Chapter 2: Don't Feed the Animals

Marcus kept waving until he felt the ring tone in his ear. 'Tucker did it' Tucker did it'. He pressed the answer button and held it to his ear. "So I figured you found the entrance for the sewer it entered and I have Effigies nose here that can track him wherever he went. Just wanted to let you know." Marcus said as Bella walked behind him. Holding up two figures to form a v shape over his head, her face covered by a hoodie.

"Yeah don't try it," Revenant said over the phone. "It's a maze down there, and we have no idea if there's one or dozens. Keep your distance, be patient and we'll go hunting--together--when we have a better plan than tracking the smell."

"I heard that." Bellas voice came over the phone and Marcus moved away. "Alright, we will just keep hunting topside and see if anything else pops up. Good luck." Marcus finished while giving bella a sharp look.

As he hung up, James groaned as he got a new call. Again from Amy, back at their hideout. Answering, he said "Was too late. Shadow got there first and drove it away, but it went into hiding in the--" "--Subway, I saw on the feeds," Amy said, cutting him off. "Lost it like Gestalt most likely did, but I'm pulling up old schematics of the Manhattan Island subway system and making a model. Should take a few minutes to make and I'll upload it to Gestalt so he can have a map."

"Thank you," Gestalt said over her computer speakers, to which Amy smiled.

"Aside from that.....Chris is on her way here, says to get your ass over as well for your usual training. She also says keep the suit on.....because she's wearing hers." James inwardly groaned at that, shuddering as he moved back to Brooklyn. He had given Chris the muscle suit, the piece of Nexus tech those goons tried ransoming her for. It had been gathering dust (and socks) in his closet, having hidden the container beneath his laundry. He ended up giving her the suit so they could spar in hand to hand on occasion, without risk of hurting her. But it made her even more.....scary.

"So what do you mean by topside?" bella asked as Marcus made his way to a corner, his mask already gone.

"I mean just general hunting bad guys and that lizard thing if it comes back." Marcus answered her before turning to her. "Are you hungry. I'm very hungry. Wanna get something to eat?" Marcus asked her and got a slight sigh and a nod from the shapeshifter girl.

"theirs one thing we can do doe." She said finally.

"Yes?"

"After food we can do some testing."

"testing?"

Chris beat James to the hideout first. Now it seems, was time for some explaining. Over the past month, Gestalt and Amy worked together to......acquire funds from groups that didn't need the money. In other words, they hacked the private bank accounts of drug cartels, big crime ring accounts. People that had it coming in general, and they were good at covering their tracks. They used the funds to purchase some property in Brooklyn, an old building that used to be a small warehouse by the docks. With James' assistance, they managed to clear up a large space inside to load in the rest of the stuff they bought: computers, large servers and the cooling systems to match for Amy. Training gear for James and Chris to work with, plus some creature comforts for relaxing. The strangest bit, was how it had been Amy's idea to set this all up, and not James'. The four of them were keeping a tight lip on the existence of their little.....clubhouse, for now, working out who to trust and who not to. While she waited for James, Chris busied herself with a punching bag while Amy.....Amy decided to watch her girlfriend.

Bella and Marcus sat opposite side of each other, with Marcus munching on a burger of some sorts and Bella just taking sips from her drink. They sat in silence for a bit, taking a sample of their food every so often before they spoke or at least Bell wanted Marcus to stop death staring his burger. It was starting to get creepy. "So about the test. I have enhanced smell and speed and I've found that in anger my str kinda goes up." Bella stopped for a moment as Marcus siped the remains of his drink, making a loud noise that interrupted her.

"Sorry. Continue." Marcus said as he placed the drink down and kept his head up with his two hands, his elbows on the table.

"Right well I think I may have something else. Another animal." Bella confessed to Marcus which in return she got the unexpected.

"Well, your powers came from a radiation type thing, maybe something else also as you've told me. Maybe your just mutating more, still you have this beast inside that can take over so I'm still thinking that the radiation pit may not be the only reason you have powers." Marcus explained before taking a bite of his burger while Bella looked on in shock. "That of course is a guess based on info you've told me and just general thinking."

