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Part 4.

It was early morning in New York. Sunlight was greeting soon-to-be bustling streets. Public transport was already in the move, especially early birds making up the transit. Charlie hadn't been in the great apple for a while. "The actual pharmacy is just a front for the New York labs. Actual research and development happens here..." the arachnid looked over the details of her coordinates as she jumped from dock to dock, quickly clearing distances using the neighboring fishing ship masts. "91... 92..." Charlie stuck to one of the masts as her eyes oversaw the target warehouse. "Abandoned Warehouse in Dock #93, check."

"If only Samson could see me. The thing about broad light investigation is that you can't blow it when you have scorpion speed and reflexes." Smiling to herself the arachnid metamorph swung herself down the masts and stealthily jumped from container to container. The few people at the docks were too busy loading and unloading crates to bother looking at the blindingly fast blur moving towards the off-beat warehouse. The last container groaned a bit as she landed on it. "Rust's causing this one to start falling apart," Charlie observed as she ran a hand over the surface of the large container. She looked around, the place was deserted. This cargo area didn't seem to have been used for years. Her eyes looked at the actual building: it was huge. The outside didn't look like anything people would glance twice at. "Camouflage from the dock workers, check. Gonna be careful though, don't wanna blow my entrance."

Her powers made scaling the walls a cinch. She took her time to peer inside the windows whenever she could. "Just stacks of old boxes and flickering broken light-bulbs on the ceiling. I've seen this before. Though I must say the lack of bats hanging around is a plus this time around!"

Charlie used one of the higher windows for access, making sure not to make a sound. The inside of the warehouse were dark, but her eyes adjusted in no moment. She was on her way down when she noticed how unusual the lack of a look-out or incognito sentry around the place was. "Gary's the best we have in tracking people and finding bases. He didn't botch this up..." she was convinced this was the place. Charlie just had to investigate.

Landing on the floor, Stinger carefully made her way around the leftover boxes and useless discarded junk. "Ugh, I hadn't noticed before, but the smell around here is disgusting. Why base yourself by the smelly coast? Wish bad guys would make their lairs near a pie factory instead. Aw man, I should've had a bigger breakfast."

The investigation wasn't turning up anything out of the ordinary. There were no stairs to go down to, and she couldn't find switches or buttons anywhere. "Ugh, smell's at the worst in here. Damn you Gary, what were you so distracted with that you couldn't get me the right place?!" Charlie groaned as she entered one of the cabins. It used to be a security booth from the looks of it. "Maybe if I..." she looked down the table, widening her eyes as she found what she had been looking for. One push of an inconspicuous button was all that was needed for a hidden door to slide off behind Charlie. "Gary Turner, I think I might just love you."

The inside of the secret room looked significantly more polished than its façade. Immaculately white painting covered the walls and ceiling. Charlie could tell this was the place just by looking at the elevator. As she approached it though, an automated voice came to life. It was scratchy and almost unintelligible. "ERROR. Please present- present your ID. ID. Present your. ERROR. Please..." it died down, the elevator wasn't responding anymore.

Charlie arched an eyebrow, "Well, glad they take good care of their security. Hmm, well, if they won't get the door for me!" with a grin under her mask, Charlie grabbed at the elevator doors and began to pry them open with her incredible strength. "Easy peasy. Looks like a bad fall though," she peered down the shaft. The elevator was right above her too. "Curious." She narrowed her eyes.

The arachnid jumped over to one of the shaft's surface and began her descent by wall-crawling. Every gravity-bending step of the way she thanked the fact the lights were still on. She hadn't brought her night vision with her. The vertical tunnel extended for a good 30ft until she was able to meet her second double doors. "Not good, haven't seen any shafts connected here. The security system looked to be busted, but if there's anyone over this side... let's just say it's going to make my job harder."

The doors budged a few inches with as little sound as possible. Charlie peered through and was surprised to see no movement down the hall. "The stench though, ugh... Don't these guys ventilate? What the hell is that smell anyway? It's not fish..." she groaned, putting her super strength to work once more. The doors receded to give way to the scorpion that jumped in and clung to the ceiling of the hall. Shifty eyes made sure to scout the area ahead and below, but Charlie could find not one security guard or scientist wandering around. "Curioser and curioser... Where's that damn cat when you need him? A riddle would work to get my mind off this tension." Charlie shook her head off the Goosebumps this silence was giving her and began to crawl forwards, keeping an eye out for security cameras.

