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A New Life in a New Body: Consequences

"Well, are we ready?" The former Secretary of Defense asked.

Nodding the turtle on the control panel started a countdown. When he reached one every commercial satellite in the nation was hijacked. "Hello, my name is Jerry Finn, the former Secretary of Defense." He let viewers take that in and his new appearance as a golden cheetah before continuing, "Two days ago the government, our government, tried to have me killed for the crime of becoming something which I can't help. I was saved by one of the members of what has become known as the 'Furred Rebellion. I am here to tell you that the single nation that this world has been united under since their emergence seventeen years has been lying to you. We are not monsters, we are not out to eat your children. Many here have children of their own, they are happy normal children, they simply have fur or scales, and occasionally are born human.

The soldiers who are sent after us have no clue why they are being sent into suicide missions, because only the willing of our kind are sent on rescue missions. Those willing few are those that are among the top trained former human agents in the world. They are not defined by their looks, they are defined by their personality and their skills learned at the hands of the government that has been lying to you. Think on these facts, and on the names that we are going to have scrolling across this screen after I go off the air. These are the names of all those that have turned and they loved ones they lost because they turned, or because the military killed their loved ones."

******** Sherri

Taking the transmitter that Roslyn had brought I rewired it and managed to get the mountain on the other side of the connection. "Get me Cryptid."

"This is Cryptid, something you need Vodka?" he responded.

"Officer Walk is alive, and he's about to meet McSkinzie at the Red Rum hotel." I knew he would understand the old code names for the torture center at the outskirts of Harrison Ford. The old western ghost town was the government location for all off the record prisoners. But of course there was always a record somewhere.

"Care to verify location?" he said, "I think there might be some interference."

"For fucks sake, you know exactly where I'm talking about, 37.8777° N, 111.8666° W. Heaven and Hell northwest damnit, get here within two hours or I will move on my own." Disconnecting I knew he would be here in an hour after Lisa told him about the helos.

******** Kristopher 29 years ago

I hate shopping, just like a lot of other people do. But my reasons are different, I'm much better at reading people's thoughts now and I have a much harder time keeping them out. Seeing an old face I tried to turn away but he had already noticed me. It was Mr. Darcy, upon seeing me he said "Kristopher! How good to see you again, it's been what, two years?"

Nodding I said "Yes sir, back when you visited for jobs day at school. How have you been?" I didn't really care but it was polite, but his thoughts were odd. 'Don't think about it, how soft, how luxurious, NO! Don't think about it! I might accidentally say something!' Of course the harder you try not to think about something the more it comes to the surface.

"That's right, crazy that fight that broke out huh?" He was trying to avoid thinking about it by thinking about our past, but then his thoughts kept looping back, almost as if thinking about me reminded him about whatever he was trying to forget.

Nodding I said "Well it was inevitable, there is always conflict, and with teen hormones on the rampage something was bound to happen. It was just regrettable that someone got shot before it ended. So how have you been recently?" I repeated my question and the wall he had managed to build crumbled and he mentally sputtered, 'Why does he keep asking that, it's almost like he knows I'm trying to avoid recent events, like how very blue her eyes were... NO! Get back evil thoughts!' Evil thoughts? Had he converted to Catholicism and was thinking about a hooker?

"Great, classes are boring since you left, no one has ever gotten into as much trouble as you and been such a good student at the same time." 'Yes, think about the students, they're always a turn off, I don't understand how perverts who like girls under the age of sixteen exist, before then they still look like infants practically with how little they know of the world.' Turn offs?

"Do you go to church? I found a great one recently, quite an amazing pastor." I lied easily and it brought the answer to his mind before he started talking, 'Church huh, well there is another turn off, so this will be an easy way to forget about how tight... NO! DAMN IT! Nuns, and priests raping little boys, those are good safe things to think about.' Priests raping little boys, strange thoughts you have there Mr. Darcy.

"No, I don't, never been much for church myself, too much judgement. I never expected you to be one for a 'higher power' belief system." 'It is strange, he has so many problems in his life, how can he believe that there is some guiding force behind it all, I mean just to get by his m... FUCK!' My m? Does he mean my Mom?

"Oh yes, and it's really helped my mom as well, you just have to believe that things will get better." If she's who he meant, 'Bullshit, I fucked her so hard last night that she fainted from pleasure, she sees more men a night than porn movies get watched on the net...' I couldn't listen anymore, I pulled back my fist and punched him as hard as I could, before he could ask what the hell I said "You fucked my mother! How dare you think she's a whore!" Punching him again I just started whaling at his skull, I felt it turn wet and sticky from blood, but I didn't stop, I felt a bone in my right hand break but I kept going. Finally I felt his skull cave in, and I still kept going until he didn't have a face or even teeth anymore. His skull was spread across at least four feet from the force of all the impacts. As I stopped I realized what I had done, in the middle of the store no less. And yet I was calm, no one had bothered to stop me. Then I felt the shock, and everything went black.

******** Hours have gone by as these officers have questioned me again and again, I didn't give them any decent answers and finally the big one snapped.

"Listen you little shit, you killed a man in cold blood for a reason!" His thoughts were simple, mostly, then I found it, 'I want to end this already so I can go fuck that cute blond who was flirting with me that the bar last night, I hope my wife doesn't find out that the after hours work I've been pulling is plowing young co-eds.

"Fine, if you're so interested in cheating on your wife with that hooker feel free, don't let me keep you." I saw the shock on his face as he backed off, but this set off his partner.

"How dare you speak to an officer of the law with such slander!" He looked ready to hit me and I found his as well, 'Gotta keep control, I can't ruin another case by roughing up the suspect, even in an open shut case like this. I'll lose my job if another case goes wrong like that.'

"Oh, feel free to hit me, the last time you did that worked so well after all. That was the Simmons case right, where that suspected serial killer got off scot free because you beat him up in this very interrogation room, there was blood pooling around his feet when your partner finally pulled you off." I saw his eyes go wide as well, both of them immediately left, maybe they would stay gone, but I could still feel theirs and all the other minds around me.

Closing my eyes I let my sixth sense expand, I could hear the people in their cells, one was a murderer who had been caught speeding but they still didn't know that. Another was brought in for killing his wife when she filed their taxes wrong. Snapping my eyes open I looked at the door, why couldn't I feel this mind, whoever they were I knew they were just on the other side of the door and arguing with the two detectives. The door opened and I saw not one but three people whose minds I couldn't read, "Who the hell are you lot?"

"We're here to take you away Kristopher." The first one was tall, bald, and very pale.

The second was a little shorter and very tan with closely cropped blond hair, "You don't want to be stuck in prison do you?"

"I'm fifteen, they wouldn't." I said arrogantly, what the hell made these men immune?

"Our earpieces, you were wondering what made us immune to your mental intrusions correct?" It was the third one, he was much shorter and a bit rounded, he looked like a normal middle aged techie.

I knew he hadn't read my mind, even if I couldn't read theirs I was certain that I would know if they had read mine, "I'm not the first you've met obviously, but none of you are, of that I'm certain. So what do you want with me."

"We'll help you understand that ability of yours." They all said this, it was almost as if they had rehearsed it.

