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Chapter Three - A Bal'Kar Rebirth

Darkness again, but this time Serathin was prepared for it as he stood there and waited. "I know you're out there!" he shouted. "It's time to end this once and for all!"

For a minute there was nothing, just the sound of the draconic sabre-wolf's own breathing as he waited for a response. After a while he wondered if perhaps this would be different than the other times, but then a massive green, reptilian eye opened just a few feet in front of him. "Yes, I suppose this is the end," the creature rumbled, the voice so strong it nearly put Serathin on his knees. "Your time has expired, now it's my turn."

Serathin didn't know what to say as the two huge eyes looked down at him, followed by two smaller ones that darted down towards him. Once they got close he saw them as tentacles with fleshy pedals that surrounded the eye and had a crop of wiggling, neon green tentacles in a strange facsimile of a mouth. The eyes shined with an unnatural light that illuminated his form, and though the hybrid knew he should run, all he could do was hold out his hand. As one of them reached down and wrapped its smaller tendrils around it he suddenly recognized them as the things he saw before.

"They're called controller tentacles," the voice boomed.

"There's something... strange about them," Serathin replied.

"That's because they are yours."

"No... no it can't be... these are a Bal'Kar's."

"You've listened to their call." The voice said as the eyes lowered. "You've felt their messages in your lust. You know what is happening to you, and before it can happen you need to accept it willingly."

A pit formed in Serathin's stomach and he fell to his knees, holding his stomach. "I've felt it, felt what they want and what they are," Serathin said as he looked up into those eyes. "They don't desire material wealth or possessions and I hear they really don't care for technology... I'm a thief and a hacker, how am I supposed to just give those up?"

"You've felt what they had to offer," the voice replied, this time though it was softer it felt like he was listening to it in two places at once as those eyes got closer to him. "Those things were just crutches of this world, your crutches in order to try and feel a tenth of the happiness that you've just experienced in the last few hours. The Bal'Kar don't require such things because they are lust incarnate, just as you will be soon. The most pleasurable sensations you've felt in the past will be nothing compared to what you will feel."

Serathin was about to retort when he realized a harsh truth... the voice was right. All his stealing, all the information he had gathered, he had done so in order to feel some sort of happiness in the world. Though he had been moderately successful it never lasted and was never enough, now it appeared he had tapped into a well-spring of what he had so intently desired and not even realized it. "I thought you said I was going to die, though," the hybrid said as he suddenly felt a chill and grasped his arms.

"You are."

Suddenly the source of the voice came into focus and Serathin's jaw dropped. It was himself... though the form was obviously that of a Bal'Kar; it had a pair of saberteeth and the same facial expression that he had. As Serathin continued to stare at the Bal'Kar version of himself he started to get dizzy, his vision blurred and he had a hard time focusing as it spoke, "I have formed from the lust of the Bal'Kar and our personality, and you are merely the part that had resisted the transformation... there is no place for you, so you will be gone."

Serathin's breath caught in his throat as he held his head. He could feel his body growing insubstantial and smaller by the second and his vision continued to distort as he kept his eyes locked onto the creature. The hybrid realized he had been fighting himself all along and that he was the embodiment of all his fears, his anxiety, his resistance to something that turned out to be what he needed. The creature was right, he thought to himself as his eyes squeezed shut, there was no place for him...

...in the next second Serathin opened his eyes and had to look downward, seeing the tiny form of his former self staring up at him with glassy golden eyes. His controllers looked at him, seethers brushing up against him as he looked down at the body. With one fluid motion he leaned down and took a breath, and when he blew out the small, frail remnants of his resistance broke apart into dust and disappeared into the darkness. The newly forged Bal'Kar sabrewolf grinned and the disintegrator tentacles that hung from his snout and what were once his horns crackled with bright green energy that quickly filled the void.