The bullet-proof glass walled laboratories and work stations were abandoned. She could see they had been given recent use though. Some of the doors were still open, computers were still on. There were only empty chairs though. The pervading scent continued to make her nauseous however, "God-damn, I'm wearing a mask! Haven't these guys heard of ambient deodorant? Nerds they had to be."

A quick turn to the right at an intersection told Charlie she was going in the right way. "Specimen and Sample storage." The sign read. She quickly launched herself from the ceiling and gripped the hall mark to flip herself and continue heading down the new hall's walls.

Charlie looked at the double doors to the room ahead. "Should I even bother with stealth?" she pondered to herself, as she finally dropped to the ground. The lights inside the storage room were flickering; something was telling her there was a reason behind all these anomalies. "Maybe it's donut morning at the cafeteria. Wonder if that place smells better than this...?"

The door made a slight creak as Charlie slipped inside. Not even her mask could stop the wave of foul odor that suddenly smacked her in the face like a days old mackerel. Except there was no fish in the room. "Madre de Dios..." her eyes became as wide as plates.

The walls were a faded red splattered over once pristine white. She was quick to notice it: It was everywhere, not just the walls. The windows, the floor, the equipment and tables; everything was stained. A long trail of red led Charlie's eyes to the main attraction however. White coats, black vests, helmets, broken glasses; she could recognize human vestiges among the piles of personal effects. The smell of fish outside didn't seem so unpleasant to Charlie anymore.

Dismembered limbs laid one on top of the other, long dry. Severed heads with smashed-open skulls, spilled guts and torsos cut down in erratic patterns. Males, females, elderly; all slain, cut-up, disemboweled, and put together into what seemed to be the smelliest, most disgusting ode to human gore one could ever see.

Cold, long gone stares of agony all pointed at Charlie. She could picture the screams in her head, their expressions of helplessness as their slayer got to them. Messages were scrawled over the walls by using what Charlie could tell was more human blood.

I FEEL FINE.

I CAN LET GO NOW.

The stuff of nightmares. "What the hell...? Who? Who could do this?!" a panicked Stinger found enough strength in her to take a few steps forwards. Her eyes were paralyzed, jumping from diced fingers to what appeared to be the mutilated remains of even more people. The scene was so bizarre and nauseating that Charlie couldn't take it anymore. "Ahhh!" Using one of the metal tables for support her mask slid off and she almost threw up. Fortunately for her composure, all she ended up going through with was a few hacks and some dry-heaving. She felt fine after a couple of minutes, but the dizziness caused her to kneel down. Charlie needed to catch her breath.

"You like the DÉCOR! I am sooooooo PLEASED!" a loud cackle from behind Charlie caused her to suddenly spring to her feet and turn around, arms brought up in defense. There was no one behind her.

"OH! I would have preferred you had TOLD me you were coming in ADVANCE! I would have arranged the PLACE better!" the voice was getting closer. Charlie's mask slid on and she turned around to throw a punch, this time she would get them. But she ended up hitting nothing. "DARLING! Please! Where are you AIMING at?"

Stinger groaned in annoyance. She still felt woozy from the impression of the corpse pile. She wasn't scared anymore however; she could only feel irritated and wholly pissed off. A gasp escaped Charlie's lips as two pairs of fingers positioned themselves on her shoulders. "W-what's wrong with me...? Legs are not responding! Arms frozen in place!"

"I am RIGHT HERE!" A sudden sensation of localized pain in her shoulders made her gasp again. Her back was suddenly burning, searing pain coursing through her shoulders. It felt as if two hanging hooks had been suddenly sunk past her armor and into her flesh. Blood was pouring through the wound; she couldn't even see what was going on because her neck would refuse to move.

"Move...! Move body, move!" Charlie let out a scream of pain, but it couldn't compare to the loudness of her mental commands in her head. She could hear the squelching of bloody tissue and muscle as one of the hooks retreated from right shoulder wound. "Damnit! Damnit! Am I really way over my head in here?! What the hell did I get myself into, why didn't I listen to Jim...?"

"Oh I MUST SAY! I expected something more than a LITTLE scream!"