"Well.. thats creative." Bella said as she took a long sip from her drink, making the same noise Marcus made earlier.

"I was a creative person in my younger years."

After Pandora finished attending to her creation, which she affectionately named 'Brutus,' the creature returned to its cage, licking its wounds. "Don't worry," Pandora said as she returned to her workstation, "soon your siblings will be ready. And your pack....will be ready." Off to the side in her underground lab, three large tanks sat in a neat row, filled with both fluids and three floating mutants.

James finally got back to Brooklyn and to the hideout, arriving in from the roof. It was a small place, only two stories really but in the grand scheme of things it was enough. Getting to the ground floor, he saw Chris hard at work, punching out some aggression with a large boxing bag. She had changed in the past month, her hair being cut shorter into a pixie style haircut. She got a bit more muscle in her, the new training routine she made for both her and James working them harder than they had been in the past. Judging by the way she was hitting the punching bag so aggressively, James figured she was still pissed off. He spotted Amy, sitting over in her workstation with her computers around her, monitor panels arranged into a slightly curved wall with dozens of separate windows opened. Today, she had her hair tied back in a tail and wore a white turtleneck sweater and was the first to spot James coming down the stairs. "Hey James, what did Shadow have to say?" she asked, already clued in to the existence of at least that other vigilante. "Not much beyond a willingness to chase a monster," James said as he stepped onto the concrete floor. "Told him he should wait before chasing, work out a better plan," he continued. Chris stopped her punching and turned to face James, though that angry spark hadn't left her eyes. "Great, you're back," she said coolly. "Well give me a sec to suit up, and we'll get started."

"you've never told me about the younger you." Bella said to Marcus with a curious look but Marcus simply waved it off.

"Not much to tell, shall we do this testing." Marcus tried changing the subject quite fast but Bella wouldn't intrude... yet. He was always so unknown to Bella and while she would have liked to know more.

"Yea alright, need a isolated place."

A few minutes later, Chris walked out from the bathroom. In reality, it was just a porta-potty that they bought and kept on hand until they could get the plumbing working. Chris wore the skintight muscle-suit well, the one size fits all material fitting her like spandex. That it was matte-black in color and had small ballistic plates positioned like scales across it, only added to the intimidation she already possessed. The only thing the suit didn't come with, was a helmet so for now, she still wore the padded boxer's helmet for sparring. She and James walked over to the large training mat that was set up, both now standing opposite each-other in the circle.

"Count of three," she said, with James nodding. Both adopted a fighter's stance, Chris counting down. "1....2.....3!" she barked, and they both darted forward. James' first attack was a jab for her left shoulder, though she countered by twisting at the waist and moving it out of the way while nailing him in his own shoulder with a blow. Augmented by her muscle-suit, the punch hit harder than it would have under her own strength and James felt it. Grunting from the pain, James kicked at her, the target her side for the ribs. This time it hit and sent her stumbling to the side. She glared at him as she regained her footing, and they went back at it.

Zeru checked his phone and figured the food should be done by now so he sent text to shadow and bella to let them know before heading back home while enjoying the winter weather.

Marcus heard his phone's test tone. 'Spider-ma..' Marcus shut the phone off before placing it in his hoodies pocket which he then took off and placed on a rock. Him and Bella had made their way out the city as the 'test' was too dangerous to do around civilization. "Alright shadow, two things. One don't try and kill me, hold me down if you must. Two.. Don't die." As Bella said this she went around a rather large rock so Marcus couldn't see her but from the pained groans and sometimes yell's, Marcus had a clue.

Soon they stopped altogether and silence only remained. "Bell?" Marcus called out to her in his demon voice, his mask was on when the silence began. At first nothing came back but soon Marcus could see a hand or more like a large furry hand, the likes of a gorilla. "Some test."