Meanwhile August ran down the corridor as fast as he could back to the operations control room, nearly running into several people before he reached the secure facility. "Status report!" He shouted as he got to the terminal that had the camera patched into the train, sitting down in front of it.

"Massive brainwave surge, the machine can't keep up with the measurements." The scientist at one of the computers replied. "All vital readings are off-line Mr. Winters, those that didn't slide off the body already were shorted out when they got covered in bio-extract."

"Damn, it's way too early for this." August grumbled as he looked up at the map, the blinking dot that defined the train still inside the circle of red. "Give me the visual inside the train car and put all the soldiers on standby."

There was an air of silence in the room as the picture went from the tactical map to inside the train car, which was then almost immediately filled with the sounds of gasps. The draconic sabre-wolf appeared to be in the throes of orgasm, glowing green liquid shooting out from the alien member and landing on the black skin of his chest. The bed had already started to collapse under the increased weight of the creature, the hands and legs that had been strapped to it completely free as they wiggled in the air. Only a few patches of fur remained on the expanding body, most of the flesh now a deep black with glowing green lines on it. All that remained was the hybrid's head, his eyes squeezed shut as his mouth was frozen open in pleasure, and even that had begun to mutate as a pair of tentacles began to push out from his muzzle while his horns began to wiggle of their own accord.

"Serathin!" August yelled into the microphone. "You're almost here, you have to hold on for a little longer!" the Siberian tiger, as well as the rest of the staff, continued to watch the monitor as the words seemed to settle down the transforming creature slightly. When most of the thrashing seemed to cease August pushed the talk button once more. "Serathin?"

A loud crash filled the air when August suddenly dropped the microphone to the floor as Serathin opened his eyes for the first time since they re-established contact. They were no longer the golden eyes of the draconic sabre-wolf, instead they had turned a bright green with a yellow ring around a reptilian pupil. The tiger knew those eyes well, they were the eyes of a Bal'Kar, and as though to prove how far gone their subject was another two sets of eyes suddenly came into view. The controller tentacles seemed to extend out from where the hybrid's wings had been as they seemed to curiously regard the camera, then as they pulled away to show that the last of Serathin's head had been converted to that of the Bal'Kar. The only thing that distinguished him as his former self was a set of saber teeth framed by a long, electric green tongue tentacle, the computer seemed to topple backwards and the feed of the camera was lost.

Everyone stared at the static on the screen, completely dumbfounded at what they had just witnessed. After a few seconds the screen flickered back to the tactical display, which continued to warn that the train was still in the proximity of Las Vegas. No one seemed to be able to move, even some managed to look around at each other no one actually spoke as everyone seemed to be at a loss. The only one that seemed to have his wits about him was Major Amaro, though August quickly followed suit when he saw that the husky had reached for a phone.

"What... what do you think you're doing?" August asked when he found his voice.

"Something we should have done since the beginning, Dr. Winters." Amaro replied curtly as he dialed in a number and waited a few seconds before he spoke again. "This is Major Amaro of the Starpoint Facility, we have had a full containment failure of the specimen and I am authorizing deployment of project Supernova. I repeat, we have had a full containment failure, lock onto the train holding the specimen and eradicate with extreme prejudice once it has left the hot zone or if it leaves the car. Authorization code Delta-Seven-Six-Zulu-Four-Alpha-Alpha-Four-Omega-Delta-Alpha."

August ran towards the officer and was about to open his mouth in protest when his muzzle was met by a meaty fist with such force that it knocked him backwards onto the floor. "You are DONE here, Winters," Amaro growled as those closest to the Siberian tiger snapped out of their trance enough to help the injured scientist to his feet, blood trailing down his white fur from his nose. "No more chances, no more extensions, I don't care if that monster signed a formal document that said he'd only play patty-cake. It is within striking distance of a major U.S. city and that railcar will hardly support it, much less contain it. If it gets within city limits and we lose it-"

"Then what Amaro, huh?" August replied through the tissues applied to his bloody nose. "These creatures are able to mimic their old forms and infect people rather easily, what has stopped them from sneaking into every city, converting a few people into other Bal'Kar, and then leave as chaos ensues? There is something deeper here, Amaro, and you're about to destroy the best lead we have towards it!"

