Inves Thirst

**Inves Thirst** is the thirty-sixth episode of Season 2 and the eighty-sixth episode overall of the Neo Alliance series.

## Synopsis

Xenos and his battalion are experimenting on the Inves the Legion captured, but what they did will lead to Horus' question in his place in the Legion and his fate.

## Plot

In Xenos' lab, he bemoans his current situation, having to compete with failing over for his own goals and no-one willing to help him. His whining is interrupted by moans from captured Inves, who are strapped to tables and trying to get free. DA-1122 injects them with a sedative needle. The compound drives the Inves into a rage, which DA-1122 notes is they might be attempting to fight the sedative in their internal organs. Xenos sees in the Inves' fury the makings of a super-soldier for the Legion of Horus.

Xenos attempts to inform Horus of this discovery, but Horus is only interested in discussing the status of the Legion's current forces with Gaisorg, who is reporting in from their private location. Brushed off by his leader as unimportant, Xenos sulks on his way back to the lab.

Ravage and the other Inves becomes more enraged with each new experiment and recent with using Zombozo's blood is making them more uncontrollable. Xenos cannot see the use of having another unruly beasts that can't be controlled, but then has an idea: Horus' Blood. DA-1122 finally objects, noting that the "Blood of Hellings" is actually belongs to Horus for unknown reasons, and that he would need approval from either Gaisorg, Infinite or even Horus in any case. Xenos assures the doctor that a controlled, minimal injection will merely place the Inves under Horus's command, via their leader's symbiotic link with the substance, then forces him as his leader of his own battalion and which if they succeed, all the others in the Legion of Horus will bow to them.

Under orders and under protest, DA-1122 injects the Inves with the Horus' blood-enhanced formula. The Inves temporarily faints before waking up in a rage and breaking free from his and the others' bonds. But after only a few steps, they crumbles to his knees, then flies out of the lab, breaking the roof.

Summoner and Zombozo were out patrolling and discussing about the forest in the World of Sengoku is perfect for hiding when they plan to destroy the United Empires. They suddenly hear a noise and notices the escaped Inves. Then with a fierce roar, their lower jaw splits into monstrous mandibles and a long, bladed tongue emerges, which he attempts to use on Summoner to drain him. Summoner summoned skeletons to stop them but they get easily infected by the Inves. Zombozo uses Infectious Breath on them, but also failed. Unable to subdue them, Summoner and Zombozo flee from them and back to the ship.

Back at the lab, DA-1122 suggests sounding the alarm. Xenos disagrees, not wanting Horus to learn of their actions. He claims that once the Inves attempts to feed upon the Legion's highly-trained DarkArmoras, they will take care of the threat.

Elsewhere, one of the DarkArmoras stumbles upon Ravage, who grabs the highly-trained soldier and begins draining his life.

Summoner and Zombozo were discussing about the situation when they find the DarkArmora's corpse instead. While the two argue about who's to blame for the situation, the dead DarkArmora is reanimated by Inves plants, Zombozo's and Horus' blood in its body and reveals the same segmented jaw and bladed tongue that the Inves had. Summoner picks up the DarkArmora's crossbow nearby and opens fire but is only able to make the DarkArmora stagger, and Zombozo suggests destroying the DarkArmora's head, inspired by World of Horrors movies. Though it is successful in decapitating the creature, it doesn't stop it in the least, as the body lumbers forward with the tongue sticking out of the hole where the head used to be. A concentrated volley of blasts to the DarkArmora's chest destroys the monster's center, severing its link to the Inves and the blood.

Zombozo posits that Ravage could infect the entire force stationed here in the same manner, a theory that's borne out when they find themselves pursued by multiple infected DarkArmoras. Summoner and Zombozo loses them and hid themselves behind in a rock to get a breather and assess the situation. Accepting that this may be the end, the two Legionnaires exchange some awkward final pleasantries and step back to fight the zombies but suddenly…

…They are found by some DarkArmoras who tells him to go back to the base. They ran right into Horus, who is forcing DA-1122 to tell him why the blood in his body has been acting strangely as of late. Xenos provides a slanted explanation, but Horus doesn't believe it until he's forced to destroy an attacking DarkArmora.

After a more extensive debrief of the situation, Horus puts the ship on high alert and orders Summoner and Zombozo to seek and destroy the Inves. On the way, Zombozo complains that despite not sending Xenos to fix his mistake in case he could make things worse, but he thinks that the both of them are no match for the Inves and suggests sending the Darkahemoths which Summoner objects thinking that the Darkahemoths can be infected. Around the forest, DarkArmoras and Demon DarkArmoras battle the infected DarkArmoras.

Ravage finds himself out of the forest and finds a camp fort set by the United Empires. When he goes there, he was spotted by the Kurokage Soldiers and gets killed by them before getting the chance to infect them. Then they saw blaster fire inside the forest.

Summoner and Zombozo discover Ravage's corpse. Summoner is elated until Zombozo points out the camp fort now sending some Kurokage Soldiers to investigate, followed by Horus demanding a status update.

The Kurokage Soldiers moves inside the forest and investigate. Upon their way, they saw the infected DarkArmoras and the other two Inves and kills them instantly. Summoner and Zombozo runs back to Horus and orders evacuation. All the survivors run back to the ship abandoning the forest.

At the fort, a Kurokage Soldier informs Team Cross and Gaim about the situation. Gaim orders them to destroy the forest in case the Inves or the Legion of Horus comes back and hide there.

Aboard the DarkArmora Star Warship, Horus contacts Gaisorg again to inform him they're implementing his containment protocol to prevent further outbreak. He also tells Gaisorg to speed up the production of DarkArmoras, as they have now lost more than half their military forces. DA-1122 is sternly reminded that he and the rest of Xenos' Battalion is supposed to follow under everyone but Xenos' command, and is forced to disband the battalion and have them join other battalions. Horus then turns to Xenos, intent on teaching him a lesson the only way that seems to get through to him.

## Characters

* Cross Winguard (hologram)
* Whizaru Techava (hologram)
* Eyes (hologram)
* Icea Frostheart (hologram)
* Horus Hellfire
* Xenos
* Summoner
* Zombozo
* Ravage
* Gaisorg (mentioned)
* DA-1122
* Gaim (hologram)
* Thorn (mentioned)
* Winter (mentioned)
* United Empires Kurokage Guard
* Infinite (mentioned)
* Ali (mentioned)
* Jackson Skull (mentioned)

## Events

* Outbreak Within the Legion of Horus (started and concluded)