******** 22 years ago

'He's too gifted, we can't let him out anymore. We need to end this experiment now.' Doctor Hale, he had always disliked me. I hadn't told them that I could read them past the blockers and that the sensors didn't work if I didn't want them to. They had made me into this and now they want to stop it, hell no.

I could hear their thoughts and what they were going to say, it made spying on them easy. 'Fool! He is our best test subject, if we are to meet our goals we need him.' That's what Doctor Xavara was saying, but her thoughts were very different, 'I hate to admit that Hale may be right, Kristopher has far exceeded expectations. There is no way that the readings on his mental usage are accurate, because if they are then he had far surpassed what we can block.

As the door opened I smiled and said "Hello Rodney, Jenifer, how are you today?"

Hale was exasperated but Xavara just smiled and said "Quite well Kristopher, would you kindly follow us, we have a few more tests to complete today." 'Will you show us another display of astonishing mental aptitude today?'

"Well of course, would that make you happy?" I answered in such a way as to seem like I was still just answering her first statement, but I could feel her her shock as she realized it could have answered her mental question as well.

The tests were quite typical, they were testing if my increased mental activity made me smarter as well, it did somewhat but this was more a matter of pulling the answers out of their minds. They were always surprised and making new tests, I wonder when they'll see through my act, but for now I just need to learn more so I can escape.

******** 17 years ago

'We can't put it off any longer with the emergence of those things, what if he's one with the marker?' Things, hmm, digging deeper I saw what he had seen, humanoid creatures, they had formerly been humans.

Xavara was still hesitating though, she liked me, more than she was supposed to. 'But he's always been so compliant, and so helpful to our continued success. He even told us four years ago that he could read past the old blockers. He has never been anything but kind to us, even though he has worked out every day we lock him in that cell and long ago could have just plowed his way out of the facility.'

'I'm putting him down, you aren't stopping me this time Xavara.' Hale entered at this point and I smiled saying "I'm sorry, I can't let you do that Rodney." Standing up I practically towered over him at 6'8". He lunged forward but I simply stepped aside and grabbed him by the collar, taking the needle I searched his mind for the exact use of the liquid, he tried to hide it but I knew it was a tranquilizer at a high enough dose that it would have killed me. Putting it into his neck I push the tiniest fraction of it our of the syringe. He went out like a light, putting him on the bed I said "I'm sorry Jenifer, he left me no choice, but I don't believe that small of an amount would have killed him."

As I turned I saw her standing there, she wasn't afraid even though I was a foot and a half taller than her and had just easily overpowered her colleague, "I'm sorry as well Kristopher, I tried to stop him, as it seems you heard, because I know something about you." I waited a moment but she obviously didn't want to say it aloud so I took the answer from her mind, 'You have the gene sequence we've identified as the cause for these new 'furred' beings.

Shaking my head I said "Don't be, if you'll please get me Doctor Hale's keys I'll leave peacefully, no one will get hurt and I'll find my own way to survive." She nodded and left for their office while I waited. I eventually put my hand on Hale's head and dug everything out of his mind, he wouldn't remember a single second of today or any of their experiments on me. He would be useless to them after today...

Hearing Jenifer's thoughts I walked into the hall and took from her the keys and clothes she had found that would manage to fit me. I couldn't very well walk out wearing patient's scrubs after all.

******** Klaw Present

Waking up I looked around and saw a tall thin blond man, he was familiar but it wasn't until I heard him speak that I recognized him. His voice made me feel like my skin was being peeled off. "Hello Kristopher Lee Alen Wayne, it has been so very long. Do you remember me?"

Shaking my head I realized I couldn't hear his or anyone else's thoughts, "Sorry but I don't, I do know you're called McSkinzie by others though."

Laughing he said "Sherri's nickname for me, she caused everyone to start calling me that, and I rather like it, but you know me as Rob, or Dick, you called me Dick at one point saying that my mother wasn't telling the nurses my name but begging for more dick. Do you remember me now?"

I knew he was amused by the shock that must have been painted on my face, he had been my childhood bully. What had turned him into the monster that Sherri had told me about, because he had disgusted even her.

******** Mike

As I got off the chopper I saw Sherri walk out from behind a nearby stone outcropping with Roslyn right behind her. "He's in there, the old Blood shack." She was wearing full combat gear, and Roslyn was wearing a small rucksack with a pair of strange metal half-circles on each side of her waist. She had two pairs of desert eagles, one pair on her thighs and the other right above the two half-circles.

"Glad to see you're both still intact, where is he exactly?" I asked.

Shaking her head Sherri said "That's right, you were never shown the inside of the center. He's in the bottom level. We're gonna end up fighting for every inch if we don't take out the nerve cluster." Tossing me a small handheld she said "The details of the place are in there, the nerve cluster is literally just that since that place is a living thing. Security is maintained by an experiment of thiers. If we take out the nerve cluster then the security falls back onto a 14 year old system."

"Then what? They aren't just going to have that, they aren't stupid, well not entirely," He said.

Smiling she said "No, they aren't. This is also the place where they made the third gens, the grown clone of our son is here for modification. They believe that between those two things security is impenetrable. And they're almost right, but how do you stop me?"

"You can't but now you can't stop me either. I'm not leaving you alone this time either. We'll do this together." I said.

"I haven't been alone, I've had someone I trust. So get what you need from the helo, we move out in twelve." Turning from me she started up the rock that she and Roslyn had stepped out from behind.

Sighing Roslyn walked over and I could see the almost invisible hitch in her step, "Sorry, you know her. Really you know her better than I do in a lot of ways."

"That is what worries me. Because I don't know her now, I knew her before, when she was more stable, when I came back she was completely different. Like different person different, she seems a bit more stable now but still, she's completely unpredictable." I said picking up the AA12 I had preserved from before I left, and a backpack full of 50 round drums.

Nodding she said "You have no idea..." Blushing a bright blue color for a moment she coughed and said "At any rate, she's taking lead and I'm not supposed to use my tail guns if I can help it. If you didn't know tail muscles pull a bit on the muscles around your ribs for lizards. We have a plan of sorts, but she won't tell me all the details."

"Just don't do anything stupid, we already have one loose cannon," I said, "Almost literally."

"Um, actually..." At this point she pointed to Sherri and I saw she was actually putting together a cannon on top of the rock, "Quite literally."

"Just don't die, I hate losing people. I've lost too many people in my life that I cared about. My squad was my family if they lived I was happy," I said.

"I may not have any gifts like the two of you but I'm still pretty hard to take down. And I won't be doing anything reckless really, I'm always cautious in true combat situations. I took down a third gen by keeping a level head after all." she said before drawing, cocking and leveling her rightside DE at my head, "I'm the eagle eating lizard after all."

Shouting at us Sherri asked "So are you two ready?"

"Alright, I still need to talk to you alone after this is over." I said, "Lets get this party started!"

At this point I saw her loading a heavy explosive payload into a thin metal shell and putting three of these into the cannon. Turning it back down and using several tools to aim it she lit the fuse and started cackling as she dropped down next to us. Half a second later there was a large boom as all three balls launched forward. Upon impacting with what looked like a town hall I saw a fireball far in excess of what would be needed to destroy a building from near a hundred years ago. As the smoke cleared there was a large crater where the building had stood and I saw jagged metal edges around the hole.