"You can try again with the next one," Amaro replied gruffly, this time the others around August had to restrain the tiger as he made a jump to try and attack him. The husky glanced back and smirked, then continued onwards with his retinue of soldiers. Only one stayed behind, Nate running towards August as he calmed down enough for the others to let him go.

"This can't be over," Nate said, "not when we're so close."

"This isn't over by a longshot," August replied with a growl as he turned to the other members of the staff. "Alright everyone, I need you all to keep working as hard as possible so that we can try and get the specimen here. Try and keep me informed of the situation in here by radio, though be sparse about it because I don't want them knowing what we're doing. This soldier and I are going to try and hail mary."

As August and Nate began to leave one of the other researchers piped up. "Sir, whatever military code Amaro used locked us out of the system!" she shouted. "We can't do anything from these consoles but watch!"

"Then watch," August replied. The two felines ran out of the room and down the hallways, all of which had their warning klaxons going off as they did. When they reached August's room the tiger immediately ran towards his own personal computer and turned it on, tapping his fingers impatiently as he waited to log on. The panther watched curiously as August went into the DoD database and imputed several commands into the screen.

"Are you trying to override the Major's command?" Nate asked, to which August shook his head.

"No doubt I'm locked out like the others," August explained as the schematics for the train popped onto the screen. "However I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, like the hidden camera and speaker that I had one of the guys who owed me a favor secretly install in the quarantine car. It runs on a separate frequency to everything else, so it should still work for me."

After a few moments the input screen faded to black, then expanded to the full screen view as the picture came into focus. At first they thought that the camera hadn't been installed properly as it was just blurred black and green colors, but they soon realized that it was the creature's body as it moved away and allowed it to focus. Both males had their jaws hang open at the sight; between the times that they had last seen the creature and now it had grown extensively, filling the rather large rail car almost completely. It was hard to see it contours of the body as the light had been destroyed by the flailing tentacles, though there was sunlight that streamed in from several rather large holes in the metal walls and ceiling. It was truly a fearsome sight to behold, and though it wasn't even near them August could see and feel his hands tremble as he reached over and grabbed the microphone.

"Serathin?" August said softly, and almost immediately the writhing mass of tentacles stopped and they soon saw the glowing orbs of two eyes stare in their general direction. "Serathin, its Dr. Winters, if you can understand me then please nod your head." The two stared as the head of the Bal'Kar slowly drifted towards the camera, the glint of bony protrusions and sharp teeth glinted in the light as it moved. "You are in serious danger, if you don't give any indicator that you can understand us then we don't know if we can help you."

For a few seconds nothing seemed to happen, but slowly the Bal'Kar seemed to nod his head which caused them both to breathe a sigh of relief. "Listen, we don't have much time," August explained. "You have two fighter planes that are streaking towards you right now with a prototype plasma bomb, the second that that you are outside of a certain range they are going to use it on you to destroy the entire train."

The two watched as the Bal'Kar tilted his head, then raised one of the huge, spiked tentacles that had been his arm and began to pierce the side of the car. "He's going to run." Nate warned.

"Serathin no!" August shouted, though all he could hear on their end was the sound of screeching metal. "If you leave now they're going to drop the bomb early! If there is any shred of that sabre-wolf inside there we need him in order to prevent you from dying!"

As they continued to look at the screen the Bal'Kar's destruction of the wall of the railcar ceased and it looked back towards the camera. They began to wonder what the creature was going to do when they saw the many tentacles of the creature begin to wrap around the main body. As the black rubber flesh made contact with itself a mass of small, bright green tendrils seemed to burst from the seams for a few seconds before the skin merged together. Slowly the hulking creature began to fold in on itself, its form shrank dramatically as it continued to compress down. Finally as it reached a normal size the creature's skin erupted all at once with those same small tentacles before the glow left and they shrank down further until they mimicked fur.