"Am I going to die...?" the female arachnid began to wallow in fear. Every second seemed to last an agonizing minute. "Ma, pa... Am I not going to see you two again...?" Months into her circumstances, she had never once considered a situation like this. She had been sworn to protect, she couldn't be part of the fallen. No, she wasn't going to be part of the fallen. "MOVE GODAMNIT! I'M NOT DYING HERE!" That was all she needed to get her reflexes going. A surge of adrenaline caused every muscle in her body to suddenly tense as she turned around and parried the incoming would-be fatal blow. Charlie had to ignore the pain in her pierced shoulder in order to get out of this jam.

"AGH!" the assailant's grunt of surprise was delightful music to Charlie's ears. She wasn't looking at it; all she wanted was to punch their face in whatever it looked like. "AHH!" her fist was spot on this time. In the few seconds that attack bought her, the scorpion clenched her fist even harder and her pincers came out. Using their amazing grip and strength she managed to catch and pull the creature's claw off, freeing herself finally.

But there was no time to lose. Charlie crouched and brought her arms back. Whatever this thing was, she had to incapacitate it as fast as possible. Her other pincer came out and snapped together. She then thrust forwards, delivering a double pincer smash to the creature's abdomen. The sheer strength of that blow convinced Charlie she had regained her composure. The impact sent her attacker flying several feet into the air, crashing against one of the bloody walls of the storage room. As it bounced off it crashed into one of the many tables, becoming buried under debris.

A resounding thud marked her successful counter-attack. Charlie fell to her knees again, panting. The adrenaline was slowly dying down. She could feel her bleeding shoulders. Her eyes looked at the open wound: Whatever that creature had used had managed to pierce her chitin shoulder-guards, popped them open as if they had been bubble wrappings. Her breathing became harsher as she concentrated in regenerating that part of her exoskeleton, aiming to at least seal the wound with some of the black material. She hissed as the chitin covered her aching shoulders once more; she just hoped she had knocked that creature out for good.

A stirring of the debris dispelled that wishful thinking. Charlie glared at the source of movement, still holding by her shoulders.

"You," the scraps of metal and concrete began to fall off, "Shouldn't have done THAT." The creature rose up to its full stature of six foot six. Its claws were twitching, tail swishing behind it. Charlie had a good look at it this time.

The creature was a male covered in pale green scales. Spikes protruded from his shoulders and went down his spine, only ending at the tip of his thick tail. A well-built frame adorned his blood-soaked front with hard muscle, a six pack and defined pectorals. Large biceps and worked-biceps explained its strength and agility earlier, even if clearly, this psychopath was thrilled with taking his time. Charlie was quick to notice the three clawed fingers on the reptile's hands. Two of each of the sickle-shaped talons was fresh with blood. Her blood. This weaponized design for his fingers was duplicated in his footpaws, which made him an even more formidable opponent to be wary of. "This guy can't hit me again. Not once. I'll be sent back as scorpion sushi otherwise." Charlie's thoughts focused on the reptilian's identity and responsibility though, "Who are you? Did you do all of this...? This slaughter?! Answer me!"

A sharp-teeth showing grin appeared on the pointy snout of the metamorph, "SLAUGHTER?" he cackled, a long tongue hanging to the side as he began to pant. Charlie grit her teeth as suddenly the room was filled with incessant, screaming laughter fit for an asylum patient. "SLAUGHTER! You can't SPELL it without LAUGHTER! It's TRUE!" he boomed as he banged the nearest table with a closed fist, unnerving Charlie. "OH but what a LOVELY name you have PICKED for me, lady. I think I will USE it now!"

"This guy's a nut-case," Charlie thought with a grimace. The pile of corpses behind her was still a fact, though. "He even got the security guards. The smell and the dry blood... This probably happened a couple days ago. Just what is this guy still doing here? Probably a good thing he didn't get out; maybe he couldn't. No... he's strong, he could've gone out the same way I did. Maybe he didn't want to get out. Maybe he wanted to kill every single person in this facility... Damnit! I just hope Christy's friend is hiding in a safe place." She looked straight at the psycho with a glare, showing she wasn't afraid anymore. Charlie couldn't allow fear to compromise her mission anymore; the fucker had to go down. "Alright chuckles. You think I'm gonna let you off the hook? You got another thing coming. The Stinger doesn't let maniacs like you loose!"