The fight got ugly when, while grappling, Chris kneed James in the stomach and elbowed him in the back. He went down but rolled to the side and came up to his feet, growling now and not bothering to raise his fists. "Okay what the hell?!" he shouted. "Chris why don't you just say what's on your mind goddammit!" She gave him a heated glare, removing her headgear and tossing it at him as she said "Alright, fine. Here it is: I am pissed off as hell, at both of you. Over this." She gestured at the hideout with her hands, flapping once like a bird. "I should have asked from the get go how you two paid for this all, so yeah that's on me. But you two stole money for this. For fuck's sake, not just stole but stole blood money from every criminal organization out there! Drug dealers, murderers, sex traffickers, all the assholes out there who you're fighting."

James stood quietly as his best friend ranted, Amy looking slightly guilty. When she was done he spoke up and said "Are you done? Because I'm telling you now, what I told you before: yes, this money has blood on it. But it can and will wash out. We're cleaning it up by putting it to good use against the criminal's we're already fighting." Amy joined the conversation, saying "And we're also hurting the guys we're fighting: I took out a lot of their money with Gestalt's help, and what we didn't use for all this I donated to places in need of the money. We put a serious dent in the wallets of every criminal organization we stole from. So I'd say we did good Chris."

Soon another hand appeared and held onto the rock until it crack apart from the force of Bella's new grip. "Jesus Bell what were you thinking." Marcus said as he gathered up a tendril before forming it into a ball. Bella finally walked around the boulder, a massive figure that had muscles all over it's body. It growled rather loudly and looked towards Marcus, before pounding it's chest and charging at him. Reflex made Marcus point his arm straight and fire the dark orb of force but the impact of it hitting the beast shoulders only slowed her down a little before she made it close enough to life both of her massive arms and bring them down on the ground. Cracking the earth and making a sort of shock-wave that sent Marcus flying back. "Ow."

Silence reigned between the three of them for several pregnant seconds, until finally Chris turned on the spot, hands raised as she said "Whatever. I'm gonna get changed and see about ordering a pizza. You two....just do whatever you want." As she walked away, Amy moved to follow but James said "No, let her go Amy. She needs to cool off."

Marcus got up to see Bella charging at him again and turned into his shadow form to avoid the jab that she tried for his head but kept trying with each punch just going though him. "Jesus Bell, I don't wanna hurt you." Was all Marcus said as he allowed a few tendrils to wrap themselves around her legs and arms to bind her to the ground. "Stay."

Sighing, Amy returned to her workstation. As she looked at her screens, she opened a live news video link, listening as the speakers played. "....reports are still coming in but what has been described as 'a scene straight out of a horror movie', has taken place here in Manhattan. At approximately 6:00 pm, what can only be called a creature attacked civilians near Central Park before police, along with the vigilante believed to be named 'The Shadow' drove it away into the park. We've also learned that the creature was later sighted fleeing into the subway system, and has yet to be sighted anywhere else in the city. We are waiting for further updates from the Police and the Mayor's office, though rumors are circulating that the Mayor will order the subway systems closed until further notice, so long as this monster remains on the loose."

James had walked over, listening intently. "So," he said, "guess we go monster hunting."

Marcus sat down in-front of the beast that was known as a sister to him. "Bell come on now. You need to fight it. Your in control, it's your body, No one else." Marcus said in his normal voice, a broken mask layed next to him.

Emotions can break the strongest walls.

"You do anyway," Amy said, turning off the news feed and switching back to the city cameras. "I'll just be perfectly safe here, tracking it while you and your super-buddies go and wrangle it." Smirking, James willed the nanites back into his body. He had looked slightly bulkier today, and there was a reason: he was wearing a jacket. Great as the nanites were, they had their limits and temperature extremes were among them.

Well, more like they could survive extreme cold and heat but they did diddly to protect the host.