Nate and August were rendered speechless for the second time as the tentacles that had once been huge bashers with bone spikes shrunk back to form blue-scaled fingers, the same process happening to Serathin's toes as they formed out of the shrunken, merged tentacles of his body. His controllers remained out until the end before the eyes disappeared and the tendrils that had formed the mouth twisted together and extended outwards into a pair of wing membranes. The last of the former draconic saber-wolf's body shifted back into place as he wagged his two-foot-long tongue before that slid back into his canine muzzle and shifted back to a normal tongue. "And why should I trust you?" Serathin asked as he cracked his neck, flexing his body as his fur shifted unnaturally from time to time.

"Look, all we wanted to do was try and communicate," August replied. The tiger was slightly dumbfounded, while he had always insisted that a Bal'Kar could communicate while hidden in their former form, he had no idea he would actually be able to talk to one.

"Oh really, so had I not taken the sample you would have, what, cultivated a Bal'Kar just so you could have a conversation?" Serathin replied. "We have heard such words from your kind before, and yet our screams fell on deaf ears. There is nothing left we have to discuss, we have escaped from this kind of situation once before, and we will do so again together."

The two males looked at each other in question, but before they could ask their radio suddenly crackled to life. "Dr. Winters, we have a flier coming in from the south!" the voice over the radio shouted. "Its Project Excalibur sir, and he's making a beeline for the train! Contact in two minutes!"

"Crap, if Amaro sees another Bal'Kar on his way then he's going to blow that train and get them both killed," Nate said as he checked his watch. "We've got six minutes until it leaves the red zone and gets behind the cover of the mountains, and only two minutes before the other Bal'Kar blows the whole operation early, and that's if this one doesn't bail now. You better get to convincing him that we're on his side."

August swallowed hard as he pondered his options, watching on the screen as the disguised Bal'Kar stared at the camera intently waiting for his answer. Never in his life had he thought that his theory would ever be used for real, and as the seconds ticked by he realized that such an opportunity was slipping out of his fingers. With Amaro in control of their systems all they had left was one camera feed, each other, and a Bal'Kar in a train hundreds of miles away from them that didn't trust him. When the tiger continued to be speechless the former hybrid began to walk towards one of the larger holes in the side of the train.

"We can get you Sarkov!" August finally blurted out, and as the two felines watched the Bal'Kar stopped and slowly turned back around to look at the camera. "We know that the Bal'Kar hold him responsible for the destruction of your kind and we want to help you stop him. If you leave that train now then this base will be closed down, and any resources I could give you would be closed off."

The two waited for a few seconds, the only sound in the room was their breathing and the beep of the countdown timer on Nate's watcher before Serathin responded, "you have an interesting offer, and I do owe you for my life it seems. Let's go ahead and disarm this rather tense situation and then discuss it from there, deal?"

"Yes, deal!" August nearly shouted in relief.

"Very well, what do you need me to do?"

"We need you to access the train's connection to the military satellite and override the command that the military gave to terminate the experiment." August instructed, seeing a sneer of disgust come over the saber-wolf's lips. "Once we stop them from launching the plasma bomb I can go back to the command center and get the authorization to usurp Amaro from the system and regain control of the facility. During this time Project Excalibur can't be seen on the sat nav system, otherwise they'll launch early despite being so close to a major city."

As Serathin gave the two a curt nod and began to dig around the remains of the furniture for a computer, Nate gave August a worried look. "Do you really think it's wise that we give a Bal'Kar access to military grade technology?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"We despise technology," both of them heard over the speaker as Serathin spoke while he searched. "I understand it now, how inefficient it is to transfer data over such primitive, non-biological components. There are such better processes that we have, of course I don't expect you to understand."