"STINGER?" Slaughter was still grinning. He stomped the ground with his clawed feet and let out another barrage of laughter, "YES! I'll CARVE that into your skull when I'm done SEVERING your head! AHAHAHAHA!" Charlie gasped as Slaughter kicked into a super-fast dash. It took him literally a second to close distance with her.

"Damn he's fast! Gotta move!" Charlie sprung from the floor and stuck to the ceiling as the reptile's talons slashed everything in his way. The tables and instruments fell apart in mere moments, Charlie wasn't surprised. "His claws are so sharp. Fighting this guy face to face is gonna be impossible! But maybe if I can get in range for a single sting..." she gasped. "He looks like a reptile though. Maybe I can use the same trick I used with Fire Cracker to get him..." she recalled her fight against the pyro kinetic metamorph, which concluded after she had used a cooling agent to lower his temperature and force him to hibernate.

"What are you DOING all the way up there, Stingy-Stinger?!" the laughing maniac sang as if he was playing some twisted form of tag. "Get down, right this INSTANT!"

Charlie narrowed her eyes and briefly looked to her side. "Sorry, handsome. I don't feel like playing your game. How about a change of pace though?"

"GRRR!" Slaughter snarled like a beast and suddenly jumped towards Charlie, talons ready to shred armor, skin, meat and bone apart. The scorpion bounced herself away and braced as she crashed past the window to the next room. Charlie quickly flipped and landed with a rain of crystal, then quickly broke into a mad dash. "HIDE and SEEK? Really! I LOVE how you think, little bug! HEEHEEHEE!"

"I regret not having scouted this place better. Everything in that storage room was broken, and I don't know where they keep their coolants. Got to keep moving, keep my distance..." Charlie thought as she turned corners fast, moving in what seemed to be erratic patterns. She was in fact memorizing the layout of the facility. Charlie figured she had lost Slaughter after reaching the other end of the hidden base.

"Eep!" a meek little sound alerted Charlie as she passed one of the offices. She backtracked quickly to find the source of the squeaky voice.

She made sure to call out in a whisper, "Who's there?!" Charlie looked around desperately; she had found a survivor! Disappointment filled her mind for a brief instant as she checked under the table to find a woman but not Christy's friend, who clearly had the name of a male. With the amount of blood she had already seen though, even if she found Minerva personnel she would take every victory. "Look, I know I look weird, but I'm here to help! What's your name?"

The woman was cowering in place, clearly as shocked as Charlie had been initially when she came across the grim monument Slaughter had put together earlier. The woman could talk however, "K-Karla... Karla Madison. A-are you a metamorph...?"

Charlie blinked at the woman's readiness. Seeing the name tag with "Psychiatrist" on her shirt became sure this was an employee of the foundation. "Yes. I'm Stinger. Everything's going to be alright doc; I'm here to help like I said." Stinger closed the door behind her and helped the woman up, continuing the talk with a low tone. Madison was still shaking. "How long have you been down here?"

"D-day and a half..." Charlie's eyes widened. How the hell had this woman survived for so long? Those victims looked at least a day since expired! This woman had to know.

"Let's cut to the chase. I know your organization's been up to foul plays with metamorphs, and I'm here to stop that," Charlie explained, "But first, I have to stop Edward and his sharp hands here from turning us and anybody out there into a pretty messed up meat statue. I need you to tell me everything you know."

"H-he... he won't leave."

"Why is that?"

"Because I-I'm still here."

"Yeah I didn't get that part either. Not that I'm complaining, but why exactly are you still alive?"

"B-because..." Madison's lips trembled as she spoke. She attempted to make out the sentences, but stopped dead in her tracks as the door behind them was cracked open by a sharp claw.

"HERE'S JOHNNY!" Charlie saw the maniac reptile's eye focusing on them with a glint of happiness. "I found you, little bug. HEE-HEE!"

"Shit," Charlie quickly scooped Madison up and threw her around her back. Her sticky skin allowed for Madison to cling to Charlie even if she had no strength for a good grip. "Hold on, doc!" The door was battered down by the laughing Slaughter, but before he could reach them Charlie jumped against one of the cubicle's walls and punched through.

"AW, you know that is against the RULES, missy! The WINNER decides what to do with the LOSER!" Slaughter taunted and launched himself after Stinger.