"I decided to err on the safe side of how strong the defenses were." She said calmly while starting down the hill. Shaking her head I saw Roslyn start off closely behind her.

"Thats great. At least we're being safe," I said.

"Well I didn't plant the explosives right there, we were well outside the minimum safe range. I'm reckless, not stupid. Oh, and you'll want this." As we passed another rock her tail went out and grabbed a rocket launcher which she then tossed my way without looking.

Catching it I asked, "What's this for?"

Shrugging she said "Dunno yet, but there are a number of areas in there big enough to use that. It was recommended to me that we bring that, so I found one and did."

Jogging up level with Sherri Roslyn asked "Recommended, by who, you haven't talked to anyone but me and him since you got back."

"Well, she didn't say to bring it, just sorta inferred, it's complicated." Sherri cryptically replied before starting into the crater.

"Well I hope she's right," I said, "we're here to save Klaw right?"

"Yeah, and kill that clone. It's an abomination of our son, it has no right to live." she said before coming up to the edge of the steel rimmed hole and stepping into the empty air. As I ran up I saw her land easily forty feet straight down in the midst of probably thirty soldiers which she proceeded to start killing.

Kneeling Roslyn brought out several cables and a micro lift. Pulling the struts and braces out she shoved it with pure force into the compacted dirt from the explosion and started running the cables through. Handing me a pair of links and then tying the cable through she did the same for herself before jumping off the edge. As I followed the micro lift grabbed at the links and then started slowly lowering me down the hole. I saw another two cables start lowering as well and realized they were for Klaw and Sherri when it came time to leave.

As we got to the floor Sherri was tossing aside a soldier and said "We've got the entry key." She held up a hand and an eyeball.

"Ok, Lets get going before we fall ass backwards into trouble," I said readying my AA12.

Moving over to the only door I saw she stepped up and held up the eye and placed the hand on the scanner. A synthetic voice said "369 pounds outside acceptable weight limits and 23 inches too short."

Growling Sherri stalked back over to us and started rooting around the soldiers until she came up with a taser. Popping it open she brought out several wires and hooked them up to the sides of each scanner. Placing the eye and hand again she twitched the taser and the voice seemed to sputter for a second before saying in a warped version of its former self "Welcome Mr. Brown." As the door slid open I saw Sherri twitch the taser again before stepping through the doorway.

Finishing checking the soldiers for any compatable clips Roslyn followed her through and asked "Couldn't you have just blown it up, wouldn't that have been faster?"

"Maybe, but now the nerve cluster is on edge. And explosion is predictable, sending a big enough surge through the scanners so that it couldn't tell the sensors were detecting the wrong person makes, no one can predict that." She said while looking at the camera recording us and smiling.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Roslyn asked as I came up behind them.

"Always!" She answered enthusiastically before flashing a hidden blade into the camera.

"You're fucking nuts, whats the plan?" I said.

"There are forty nine second gen sniffers here, be careful of them. The fifth floor down changes on its own every seventeen minutes and thirty eight seconds. The third floor is the basic holding cells. And the second floor is the nerve center. This floor is more or less the dorms." Sherri said without answering the question and turning down the left hall.

"Go to the right, meet up on the far side of this level, kill everyone you see so they can't overwhelm us later." Roslyn said before taking off to follow Sherri.

Going off down the other way a Sniffer came out of one of the rooms right in front of me. i swung the butt of my gun cracking him in the face and I knelt down and made sure his skull cracked open. Two more came over to check out the noise and I fired a round right into the closest one putting a fist sized hole in his chest. The other I ran up to again swinging the gun then pinning him against the wall he used to catch himself and fired three shots into him.

Moving further down the hall I put a hole in another's head by shoving the barrel in his throat. A knife flew into my leg, pulling it out quickly I used it against the Sniffer who threw it catching him in the jugular. Turning back around I almost got hit in the head by a round, quickly tuning I shot several rounds in her. A group of three came out and pinned me behind a wall and rolled a grenade towards me so I quickly kicked it back towards them. The ensuing blast killed one and injured the other two severely. I slammed my foot down on the throat of the one on the right and shot the other.

Another two emerged and thinking quickly I fired into each of their knees, effectively crippling them. walking up I fired another four rounds into their elbows. and as they lie there screaming in agony I shot them several more times, effectively silencing them. Reloading I surveyed the destruction behind me. "What a waste of life," I thought, "What do they think they're going to do? Kill me? Ha, I doubt it."

All of a sudden I felt and heard the sounds of rounds being fired off into my back. I felt at least fifteen shots going through me. When I came too I was rolled over facing up, satisfied with their work one of them kicked me in the side, as they walked away I slowly got up and drew the M72 L.A.W and extended the barrel.

"Hey fuckers, you missed!" I said.

"What in God's name, he was dead," the one on the left said as I fired. The resulting explosion...

******** Roslyn

Hearing an explosion I tried to get Sherri's attention but she was being entertained by messing around with a dozen sniffers that were all trying to kill her. Sighing I turned on the frequency scanner camera view she had given me and switched through all the possible cameras on this floor. Finding one with a view on Mike I saw he had apparently blown up the sniffers attacking him. Pulling out my left hand .45 DE I looked over and fired nine rounds, one bullet in the skull for each sniffer still alive. "Mike is maybe... never mind, apparently an explosion can't stop him either." I said seeing him get up.

Shrugging she said "Oh well, they were getting boring anyway, the three here that died before you did that had shot each other." I saw her looking around and mentally counting before she said "Twenty four dead, let's get to the elevator, the rest of them are over with Mike or down below..." I saw a sudden flash as a bullet went right past my shoulder, Sherri had in the time she noticed the sniper kneeling across the room drawn one of her kukri and deflected the bullet from being a hit before she had apparently put a knife through his eye at a hundred meters.

Laughing at the stupidity of going up against Sherri I said "Well, I suspect now the remaining ones are running for their lives."

Shrugging she started grabbing all of her knives and pulled her jo staff out the chest of a sniffer she had pinned to the wall with it. Checking the rifle from the sniper she quickly broke it down and said "Well, he should have better maintained his rifle, no point in using this thing now." As we got around to the elevator I saw Mike rounding the corner as well in a Sniffer uniform, before I could ask Sherri did, "What the hell did you do?"

"Took on a rocket," he said.

"I, wait, what!?" Sherri sputtered while I took in the fact that of the weapons he brought only the AA-12 was still intact.

"He fired the rocket you gave him point blank." I said before placing Sherri's hands on the elevator, "Now pull these open."

As she did so I let my fingers linger on hers before going to check on Mike, "So you completely heal from even a point blank explosion?"

"Apparently, hurt like hell though," he said, "You should try it sometime."

"No, getting hit by her in the ribs is risk enough for me thanks." I chuckled while pointing at Sherri.

"Hey! I held back, you were the one who wouldn't give up." Sherri said while forcing the doors open so hard they crumpled. "You haven't seen risk yet."

"Maybe we should show her risk later. No holds barred seeing as I can't die permanently." Mike said.

Cackling Sherri said "Now that sounds fun, I can't lose anymore and you can't die. So, are you two ready to find what they have planned in the floors below?"

"Well it beats standing up here and picking at my fur all day." he responded.