"Not all species have psychic links where we can communicate to each other through thought," August said.

"We speak through lust, it is far better," Serathin replied as he finally pulled up the laptop and watched as a thick green ooze poured out of it, "and also waterproof. It appears I will need a replacement for this, where's the nearest computer terminal I can access?"

"That would be the vault, two cars ahead of you," August instructed. "You only have five minutes left, can you make it past the locks in time?"

Serathin nodded as he grabbed the small camera and transmitter from the wall before he punched in the code to the keypad, the metal door sliding open in front of him. As the hybrid walked into the next car they saw him once more enter the correct keys into the next locks, which chirped before the lights turned green. "I was given access to the cycler decryption algorithm ahead of time," Serathin explained as he passed the next break between the cars and entered into the vault.

Once he was inside Serathin looked around, feeling the computer banks hum with electricity as he walked over to one of the consoles and sat down in the chair. "Every time I try to leave they just pull me back in..." he muttered as he began to type in commands as soon as the screen lit up. "Without my wrist computer I'm going to have to do everything manually, how much time do I have left?"

"Four minutes and change," Nate replied once he looked at his watch.

"Not enough time to disarm the system from here," Serathin said as he sat back for a second, his hands behind his head as he looked at the screen. "Hijacking the remote signal to the bomb might detonate it, trying to ground the jet isn't going to work without a remote link, and anything else is going to take too long. Wait... I know, you said that this Amaro called in the strike, which means that if I can find his abort code you can call it in and stop the detonation!"

August swallowed hard as the hacker once more got to work, though all he and Nate could do was look at each other. Both of them knew the consequences of doing such a thing, if they weren't outright stopped the second either of the felines used the code to stop the bomb they would be accountable for actions that could be seen as treasonous. In the eyes of the military and the government this was the protocol to take care of a Bal'Kar threat, eliminate it before it has a chance to have a significant impact on their population. To call in an abort using a stolen code... they would be lucky if they kept their freedom, much less their jobs.

"What do we do, August?" Nate asked. "Do we save a monster or save our skins? Even if Amaro vaporizes the project we have a chance to start over, but we can't do that if we're in prison."

The Siberian tiger and panther held hands, neither of them speaking as the timer continued to tick down and the hybrid continued to type away. As August watched he couldn't believe how far the thief had come, even though he now looked almost the same as before save for those glowing green eyes, he could tell that there was something more beneath the skin. His lover was right, how much were they willing to sacrifice to save a creature that could turn on them at the drop of the hat? They had gotten the data they needed, knew the creatures were intelligent and capable of understanding them, but no one would believe them after a court martial stripped them of everything. But, the tiger realized as his eyes widened slightly, it didn't have to be both of them.

"Only one of us needs to make this call," August said as he picked up the terminal phone. "My word is going to have more authority and when this is all over I can sacrifice my title to keep myself out of prison. It might sack the current program, but if you and the others can pin this on me and stay together you might all be able to continue your progress with Serathin."

"Are you sure?" Nate replied. "You know that even with your rank you might still take a hard fall, and we'll never be able to see each other..."

August just looked down and nodded before he was suddenly swept up in a hug, nearly dropping the phone as the panther squeezed him tight. They remained like that for some time in each other's arms until they heard over the radio that the train had left the red zone and the jets had locked onto their target. They looked back at the hybrid to see him still clicking away on the keyboard, green drool oozing out of his mouth as he concentrated. Just as they were about to ask if he was alright he slammed his finger down on the enter key and he pulled the camera around to look at the screen and the access code that flashed on it.

The Siberian tiger punched in the number to central command and waited to hear the voice on the other end, but just as the connection was made he was suddenly punched in the nose for the second time that day. August crumpled to the ground as he gripped his muzzle, looking up to see Nate mouth the word 'sorry' to him before he turned his attention back to the receiver. "Yes this is Nathan Blake of Starpoint, I have a command authorization code for the abort of Supernova," he said as he looked at the computer screen. "Delta-Epsilon-Two-One-Six-Alpha-Alpha-Omega-Delta-Bravo-Eight-Seven-Eight, this is an immediate mission abort, jet is to carry Supernova back to base immediately."

