. "Hi," Adam said.
"Hi," Gramps went ahead and said as well.
Adam and Gramps became visible.
No one looked at Gramps, though.
They looked only at Adam.
And no one except for Gramps was prepared for what they saw.
Because what they saw was hideousness personified.
He "stood" six feet tall. His coloration was snot green and mud gray. In a weird way, Trevor thought that Adam looked like a guy who'd been turned completely inside out so that now his insides were his outsides. Trevor saw huge, ropy veins. He saw what he thought might be organs. Fluid dripped from several different parts of his body. He had an orifice that could possibly be called a mouth, and Trevor saw two eyes, but they were nowhere near where eyes would normally be, and they didn't match up much together at all. One eye spun wildly. He had two arms, but only one of his hands had fingers. He had only one and a half legs. He couldn't just walk. He had to push himself along on his one good leg. A tree branch protruded from his chest like an arrow. A boulder made up a good portion of his right hip. Everyone in that cavern who was still conscious paused. The algrim, The Valids, Egoneg, Valtair, Trevor, Adam Adama, they all paused to gaze at this horrifying monstrosity that Adam Forwarder had become.
And then they began to fight anew.
With renewed intensity, in fact.
Because they now had something visible and substantial to fight for, to fight over.
And that something was Adam Forwarder, in the flesh.
So they went at it.