As Sherri stepped into the elevator shaft I handed Mike a pair of clips, "Make sure you keep these ones on you, they're the last pair I have for you." Latching onto the cord I slipped down and was surprised to see Sherri hanging onto the lip of the second floor doorway. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting." she was calm, composed, that manic edge she'd had for a few days was gone, at least for the moment. Right before I could ask what she was waiting for the doors slid open and she flipped upwards to land on the guy in the doorway and expanded her bo staff in the top of the elevator doorway. Looking down I realized she had cut the power to the elevator.

"We going to stand here all day, or are we going to get Klaw?"

"Technically we're hanging here." I said before swinging into the doorway and slipping the clips off the cord before I landed. "And if we don't deactivate, well, kill, the nerve center who knows what it can do to us on the lower levels. If you want to go down to the third level feel free, you'll need to find your way through there because this elevator can't go to the fourth level or below the third at all."

"Right welp, I'll see ya then," he said undoing the clip and dropped down the shaft, he landed with a loud resounding thud, and the unsettling crunch, "Ah, fuck, I'll be okay just need a minute!"

As I took another step and heard the floor squish under my boot. "Okay, that's disgusting."

Brushing her hair and knocking a glob of clear gunk out of it Sherri said "Yeah, I told you the nerve center was alive. It literally took over the second floor, there are very few people who work on this level and they're all scientists."

As we made our way through the gooey disgusting mess I noticed that it seemed to actually be moving towards us. The trees of nerve endings were moving in to try and trap us. There were small tendrils along the floor that Sherri was going out of her way to slice with her blades on the outer edges of her boots and with the kukri she held in her tail. Eventually they started moving out of Sherri's way and only came back when she was past. I felt one start to wrap around my ankle and began to raise my gun but Sherri was suddenly there and cutting it away her. "Don't use your guns, the heat will set off the defense mechanisms. These tendrils are just feelers, they're not even part of the sentient reasoning."

"Oh, how do you know about this place anyway, its a research center more than a military center. It only has Sniffers because they're the best protection outside of the agency." It just didn't make sense, she was soldier and survivalist through and through. But she was changing every moment before my eyes. I had fallen for her gradually as we worked together over the radio and seeing her, in all her arrogant brutally beautiful majesty, had just made me fall even further in love.

"This is where I was from the first time there was a problem with my pregnancy until I decided I was fed up with the experimenting. They're the ones that told me that I killed my son. They're the ones that stole him from me, and they are the ones who I will personally kill, slowly." To punctuate her statement she cut down one of the 'trees' surrounding us. All at once the tendrils and, well, flesh for lack of a better term, just started convulsing. There was muddy reddish goo coming out of the wound Dodging backward I felt a thicker tendril grab me around the waist before I saw Sherri just reach out and crush it. Pulling me free she tossed me gently in the same direction we had been heading before several more thicker tendrils reached out and grabbed her arms.

I went for my DE again but she just said "No. He remembers me, look at the way everything is reacting now that he has a hold of me." Realizing that things were calming down now I saw a bulbous pod drop down from the ceiling in front of Sherri.

"You are different." The voice was strange, echoing, as if the entire room was the source of the voice.

"Yes, but so are you. Before you wouldn't have reacted to us like that, what changed in you?"

"They implanted hunger."

Growling Sherri said "Hunger for what."

"Females for reproduction."

I saw part of the room change, where there had been a wall there was now a thin transparent film. Beyond was a scene of perversion, women being raped by the same tendrils that had been coming after me, that were now dropping away from Sherri's arms. Certain things were different though, they all had a bundle of tendrils going down their throats that must have been providing air and sustenance. There were groups of eggs as well, but I didn't want to see any more of their ruined lives or dignity and looked away before asking "Please change it back." I didn't know how Sherri was staying calm in the midst of seeing that given her past.

Looking at her I saw rage in her eyes though, she was ready to kill something. I saw her start walking off and the bulbous pod was moving along with her on the ceiling. Following behind her I saw a scientist cowering in the corner with a tendril holding him there. As she walked up to him I heard a low horrible growling noise coming from her before she said "You fucking monsters, you stole my son, you have ruined the lives of those women. One of them I recognize as a scientist from your own organization! You despicable men, there are a lot of horrible men in the world, but you men from this organization are absolutely some of the worst in existence. I may kill with no remorse, and I'm considered the among the worst of the worst for that. But I genuinely believe that at least a majority of those kills made this world a better place, and I absolutely know killing you will."

I wanted to look away but I wouldn't disrespect those women more by refusing to watch as the true cause of their suffering died. Sherri didn't give him a quick honourable death, she killed him slowly by first flaying his skin. She was surprisingly good at that as there was very little blood loss from the removal of all of his skin. She then started on his muscles and fat. Slowly cutting in she managed to avoid cutting any major blood vessels while carving away slabs of his meat and fat. She then started to actually be cruel though as she used her knowledge of the muscles to force him to open his mouth and swallow pieces of his own body. I watched as she made him keep eating and when he went to puke she put her hand in his mouth and blocked his throat until he stopped convulsing. Reopening his throat she made him eat more until I saw his stomach burst because he didn't have any muscles or fat in the way of me seeing it. Pushing him aside she said "Now you know the invasive nature of what you did. Except I made you feel enough to account for all sixteen of those women."

As he slowly died in the background Sherri turned back to the pod and said "I am sorry for what they did to you."

"It is..." the pod paused as it searched for a word, "In your words, an empty existence."

I wondered when she would have said that for a moment until I remembered when she said she had been here. It surprised me though to see her hug the pod, "I will do anything you ask me to."

"Kill me."

Nodding she stepped back and brought out both of her kukris for her hands. I saw her arms disappear from view and the pod collapsed. I heard the room say "Th... an...k... yo..." To our side part of the wall slid away to reveal a staircase. But that wasn't the only part of the room sliding. The entire room was full of the sound of glops of things falling away from the ceiling or the walls. I ran to the stairs and looked back, Sherri was just slowly walking towards me and the stairs. When she arrived I realized we hadn't saved those women, but I decided not to tell her. She was already feeling bad and I didn't want to make it worse. Because who knew how long those women had been there in the like four years since she had left. Their minds were destroyed and would never fully recover from an ordeal like that.

As I began to lead her down the stairs she said "They will pay."

******** Mike

Standing up after my legs healed I pressed the button for level three and watched the doors open. Walking in I put a hole in the guard standing watch over the elevator. As he collapsed I noticed the smell. Death, infection and this iron tang that I assumed was blood that had been too subtle the last time I was in a warzone as a human. The first cell held men with welts, cuts, bruises and pus leaking from their gashes.

"What kind of place is this," I asked aloud, "Who could do this to people?"

One of the men who looked less hurt groaned and said "They call him McSkinzie, and he calls us his patients."

Before I could ask another question I heard a roar from another cell down the way. That roar set off a chain of animalistic noises from the other cells. Starting down the way I found this faceless monstrosity. It was easily twelve feet tall and muscled so heavily that its shoulders were wider I was tall. The bloated faceless head looked over at me suddenly and the tentacles hanging around its head and down its back and shoulders raised up as it roared at me before charging into the bars. As it hit them they threw it back with a audible electric snap.