August watched as there was a slight pause before Nate's eyes widened and his hand went to his mouth. "How long until the payload reaches the target?" the panther asked as his hand then went up to his forehead. "Shit shit shit... um..." he looked back down at the screen as his brain spun to try and think of a solution before he gasped, "deactivate the bomb via remote link!"

Meanwhile Serathin waited patiently as he continued to point the camera at the computer. "Hey, you guys got it?" His foot tapped the floor as one of his controller tentacles formed out of his left wing and looked at him. "I'm so glad I'm done with this technology when it comes to communication," he said. "Part of me wishes I could just smash the whole place up and be done-"

Suddenly the room was filled with the crunch of metal as the roof of the train car caved in, which caused the Bal'Kar to dive under one of the steel tables as the entire train seemed to heave. One of his arms quickly mutated out into a heavy basher hand, complete with bony protrusions that he slammed into one of the computer banks as the train began to tilt off the tracks. He quickly pulled himself off, the massive weight of his compressed form quickly caused the car to crash back onto the tracks as he felt the entire train shudder and buckle. To his surprise, though, it held, and once things settled down he was able to transform his hand back to its guise as he slowly stood up from under his hiding spot.

The hybrid's face turned to shock as he looked at the missile that stuck out from the roof of the car that had imbedded itself halfway into the vault where the sample that started it all used to be. He leapt backwards and scrambled as far away from the car as possible, seeing the words 'project Supernova' and 'warning: plasma weapon' printed on the side of it. The lights on the weapon continued to blink as he pressed his back against the opposite vault door, only to feel it get torn away as he fell on his back to see a purple-and-blue-furred dragon grin down at him from the other car.

"Need a hand?" Vene asked as he helped the other Bal'Kar up, their glowing eyes regarding one another as Serathin got to his feet while Vene looked past him to the destruction. "What on earth is that?"

"Another of Sarkov's presents to the Bal'Kar I imagine." Serathin replied as their tongues began to elongate out of their mouths and turn a bright green. "I felt your lust while I worked along with the others, so I take it you know what I want to do."

"Oh yes, quite the stir you've caused in the hive," Vene said with a chuckle. "Although I daresay the others have become preoccupied with their merging into another that is very... powerful." Both Bal'Kar shuddered as they both shared in the pleasure of the lustful messages they had been receiving. "Nonetheless are you sure you want to do it, delaying being able to partake in the Feast when we return?"

"I want to try," Serathin replied. "This one isn't like the others, and anything we can do to stop the bloodshed and spread our lusts without resistance is one we have to take."

The two draconic creatures leaned over to embrace one another, their slurper tongues entwined around one another as the coupling began to bend under their combined weight. Just as Serathin was about to lean back he felt Vene's slurper dive deep into his maw and down his throat. Green bio-extract began to ooze out of both their bodies as a large lump traveled up Vene's thick tongue and passed his lips before it pushed its way into Serathin's maw. The hybrid's new body easily took the egg, his throat bulging lewdly as the oblong object slid down into his gullet where it disappeared.

"A parting gift for you," Vene grinned as their tongues slid back and transformed back to normal, both of them giving each other a lustful look before the dragon took off. "I'll be around, and if it works out I'll drop by and visit!"

Serathin grinned and waved the dragon off before he looked down at the already damaged coupling. With a good, hard kick the metal snapped and the rest of the train, including the train car that held a plasma bomb, fell behind. He watched the cars disappear into the landscape of the desert, though his surroundings had already started to turn to mountains as he got into the next car. He hoped there would be a video feed in there as well, he had much to hash out with the good doctor before his arrival...