"I'll contact Paladin, see if he can help. Plus there's still two other numbers I can call to see about help. Oh and hey.....did you catch anything on the police scanner about an attempted kidnapping earlier? Would have been right after you alerted me about the monster." Frowning, Amy went to her keyboard, keys clacking rapidly as she typed out commands. A window opened, Amy hacking into the police systems. "Uh.....nada, no reports, no chatter. No one called in anything about an attempt......so either this is just one of those '30% of crimes go unreported' moments, or....." She didn't need to finish the statement, James getting a clear enough picture in his head. "Or they managed to back-track and kidnap her. Dammit....alright I'll have Gestalt run through traffic camera footage, see if he can find where she went. Amy, I'd like the help but--"

She cut him off, a knowing smile on her face. "--Monster tracking has priority. Gotcha." Returning to her work, she paused and said "You really think Chris is gonna order pizza?"

Marcus sat up and walked away to his jacket and thought about seeing the text when he turned to check on Bella and found her struggling or a sort of moaning. Like she was in pain. He put the phone down and walked up to her, a single hand touch her arm and she looked up, her eyes were a different color from before. "Bell. If you're in control right now then you walk around the rock and you change back. Understand." Marcus said to her and in reply received a small nod. As Marcus undid the binds that held her, she walked back to the rock and stayed their for a minute, that was until Marcus heard snapping of bones and cries of pain.

Maybe radiation played a part human.. maybe. But you have to consider the possibilities she isn't your sister.

"Shut up."

Chris came back, dressed casually and wiping herself off with a towel. The muscle suit was great and it did breathe, just not enough to stave off a sweat. "Well, pizza's on the way to the usual place," she said. The 'usual place' was a drop zone around the corner. After all, this was supposed to be a secret hideout. "And called my dad too; told him we were all going out to see a movie so we're good for the next few hours." The anger in her tone, while still there, had diminished a little and James was glad to hear it. "So," he said, hoping to change subjects and lighten the mood. "Are we still working out how to get back at Cynthia over that dance fiasco?"

At that, Chris grinned and said "Oh hell yes. So, it took a little bit of wheedling but I found out that Cynthia still eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Amy looked at her and said "You say that like it's an embarrassing thing Chris. I still eat PB&J's." Giving her a guilty look, Chris amended "I found out that she loves PB&J's. Has one for lunch every day. So......I went to the grocery store yesterday, and got a few pounds of habanero peppers, some bell peppers and a dozen packets of liquid pectin." Amy was drawing a blank, though as for James a look of dawning comprehension emerged on his face. Replaced quickly by one of mirth. "Oh man are you kidding me, we're gonna put her through that?" Chris grinned deviously and said "Yes, yes we are."

"Uhm, put her through what?" Amy asked the pair. For an answer, Chris said "Pepper jelly. We are gonna feed her a peanut butter and habanero pepper jelly sandwich."

Marcus waited a few minutes until he heard sounds of shoes on dirt and Bella came around the corner. "you alright." Marcus asked simply as she came closer, her skin looked as if her body tone had muscled up.

"I'm fine. Brings back memorys." Bella answered to him as she sat at the rock that Marcus placed his things.

Hmm. I still think human. Marcus ignored the statement but he couldn't help but think if it really was just a coincidence that she had his sisters looks, his looks, his fathers looks. He picked up his phone from his hoodies pocket and turned it on, a message from Zeru about food. "Maybe later buddy."

Amy's eyes went wide as she realized what they had planned. "Whoa, that seems a bit evil Chris, even for you," she said in an awestruck voice. Shrugging, Chris replied "Hey, she hurt my friend and used him. Angry as James makes me, can't let that slide." And suddenly, James felt a rush of pride in the fact that Chris was his friend. "So," Chris said, changing topics, "monsters now? Really? Thought it was just suped up bad guys you tangled with James."

Sighing, James ran a hand through his hair, muttering "Yeah you never know what yu're gonna get in New York apparently."

"So what now." Marcus asked her and she shrugged which in turn made Marcus scoff. "Right well you must be hungry again?"

"Maybe." Bella said as she fixed her clothes a little.

"Speaking of," James said, looking to Amy as he spoke. "Gestalt and I got some data on samples from the creature. Think you can look them over?" Her response was simply a frustrated look. "What, just because I'm the computer geek of the group means I know biology, biochem, and genetics?" Looking guilty, James said "Well......would have been nice if you did know it." In response she walked over and flicked him on the forehead. "James, I'm your girl for when you need to blow through firewalls and examine libraries worth of code. But examining biological stuff is not in my job description."