Behind me there was a hissing and I turned to see a snake like being that looked and smelled like it was covered in pus. There were red eyes shining from beneath the revolting and writhing surface. The pus wasn't just on it, the snake thing appeared to be able to use the pus as a weapon as it formed a vague sword like appendage and attempted to stab between the bars only for the electric field to flare up and cause the pus to explode back from the bars. The pus that impacted the walls and ceiling started to move of its own will back to the snake.

"Hey," someone down the way yelled, "is someone from outside here?"

Walking towards the voice I said, "Are you alright?"

"No! I am not okay, they kidnapped me for no valid reason! Please, help me, I don't want to be one of those things or one of those walking corpses." As I got to the voice I saw that it was apparently a young woman who sounded a bit androgynous. "Please help me."

"Are there more?" I asked.

Pointing to the other cages she said "What do you think all of these cages are full of, I'm just the only one awake. Most try to stay asleep so they don't have to be awake to wonder if the guards are here for them."

"Alright, know of any way to open these doors?" I asked.

Shaking her head she said "No, the guards talk on the radio before any of the cages open." Sudden realization and then fear crossed her face as she said "I'm stuck here aren't I. Oh god, I'm sorry. Just do whatever you came here to do, leave me."

"Don't tell me what to do, I'm getting all of you out of here," pressing the earpiece button I said, "Private Vodka come in."

Her voice was flat as she answered "Reading you Cryptid."

"We need to add something else to our objectives. It'd definitely hurt the Sniffer program," I said.

Perking up she said "Oh do tell."

"Well, I'm on level three, and I'm ta..."

Coming up the hall opposite where I had come in she said "So what exactly is this idea?"

Looking surprised the girl in the cell said "Where did she come from?"

"Upstairs, please don't interrupt." Sherri said as Roslyn came up behind her.

"Well they're either for experimentation or the Sniffer program. Which we need to stop both. Killing that madman down there will fix the torture. The scientists down there must be turnin the others into what we've been fighting for years and these monstrosities," I said angrily.

"McSkinzie is a monster, and the scientists are even more horrendous." Sherri said while touching the bars and the crack of the electricity was much louder than before as she held her hand in it and tried to grab the bar before the crack grew in volume and actually threw her a step back. "Fuck that's a lot of electricity." I saw three knives appear between her fingers before she said "Girl, step back, same to you two." After we did so she snapped all three knives out so fast I heard a small boom and then she ducked just as suddenly when one of the ended up in the wall behind where she had been standing. "Holy crap, that is nuclear reactor level power." Grabbing her knives she asked "So when do the guards come get people, is there any schedule?"

Shaking her head the girl said "No, they seem to do it at random."

"Fine, we need to move and try to figure out how these doors open." Starting to stalk off she started randomly throwing knives at the cells faster than I could see them move.

Turning to the girl Roslyn asked "What's your name?"

"Call me Tera, most do." She said while walking back over to the bed in her cell and I noticed a small fist sized rock floating up. "I think this is why they wanted me. I can only move a pound of 'earth' at time but it's still fun."

"We'll save you, all of you. Of that you have my word," I said.

Smiling she said "You're soldiers, don't make promises you can't keep. But thank you for showing me that 'furs' aren't all cold and heartless."

"None of us are, those are lies. I don't make promises I can't keep, I only make guarantees," i said, "I know because I can't die."

"Actually he isn't lying about tha..." Roslyn was interrupted as a boom echoed through the halls and we heard Sherri cackling. The electric field on the cage shimmered for a moment before Tera's rock floated over to the bars only to be thrown back by the field, but it was only knocked a few inches back.

Making a surprised noise Tera said "Interesting, go see what your friend did, because before just touching this field would throw that rock back into the wall so hard I had to reform it."

"Yeah, Mike, come on, Sherri is now in a fit of giggles, that isn't a good sign." Roslyn said while pulling on my sleeve and running off.

Following her I yelled back to Tera, "I will get you out!"

Coming upon Sherri collapsed on the ground laughing I looked at the wall and saw she had apparently caused an electrical overload in a cage that made it blow up and throw her daggers through the door next to it, the holes told that, and they were much bigger than her daggers. "How in the hell did you do that?" Roslyn asked while kneeling next to Sherri.

Taking a deep breath and managing to stop laughing she said "I electrified my daggers and then threw all eighty of them near simultaneously. Apparently the fact that I changed the polarity on my battery charge to the opposite of the one running through these bars meant that they somehow overloaded it, but as you can see the explosion was far too big to use on any cells with a person in it. Hell, it was too big to use with me being three feet away." As she finally sat up I saw her scales scorched black in arcing patterns.

"You know, that's kinda a good look for you, maybe we should get your scales stained that way later." Roslyn said while running her claw down Sherri's cheek and then kissing her.

"First off, Get a room and secondly, Sherri quit acting so brash, its causing more harm than good," I said.

Breaking the kiss Sherri stood up and her tail was stretched out and holding a kukri to my throat as she said "I am figuring out a way to blow this place to hell when we're done since we don't have any more HE gear. If I have to blow up the nuclear reactor that is obviously powering this place then I will."

"Why are you so hellbent on killing yourself?!" I demanded.

"She isn't, these are the people that took her son from her, your son. These are the people who made me what I was before the change gave me my mind back. They are monsters, and I agree that we will destroy this place." I said while standing up and gently pulling Sherri's tail away from his throat.

"There are innocents here as well, I will not let her do anything until they are a safe distance away! They're people too! Do they deserve to die as well just because they're here against their own will?" I asked.

"The only people here that I've threatened explicitly are you, McSkinzie and those scientists. So if you would cool your jets you would realize that I don't have the ability to blow that reactor from here without a hell of a lot more power in my battery. I needed to test my theory and short circuit some of the power in this place, did I electrocute myself a touch in the process, yes, I did. I am reckless, not stupid." Her voice was approaching that icy level that I'd heard her use before. She was back in control, if more dangerous in a focused way than before. Turning she kicked the door open and cursed as she saw that her daggers were buried in the wall beyond their handles. Hopping the rail she dropped out of sight.

"Uh, I'm gonna follow her now." Roslyn said while starting to jog down the stairs.

'Again, a fight with her. maybe I should have killed myself when I had the chance. Now though? I don't even think death can touch me now. Lost a potential partner to a change. Met Sherri, again. Lost a fetus due to poor living conditions. Lost Klaw. Fucked on basically a first date, I don't even think she loves me. And here I am with my past lover and her new lover trying to save a man who we can't even get to! Could My life have went to shit any faster!" I thought to myself heading down the stairs, frustratedly I punched the wall, cracking the cement, and breaking most of the bones in my hand.

Heading down the stairs I saw the labyrinth, as I saw it the hallway changed before my eyes, sighing I said, "Fuck me."

Reaching the bottom of the stairs and heading in I saw the walls still shifting, where as before the entry had been a long hall now it turned immediately to the right. The sheer metal wall immediately inside had a key card slot, so there was a way to override the labyrinth design for escorting the prisoners. Taking the right I saw it immediately split off into a down ramp with a three way split at the bottom. taking the left I saw it turned into a ladder that went up about two stories. Deciding not to second guess myself I went up the ladder and was surprised to find another left turn heading down. Jogging down I found a pit with bars across the top. Jumping up I grabbed one and quickly swung along to land on the other side. Taking a right turn I saw through a glass floor that Sherri and Roslyn were staying close to each other so as to not get separated if it shifted again before they got out.

