Charlie was a miner who was offered a large payment for two weeks of digging at a top secret underground facility. This facility was very deep beneath the Earth studying a shadow biosphere existing in the molten rock below. The miners they brought in to dig weren't really getting paid at all, none survived the two weeks and they were all erased from records by the government. Charlie had a bizarre fate, however. After the tunnel gave out beneath him he found himself gravely injured and lost in a tunnel system he was unaware of. He didn't think to begin with the map he was given was complete and assumed there were other tunnels but these he had found looked different, and they looked fresh. He was only able to walk for awhile before he collapsed from his injuries and the overwhelming heat of the deep Earth. He should have died there but inexplicably the creatures who had created the tunnels he found saved his life. Somehow the twin armored worms which he came to call Forge Worms formed a symbiotic bond with him and their bodies were permanently linked with his. They became his digestive system, allowing him to take energy from the rock and other materials they consumed. This energy could heal his wounds and make him larger and superhumanly powerful, something that also turned his skin blue. They could also use their immense inner heat offensively as well. With a newly formed empathic link between them Charlie helped the twins destroy the base. He gave the staff enough time to escape before it collapsed but when they left his fellow miners behind he was forced to save them, making a tunnel all the way to the surface. He sarcastically reminded them of their secrecy agreements and trusted none of them to tell what had happened to him. He intended to go make a new interesting life for himself since he had no family or friends to go home to and could sense the curiosity of his new companions about this strange new world above. There was so much new for them to taste.
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