in the air, "Hey Scar."

"Hi, Xb," The vex waves, "Dang I feel tiny."

"Sorry, this is weird."

"Yeah, but your scales look amazing."

"Thanks, this whole thing is messing with my head," Xb admits.

"I get it," Scar murmurs as he lands on his shoulder, "We didn't get lucky with the whole transformation part."

Xb looks down at his tail, "No we didn't"

Scar takes a deep breath, "The Vex have an offer for you. They can give you the option of being in this form, or a human-sized one with legs. There will be side effects."

Inhaling sharply Xb answers, "Maybe, what kind of side effects?"

A different Vex pops into the visible spectrum, "Smart, I like you. The side effects will be, you'll need more water, you will have to shift into your current form every so often, and a few other things."

Squinting at the Vex Xb asks, "Other things?"

"Nothing bad we promise, we cant tell you everything. Also, we will have to do the spell after the meteor goes dormant, he has enough magic to undo our work."