Pounding on the floor I saw they didn't look up and Sherri actually looked a bit to her right, it might not even be a window but a screen. Sprinting off again I found a pit again but this one didn't have bars along the top. Looking down I saw fans at the bottom. Looking around and not seeing any kind of switch I backed up and sprinted up to the edge before taking a flying leap and was relieved to hear the fans start up and push me back up with my momentum taking me the rest of the way. Hitting the wall hard I saw a stretch of spikes covering the floor, walls and ceiling for about fifty feet. Taking a look over it I saw there was just barely enough space every five feet for the balls of your feet. Jumping I kicked off from one of the bigger spikes and just barely managed to balance in the space available. Doing it again and again I finally screwed up and saw a spike rushing up at my head. Waking up I found I couldn't see out my left eye and reached up to figure out why. My eye was pulling itself back in by the optic nerve. Being impaled didn't stop me either. Realizing that I was lying flat I pushed up and realized I was on the other side of the spike field.

"How the hell?" I asked no one in particular only to have a snickering start behind me. Looking over I saw a very small strange cat like figure with purple and black fur that suddenly disappeared, not like Sherri disappeared but rather like it faded into non-existence. Running around the corner I saw an empty hallway. Walking down it slowly I saw another ladder but this one had a basic cement wall on the other side at the bottom. Climbing down to the bottom I saw I was in a cement room with several entrances and one exit. Looking across the room I saw Sherri and Roslyn coming out another entry from the Labyrinth.

"Ah you finally made it," I said.

"We were being careful, one of the walls tried to shoot us." Roslyn said before Sherri snapped back at me. "She proceeded to push me back around the corner and then break the wall."

"I got hit in the eye, by a giant spike. Then I woke up outside the spike pit, something must have saved me," I said.

"Something? Sounds like you know what." Sherri said with a suspicious tone in her voice.

"A cat with purple and black fur, I don't know much else about it," i said.

"Another experiment probably, this place is monstrous. Let's go, we're going to kill McSkinzie and hopefully we're in time to prevent the major mental problems from being tortured by him to Klaw." Sherri said before moving off towards the exit.

"Klaws a strong man, I'm sure he'll be fine. We need to get him regardless. Are you sure our son isn't here?" I asked.

"No one is strong enough for this. And no, I am not sure that our actual son is here, all I know for certain is that his clone is here. But they aren't going to squander their greatest 'gift'." When she said gift I heard the hiss of her hatred. As she stalked off I saw Roslyn indicating I should stop talking. Or something, she was making a cutthroat sign and then rocking her arms and making a cutthroat there. As she went off to follow Sherri I wasn't sure what to do.

"You know, I never stopped loving you," I spoke louder.

I saw both of them freeze and then before Roslyn could stop her Sherri had jumped up and arced over her to face me. "You made your choice. Four days ago I gave you a chance, don't say crap like that."

"Four days ago you were in love with someone else. I couldn't hurt you like that. Five years ago we parted. You had time to move on, I figured you had," I said.

"Four days ago I was in love with you. Now I'm in love with someone else, and I can tell that you are too. You forget how good I am at reading you. I may not be perfect mentally or emotionally, but I can tell everything about you."

"Don't forget I know you too, so why do you feel guilty about something?" I asked.

Smiling she asked "Do you? Do you know me? I am feeling guilty, but I actually don't know why. My mind is falling apart, my psychosis has changed recently and I don't know why. She doesn't talk to me like he did, just indicate things. I can feel something different in my body but I don't know what, so again, do you know me?"

"Well I don't feel betrayed by you, our son may be alive but I don't hold any kind of grudge against you, I was just because after all that time you could have told me, all of that time you didn't. I wanted nothing more that to have a family," I said.

"You know what, we had this conversation already. You know I couldn't leave a message that told you I was pregnant, after you had just been in an explosion designed to kill you. So in the end, if we get our son back, I don't want to raise him. I want to rescue him from them, because I would be a terrible mother. I realize that now." Turning around she laughed at the expression on Roslyn's face before saying "Blueberry, I am not going to kill him, hell, I don't think even I can kill him."

"Is that pickled herring I smelled on your breath?" I asked.

"I ate a jar of it before we left." She said before giving Roslyn a quick peck on the cheek.

"Roslyn can you come over here for a sec?" I asked politely.

Looking at me funny she calmed down Sherri and I heard her ask her to just go check out the next chamber, we'd be there in a sec. As Sherri stalked off Roslyn came over and said "What's up?"

"Has she mentioned any cravings to you?" I asked.

"She's been eating everything pickled she can find since we got out of the mountain after our first night, ah, you get what I mean... We don't have anything shipped to the mountain that can break on the way like glass jars so her being a bit hooked on her favorite foods in glass jars makes sense, why?" She asked me before flinching at a gunshot from the next room.

"I know she likes it as a snack but she doesn't crave it, so after you two slept together she started having cravings for pickled things?" I asked.

Groaning she said "Oh come one, yes I'm a herm but there is no way I'm fertile, the Docs said that was impossible for my male half to be fertile since I go through the female lizard cycles."

"And I shouldn't be able to live through a point blank explosion." I said, "But I have."

Pausing for a moment she said "Touché... Okay, look, it's possible, but it's been less than three days, there is no way she would be noticing something already. That alone just isn't possible no matter what, fuck, we need someone who knew her while she was pregnant."

"She's always been different, not saying she is , but you really need to make sure she's not going to hurt herself or your child." I said.

"Why do you think I'm here at all? I'm still injured but I am going with her at all times that she is going into combat to stop her from doing something stupidly reckless. I have a full bag of morphine in this backpack that has been on this whole time just so I can ignore enough of this pain to walk without crutches."

"You forget, I used to be her handler," I said.

Nodding she asked "When you were her handler would she have even considered blowing up a nuclear reactor? Would she have blown up an entire military base? Would she have stolen a tank in order to make a cannon for high explosive cannon balls?"

"No, actually she was crazy, not insane, everything she was doing had purpose. I never let her consider anything like that though," I said.

"If you haven't noticed she's impossible to stop now if she really wants to do something. The only thing I can do is convince her to do it safely for herself. I have made sure to check what calculations she writes down or spouts off before blowing something up, but I was never trained in explosives. I can only follow the basics of it and check the numbers she gives. How does she do that anyway, she comes up with incredibly complex details. She swears up and down that she's only good at technology, the living body and martial arts, but she's an absolute genius who chooses to excel physically. Also, duck." As soon as she said that a body went flying and I saw it was a blonde human male, tall and physically fit but covered in blood.

Coming back in Sherri said "That is McSkinzie, Klaw is in there tied to a chair. Do you want to go free him or kill McSkinzie, your choice. I'm doing the other."

"I'll get Klaw, Roslyn please inform her of something she might not be aware of," I said walking off quickly.

******** Roslyn

Drawing her kukris again Sherri knelt down over McSkinzie and asked "What does he mean?"

Considering the details I decided to be upfront and said "Mike thinks you're pregnant, well, to use the reptile term, gravid with eggs."

