Go hot.

The buzzing intensified, small mayfly-like golgothi flying out of the darkness at the five of you. The volley of gunfire that followed was pure reflex. A swarm of the tiny fliers erupted out of the darkness, swirling around your group, long flexible abdomens flicking forward to sting the dickgirls repeatedly. Myong naturally gets the worst of it, swatting and screaming as the bugs surrounded her naked body before her resistance became sluggish and she slid bonelessly to the ground. The rest of you don't fair much better.

You yourself are stung innumerable times on your exposed lower half, a handful of particularly painful stings landing on your soft dick. They feel like needle pricks but they don't hurt for more than a fraction of a second, a spreading numbness deadening any lasting pain. You don't realize it's making it hard to move until your legs simply give out, dropping you on the ground where the bugs venom slowly works its way to through the rest of you and renders you paralyzed.

Choe is the last to go down, fighting like a crazed animal to keep the little aliens from stinging her, but eventually she's overwhelmed and drops next to you. You see the fear in her eyes as the two of you lie face-to-face on the floor of the alien-infested sewer, unable to move or resist as the bugs crawled all over you.

It also offers you a terrifying mirror image of what the bugs are doing to you, something you probably would have been spared thanks to the numbing toxin if you'd only faced the other way. The little aliens are superficially like mayflies but their grey bodies are soft and a little slimy, numerous curling tentacles in place of where antennae and eyes would be. They skitter about on Choe's clothes and face, seemingly searching for something with their feelers.

One bug finds her nose, pausing and slipping its feelers into one of her nostrils. She doesn't seem to notice as first its head, then the rest of its body slips inside her nose, its long prehensile tail the last part to vanish inside. More follow suit, vanishing inside Choe's paralyzed face. Then one found her ear. Your eyelid twitches as you watch its grey form vanish into her head, not re-emerging. Choe's eyes are wide, staring directly at you and you realize with horror that the same things were probably happening to you.

The two of you are frozen like that until the numbness seems to seep into your brain and you black out.

"AAAAHH!" You scream yourself awake some time later, clawing at your skin to rid yourself of the crawling sensations across it. It takes you a few moments before you realize the bugs are no longer surrounding you and even then, the feeling is slow to dissipate. You curl into a ball, heedless of the dirty ground on your bare backside.

The others are still splayed out where they fell, hundreds of tiny red prick-marks across their exposed skin testament to the horrifying experience. You wiggle a finger in your ear, noting that it does feel a little sore, but it seems normal. You snort and wiggle your nose: everything seemed in order.

Choe was the first to scream herself awake after you and after a moment of letting her adjust and feeling sorry for yourself, you go over and gently wrap your arms around her huddled form. She sobs against you as the others each awaken the same way you had. You felt like you should comfort them but you couldn't bring yourself to leave Choe. She seemed so distressed and helpless compared to her usual cool demeanor. And she smelled... really, really good...

"Kim?"

You blink, realizing that you've been nuzzling her neck for who knows how long. You release her hurriedly, "Sorry! I don't... Sorry." She gave you an odd look but seemed more stable than she'd been when she'd first awoken. The others were huddled together, staring off into space, hands oddly caressing one another.

"Hey!" They jumped as Choe spoke up, getting shakily to her feet, "We have to keep moving."

Moon laughs anxiously, "D-didn't you feel them?! Crawling, feeling, squirming-" SMACK.

Choe slapped her across her face, "Focus. We can't stop here or it'll happen again, we have to get back to the burn zone."

Moon blinked away tears but nodded shakily after a moment, Myong and Narm helping her to her feet. They looked worse for wear, eyes wide and staring, but they hefted their weapons and followed as Choe pushed forwards.

The grey roots continue to thicken, carpeting most of the walls and ceiling, despite which you start to feel a lot better as you push onwards. You stay close to Choe, still feeling oddly protective of her considering hers was the will that was driving the group onwards. You'd thought you had a crush on Captain Lee but at this moment you felt a much stronger pull towards Choe. Funny how combat makes you think.

The little red marks are fading quickly and you can see that the others are beginning to lose their shell-shocked looks. Maybe it was just a temporary thing? You were pretty sure that wasn't how PTSD worked but you didn't want to jinx it. You were all grouped closer together while somehow managing not to get in each others way. It was like you just had a feel for where they were at any given moment. Must be the bond of fighting together.

You come to a crossroads of tunnels, splitting off in three different directions. The one to your left is more brightly lit, you can actually see its entire length until it makes a turn in the far distance. The one on your right would take you in the direction of the burn zone. The path forward is positively choked with grey roots, barely passable by the looks of it. A sweet smell wafts through the alien obstruction and you feel certain this would take you take you towards the heart of the growing tower. You would have discounted that path immediately but... you feel an oddly powerful pull towards it.