"Or we could go and find some jackass." Marcus answered to her with a slight smile. Bella smiled back and shrugged.

"Somehow I find that better than eating." Bella finished as she began to sniff the air. "Nothing. Well lets get closer to the city."

"Well Gestalt's good and all but so far all he's got is that this thing was made, not naturally born," James said. Frowning, Amy said "So someone violated the Mosaic Accords. Risky.....but then again, the tech was always there, just a matter of using it." Back to the Mosaic Accords, the international treaties that forbid the creation of new species and hybrid organisms. James hadn't told either Chris or Amy about his.....friend, Kristen and how she was a living violation of those accords. He of course hadn't heard from her in a while either, but he had to wonder if this thing tied into her.

Snapping him back to the present, Amy said "I'd start with Panacea. They're the biggest bio-tech company in the world and I'd bet dollars to biscuits they'd have the stuff needed to make something like that thing." Smirking, James said "Dollars to biscuits?" Amy glared a little and he raised his hands in surrender. "Okay okay, not the Look!" he said.

"Maybe not bad guys. That Lizard thing is out their still alive." Bella said to Marcus as they made their way back to the city from the no mans-land they were at before.

"Maybe, Rev said the thing was engineered from the ground so maybe looking up organisations that can possibly work with making a hybrid monster. Company's with resources." Marcus got his phone out and hit the web only to not have any signal. "yea we need to hit the city first. Huh, it was working earlier."

"Anyway," Amy said, realigning her glasses, "Panacea would be my best guess on where to start. And their headquarters is close by, so finding them won't be an issue.....getting in though, will be another story. After all, you'd need to get into their secure servers which are kept in a closed network......though considering your cloaking, I'd say that won't be a problem for you."

Grunting in agreement, James debated on what to do. "Finding out who made this thing.....should come after we take it down," he finally said. "Won't do us much good knowing who to blame if the creation is still out there killing people."

Marcus kept his phone out and on to keep check on when he would get a signal again until finally a single bar appeared. "Works, now to get clos.."

"I'm bored." Bella interrupted him as she skipped along the dirt path ahead of him until she stopped. "I can smell people. This way." Marcus sighed and went after her. Jesus she needs to learn how to wait.

"Yeah but knowing who made it," Amy said, "could help us narrow our search.........look, for now the creature retreated, right? Fled into the subway tunnels and people have already been evacuated. I say we leave it for now while keeping eye on the tunnels and in the meantime you do the break in. Besides, between the cops and Hercules, the tunnels are sorta covered."

Well, he couldn't really argue with that. So James nodded and said "Okay, so I'll head over to Panacea, see what I can find."

"Ok I have one, Panacea is likely the best place that thing came from but from what I read I don't think they would try or at least if they did then eh. It could easily be traced back to them. Genetic creature comes around and bam, the company of genetic's is already prime suspect. They work on meds and cloning and stuff but hybrid animals while under their domain is a big no no. So why do it, one thing we have is people who hate panacea, try and make them look bad or someone who got fired and wants revenge but may have their own tendency's." Marcus took a breath and started to rub his head after it.

"You should be a cop. I know you say these are guesses but they seem pretty damn convincing." Bella said to him and he simply turned around.

"I watched cop shows with my sister sometimes until she died. She wanted to be a cop or a inspector. One that figured how they died. Plus as I said I'm creative. I should tell Rev this. He would love this."

"You can't, you don't know his number." Bella reminded him which made Marcus sag his head.

"I hate you."

"Call Stella," Chris suggested and both James and Amy blinked as they looked to her in surprise. She shrugged and said "Hey if you're breaking into a highly secured facility, you're gonna need all the help you can get. Gestalt and Amy are great and all but.....well, Gestalt can plug into their servers and find the info we need in record time, Amy can hack their perimeter and if we can get Stella in, she can open a path straight to the servers......assuming the floorplan even works for this." Grimacing, Amy said "Well....can never hurt to have too many heads working on this. What do you wanna do James?"