Her blade slipped and she instead of carving off his skin cut through his ribs and sliced his heart open, "Say fucking what?"

Sighing I said "He thinks that your obsession with eating pickled things is a symptom of being pregnant, and you did say something feels different with your body. And well honestly it wouldn't be a bad thing. Before I changed I always wanted to be a dad, so what if I'm a girl after the change, I would still love to be a caring parent for our kids, pups, little lizards, whatever term you want to use."

"That is what he wanted to talk to you about? He's insane. I mean I thought I was insane, especially considering I see things, but that proves it, he's more insane than me. Come on, before I threw him out here I used his palm to open all of the cells that he's in charge of, so let's find out if that includes the little girl Mike said he would save. I think her name was Tera?" She said before walking off into the labyrinth again. Moving to follow her I saw the door for all of the entries slam shut.

******** Sherri

"So they finally are forcing this to happen, they'll regret it." I said to the three third generation sniffers and the grown clone of my son. "What about you, are you sure you're up to par?"

He said flatly "You have been studied, analyzed, and predicted. This is your last day."

Whistling I asked "So when did they see my top speed or my full strength? How about my scales, have they taken the increased damage resistance into account? Do you realize I can hear the scientists outside this chamber, up three floors and through a total of ten feet of steel, wondering if you can do this, did you know that? How about my eyesight, I can see the imperfections in the wall around us, there is a nick in the steel a fourth of an inch from your left foot, two inches below the start of your pinkie toe. Can your eyes see that without crouching?"

I heard the slight movement of the third gen to my left as she readied slightly ahead of the others and said "So you act slightly out of sync with them, huh Red." Turning to look at her I asked "You don't mind if I call you Red right?"

Smirking she said "Feel free, as for my reactions, I'm the oldest third gen. I have the most combat experience." As she finished her sentence I threw a very light sonic punch in her direction and watched her hair ruffle as she reacted slower than I thought she would.

"Oldest means two things, one of them being you have better predictions and understanding of your own body. But two, Sniffers have a reduced lifespan, well, the second and third gen ones do. So you've died more than these two. If you're the oldest then that means you have a full year under your belt of being a third gen sniffer, and have lost five more years from your lifespan than them." The scientists were wondering how I knew and answering them to the confusion of the sniffers trapped with me I said "Your firewalls are a joke, I've read every report you made."

Getting annoyed Red yelled"Enough!" and she launched herself a split second before the others. Slamming my tail on the ground to propel myself up I watched as they used each other to stop in mid air, transferring their forward momentum into upward momentum. As Red reached eye level with me she tried to use a scissor kick to move me back down and into the others but I grabbed her legs and forced them all the way open and then further, breaking her pelvic bone. As we started to fall I positioned my feet on her shoulders and shoved her back down and pushing myself into the ceiling where I pushed off as hard as I could with my arms. Causing a shockwave and landing on the ground before she did I brought my tail up into the middle of her back and then my elbow down into her solar plexus.

Kicking her out of the way I heard several more bones break and then her head hit the steel wall and virtually exploded from the impact point due to the force. Sighing I said "Now look what you made me do, I'm still not being serious yet, so just let me out and I won't have to break any more of your toys."

My son's clone answered with a cold "She was expendable, now die."

He still didn't move though. The other two slowly stalked in this time, they had learned from the first one that rushing me didn't work. Shaking my head I saw her, as usual she was silent but suddenly her head had a thin red stream appear crosswise from her right temple to her left jawline. As her head slid off from a perfect blade slice I caught her drift and pulled out my kukris. Both of the third gens stopped at this, they weren't trained to face me in the first place, but they had obviously seen vids of me before I changed. Now I was both faster and stronger, so what would the blades that had made ribbons of so many before them do to their worthless hides.

They both walked back over to the walls and two panels opened up, revealing a pair of steel nunchaku and a long honed broadsword. Both took their weapons without much fanfare at first but then they smiled and started stalking back towards me. Turning towards the one holding the nunchaku first I heard the one with the broadsword quickstep and swing much faster than normal humans by far. Blocking it with my tail I kukri heard the intake of air from her as the nunchaku wielder came in as well, spinning them to try and get at least one hit in. Dropping my blades at just the right moment I caught the spinning steel bars and yanked before grabbing my kukri and cutting her hamstrings and her outstretched inner elbow. As she dropped to the floor from her hamstrings I rolled forward and pushed off the ground, flying over her as the broadsword came down again for a full power swing, bisecting the downed nunchaku user.

Sighing at how reckless the scientists were being I suddenly noticed a smell on the air. It didn't seem to smell like anything I was familiar with but suddenly the broadsword user was tensing up. Her muscles were actually noticeably swollen and I groaned as I realized they had trained her with a trigger scent. The unnamed figure appeared again and I saw a chain of attacks affect her, she was so different from Alvar, what had brought her on? But I realized the chain of attacks would disable the last third gen quickly and without killing her. Why did that suddenly bother me?

Whipping both of my bloodied kukris out fast enough to clean the blood off of them I sheathed them and pulled out the two weighted grappling spheres. Throwing them once each I landed a solid shot to her stomach and as she reacted to that the second one hit her chin and smashed through to collapse her airway partially. As the motors pulled them back in she dropped the sword and made herself bring her hands up to her throat and force her airway back into shape. Throwing them again I snapped my arms and caused the balls to wrap her in the cords before I snapped them off and ran forward to break her eardrums by making two sonic punches right next to her ears. After she was disoriented I flicked her and she fell over knocked out.

I heard him but by the time I looked over he was already there punching me in the face. Taking it I asked "So you're ready now?"

Before I could stop him he smashed the skull of the last third gen and said "Yes."

Hissing I put a full strength punch into the center of his chest and was surprised as he flew across the room instead of my fist going through him. As he stood up I saw through the torn fabric that he was wearing a robotic suit. "So you aren't on that level naturally, you're being boosted." Grinning I brought out my tonfa and turned on the battery pack, "This might cross a few wires, but now you'll see what the true divider between us is." I saw his eyes go wide and heard the scientists gasp as I finally ran across the room to land a cross cut with my electrified tonfa right across his torso. As he went flying the shockwave I caused threw him a second time before I went behind him and smashed him so hard from behind that he caused a shockwave and crumpled the wall he crashed into.

I heard worried murmurs from the scientists as I once more crossed the room and before he landed on the floor smashed him into another wall. Letting him fall to the floor I shouted "Now do you fucking idiots see what you have to contend with! I am not just transformed, I am not just the result of the transformation and your experiments before that. I am gifted with physical Perfection! There is nothing you can do to stop me! I am immune to every known poison, I am impervious to all viruses and bacteria, I heal from bullet wounds in a day. Broken bones, when they happen, put me down for a mere week at most! I am the most successful mass murderer in history!"

I heard the sealed door open and Roslyn suddenly ran in and before she got to me I turned off the battery. Letting my tonfa go back into the standby position I hugged her back when she got to me and hugged me. "I was so worried, I thought they were going to kill you."

Chuckling as I saw Mike lending his shoulder to Klaw I said "I can't die from these morons, they thought the clone of my son enhanced by genetics and technology could beat me but even that wasn't enough. But if they were willing to sacrifice the third gens that means that they have their next step finished and ready to mobilize... Shit!" Listening I heard the scientists leaving and said "We can't make it there in time, there are too many defenses, the scientists are escaping."