He was already dialing her, the nanites covering him and altering his voice. "I'm gonna call in some backup."

Jake is patrolling the out ring of the city...but then finds himself surrounded. Seriously? Had to be fifteen gunships.
"I almost feel loved." he joked, gun extending. "Dance?"
"Sure."

He looked up, and extended his blade. He met the falling figure and was hurtled down, where he broke the intersection.
"Fuck..." He stood as...another mech suit. Well fuck.
"Who the fuck are you?"
The unknown stood, and a...laugh. Great, they are losing it already. "My dear Lancelot, you may call me Mordred."
Wait. What?

"Okay, first off, Paladin. PA-LA-DIN. I'm not a Knight of the Round Table, I'm not from fucking Code Geass and I am not getting cut in half by a double amputee."
"What?"
"HERETIC DO YOU NOT WATCH MOVIES OR ANIME?"
That's when the cannon nearly blasted his arm off. Well played. He blocked a punch, concrete breaking beneath his feet. He threw a punch, then a kick...and was thrown into a building. Fuck, she was good.
"So, Mordred. Tell me..." He broke free from the rubble, gun raised. "You feelin' lucky, punk?"
"You're surrounded, idiot. How can you hope to beat all of us?"

Ten gunships. One mech. All for little ole' him.
"Simple. I'm gonna watch your gunships fire on you."
" Hah, in your dre-"

Her mech was lit up by the gunships, and Paladin ran.
"Thanks, Stell'."

SOMEWHERE IN THE ALPS NEW YORK HARBOR WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

Stella let up as Paladin got away. Not many people could truly beat the ghost in the machine - HERCULES was extremely good at re-making...but you know, they never learned.
They never did.

James waited while the phone rang. He wondered if the number for Stella would still be working or not.

Stella answered.
"Blocked numbers? Really? ten seconds to state your case."

"Stella," James said, his voice masked by the nanites. "We.....I could use your help. Been watching the news lately?"

Stella leaned back. "Yeah. You should watch it right now - looks like Hercules' newest toy got a bit banged up. It's a shame, really. They can't hackproof their gunships to save their toy."

"What? Uh, I'll need to check that out later but no. Central Park, just under an hour ago. Check it now."

Stella flipped through a screen. "Busy boy, Revy." she pauses. "Why do you need me? You know underground like that is not my forte - not enough tech."

"I'm already working on that, but what I need is help......breaking into Panacea. Whatever that thing was, someone made it in a lab and they're one of the few places I know of that could make it. I need help getting to their data records. Would hack it myself but direct access only, it's a closed network."

"Panacea?" She frowned. "Revenant, I do have big backers, but there's something else. Panacea's fucked up, alright? Getting in...hell, getting me to a port is a miracle in itself..."

"What are you doing now?" Bella asked Marcus as they entered the city, he had been on that phone ever since he said I hate you. Bella knew their was no sentimental value to the words but he seemed busy.

"YES." Marcus cried out as he punched in a few fingers to his phone and turned it to Bella. "I did it." He was making no sense at the time until she looked at what he 'had found' which was the number history.

"Great job, you want a cookie?"

"Blah talk all you want I'm informing him." As Marcus said this he started to punch in the numbers he had read.

"Panacea? I'm sure their security is tight, but I can get us inside and get you somewhere safe where you can plug into their network."

"I think he's on the phone. Crap." Marcus placed the phone in his pocket and walked on with Bell behind him, an annoyed look on her face.

"Listen Revenant. If you can get me in I'll fucking date you." She scowled. "It's fucking insane in there, only beaten by Nexus and icarus."

"Hah, no need for a date, just get a path for me inside," James said, smirking slightly as Chris and Amy both rolled their eyes. "The sooner this happens, the better. How soon can you be ready to meet?"

"Well since I just hacked my grades to okay and stuff, I can go now, or wen you are ready."

"May as well go now.....as soon as I pick up something. Texting you an address, be there in a few minutes and I'll come grab you."

"Alright."

And so, she was off.