Roslyn said "It's fine, we'll get them later. What's important is that you're okay and we rescued Klaw."

******** Roslyn

As I started to go through the door on the other side of the chamber I saw the opposite wall start change and suddenly it was covered in over four hundred guns all trained on me. As I muttered "Fuck." I heard a sudden boom behind me and then saw Sherri standing in front of me. The guns started firing but all that was happening was a hail of bullets running into the floor. I heard Sherri say something but then there was another deafening boom and I staggered back from the sudden force, keeping my head up I saw that suddenly every gun on the far wall had been cut off. I then saw Sherri standing in front of me again and smiling before she coughed up blood and collapsed.

Kneeling down I said "What the hell was that, shit, she's burning up. We have to get out of here." Checking her over I found she was bleeding from between her scales in some places despite there not being any cuts I could find. Her ears, nose, mouth and eyes were all bleeding slightly. Checking her pants I found she was bleeding there as well. "Fuck!" Going to grab her I recoiled from the heat coming off her body. The blood was vapourizing she was still so hot. Walking over to Mike I tore his shirt off and used that to pick her up. The heat was incredible but she was still breathing, if raggedly, so she was still alive. Slipping on my tail guns I held her with my forearms while tightening all of the bolts with my fingers. Rocking the outer joints back I cocked the guns and readied up. Holding Sherri hurt the parts still healing, especially my ribs, but for her I would take a bullet to get her out alive.

"We don't have time to screw around this time, can you run carrying Klaw on your back?" I asked Mike, I'd held Sherri before but never like this. "I'll be burdened quite a bit since she does weigh so much." Laughing I realized now she she never was on top and sitting down, she always had her legs under her to stop her weight from crushing me.

"First off, he weighs at least four hundred pounds, secondly what about the chopper?" he asked.

"She weighs just as much, and to blow through the roof we used explosives, in her words, four times as strong as a tomahawk missile strike. The roof wasn't as thick as the protective shell around the fourth level from the plans she showed me. We have to work our way through, the good thing is that by now all of the defenses are gone along with the scientists. If the scientists are gone we can get the prisoners later." I said before adjusting and starting into the room of now defunct guns. The labyrinth was surprisingly simple now, after the gun room there was a hallway straight to the exit, like they had planned to just gather her remains after those two rooms killed us. When we passed by the fourth floor door I saw it was open, "see, whatever you want to do feel free."

As Mike came up to the landing Klaw said "I'm fine, get the prisoners free." Pulling himself off of Mike's shoulder he managed to stand up and start up the stairs. Taking Sherri from me is said "You need your hands free if we do find any other resistance."

Not liking it but knowing he was right I said "Okay, we need to move."

"Klaw, are you sure?" Mike asked.

"No, but you should free those prisoners." He said before taking a step up the stairs.

"Alright, Ros, lets go get those prisoners," he said readying his AA12 and went up the stairs.

"Where are you going, we still need to unlock the cells." I said while starting into the remains of the scientists labs. Looking around I saw there weren't any security panels, no hand scanners or eye scans. Turning on the headset I said "Go up to the cells actually, I think I can just open them from here." Looking around I came upon a panel with the cell floor layout. "Hey Mike, tell me how many cells in until you get to the monsters in the cages. I can open around two thirds of these cells. It looks like Tera's is here as well." Pressing the button for a cell labeled Terania Carlson I waited to hear from Mike.

"Ok, keep opening them, I'll tell when to avoid one," Mike said not turning off his radio, "I told you I was going to get you out of here."

Starting to just press buttons in order I heard Tera over the headset say "You really freed us."

I then heard "Move please, thank you." It was Klaw with Sherri.

"Oh god, is she okay?"

"Mike, please shut her up." I whispered while trying not to cry.

"She'll be fine, just get going," talking to me mike said, "We're going to need more vehicles."

"You can call for rescue cars from the mountain. Everyone will have to be put in partway houses until we figure out if we can trust them in the Mountain." I said while noticing a reference sheet to which cells have people that have been experimented on, Tera's was on the list but there wasn't anything else about what they had done to her. Releasing everyone that wasn't listed as dangerous on the experiment cells listing I decided to head up to be on the heli back with Sherri.

Passing by Mike as he helped prisoners I said "No one goes straight to the mountain. Stick with Tera, she might be important." Jogging off I caught up with Klaw and saw that Sherri's breathing had stabilized.

"Where do you suggest they go?" Mike said.

"Hell if I know, here, talk to Klaw, he actually deals with that end of missions." I said while taking Sherri's headset off and putting it on Klaw.

"We'll take any who want to come to halfway housing like what you were in that first night. There are scanners and other details that will tell us if anyone is a risk for inadvertent exposure. We only have two people who are telepathic and can check that they aren't just acting. Furs aren't as heavily scrutinized for obvious reasons but humans are. Bringing dozens of humans into the mountain suddenly is a bad idea." he said while we arrived at the cords. Realizing that wouldn't do with a bunch of prisoners needing to get out I started looking for another way out. Checking the walls for any hidden switches I found one that opened another staircase up.

"Well that helps, hey Klaw, come on. You realize you can't go back right away either right?" I asked him as I took Sherri and started up the stairs. Kissing her lightly even though she was passed out I saw a smile curl at the edges of her mouth.

"Yeah, Mike, you should head back with Roslyn and Sherri, I'll deal with the prisoners." He said while I heard him turn back around.

"I'm not heading back anywhere with anyone." he said.

"Fine, stay here and help Klaw. I'll send help." I said while reaching the exit. Pushing the trap door open I was assaulted with the dusty dirt covering it.

"Once i help him I'm leaving. Good luck with your war." he said, "I was better off on my own, and it's going to take something drastic for me to come back. I've had enough of you, Sherri, and Klaw to last me a damn lifetime."

"Klaw, let him leave when you two are done. Sherri left, he can leave as well if he wants." I said while starting up the hill. Hearing a noise behind me I used my tail to turn off my headset and said "Turn your headset off if you want to do this."

Suddenly I felt a cold steel, barrel against my back right below the rutsack, "Gladly. How dare you compare me to her? Did she tell you about all of the people she's killed? All of their ages?"

"She hasn't killed as many as I have. The only difference was that she was killing of her own free will. I have to live the rest of my life with the blood of almost fifty thousand souls on my hands. That was in a period of two and a half years, people don't know this but the sniffers of the first generation are all doing that stuff against their will. The second generation is around one third those that are doing it because they choose to. I was awake but trapped in my own mind for that. I wasn't comparing you to her, because you're right, she's a monster. You care about people, all I said was that she left, and so can you. So you know what, fuck you." I said before starting back up the hill. Pointing my tail at him with the gun still attached I just pointed the tip at him and said "If you want to kill me then do so, but know this. You will be removing someone else from this world that loves another. You will be removing someone else from this world that is loved. And it won't heal your soul to do so."

"Tell Lisa I'll be back where it all started." he said, lowering the gun.

"I will, I'd say good luck but you don't need it. So instead I wish you the ability to die when you finally want to." I said climbing into the heli.