"Quick, tell me everything you know while I'm crawling away. Do it!" Charlie was running on walls and bouncing between offices as the mad chase began. She needed to know everything that could possibly give her the upper-hand against the killer.

"H-He's a MARU! A metamorph armored reptile unit. He's the Shadow Division's newest creation, a hybrid between human and dinosaur DN A...!"

"Doc, tell me something I DON'T know!" grunted Charlie as she narrowly avoided getting her tail sliced in half by one of Slaughter's attacks. His maddening laughter was only making it harder for Charlie to keep focused on the talk.

"He's an RS-Type. I'm not a geneticist but the talk was that they seem to have improved on the DX5 serum to allow mixing two different genes. This means he's two dinosaurs into one!"

"Which two?! And please don't say Crazy and Dangerous!"

"The genes they used were velociraptor and stegosaurus!"

Charlie groaned, "I'd wager that's why he's so fast. And how he found us so quick! If I know my sci-fi movies right..." the wall Charlie was about to stick to suddenly crumbled down with the laughing Slaughter crashing past it and toppling the scorpion and psychologist over. "T-tracker!" she gasped, narrowly avoiding being decapitated and losing only a few hairs in the process as he took a swing.

Charlie kicked Slaughter off of her body and made sure Madison was alright. "Doc, are you alright?!"

Madison was panting more from the adrenaline than the damage done to her body. "I-I'm okay, Stinger, fortunately you aren't as heavy as you look!"

"Wait a minute, are you saying I look FAT?!" Charlie glared back but instantly had to back flip to escape Slaughter's tail. Her agility allowed her to get a good kick in before landing. Slaughter was sent reeling through past three consecutive walls from the sheer force of her blow.

"SLAUGHTER LIKES THE FEISTY ONES! HAHAHA!"

"We have to keep moving!" Madison cried for dear life as Slaughter's cackles of joy could be heard even after the dust settled in. An angry Stinger complied. "He called himself Slaughter, why?"

"Because he's a fucking drama queen. I'm asking the questions here!" Charlie sped off once again. "So he's a raptor and steg-stag... whatever! Do you know any other specifics? Any other powers? Weaknesses?"

"The DX6 lead scientist commented about cancelled out properties turning certain mutually exclusive genes into junk DNA. Some of the traits from both dinosaurs don't exist in Slaughter!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know!"

"Where's the lead scientist?"

"Dead."

"Do you know where they kept his papers?!"

"No, but they had their computers on the day Slaughter went out of control! It's corridor F7. You need to take a detour here, Stinger!"

"Alright, doc. Get ready to brush up on your dino-facts!" Charlie began to pump her legs harder than ever now, dashing through while following Madison's directions. She knew there was no time before Slaughter would eventually catch up to them. When they made it to F7 Charlie quickly left Madison by the desk.

"W-wait, why are you leaving me here?" the psychiatrist argued as Charlie cleared some distance between them.

"You're not the target, Karla. If you were, you would've already been dead a day ago!" Charlie looked about, keeping her guard up for any other surprise attacks. "So search through those files and tell me what I can do to beat this guy."

"Y-yes, I'll try my best!"

"Beat me? But we're having SO much fun, Stingey!" Charlie gasped as she detected the source of Slaughter's voice. He was getting close very fast. "Why don't I give you a HUG?!" the raptor hybrid pounced Charlie with open arms, then swiped his claws together.

"Sorry, allergic to hugs!" jumping onto Slaughter's shoulders she was startled to see his spikes rattling all of a sudden. "Holy sh-" her reflexes saved her. The ceiling was suddenly pierced by at least a dozen spikes. Landing back on the ground, the astonished scorpion simply stared. "You can do THAT?!"

The grinning psychopath turned to face her prey, "What can I say? I'm barrel of FUN!" Charlie then witnessed the white spikes made of bone suddenly regrow at a slow but steady pace.

"I'm gonna show you a barrel of fun, psycho. How's it coming doc?!"

"His scales, they...! Ahh!" Madison cried as a spike suddenly impaled the monitor she had been using to read.

"Today's computers. They are outdated SO fast!" Slaughter grinned before he was slugged in the face.

"Don't distract yourself!" the scorpion yelled after sending Slaughter bouncing several yards across the hall from her. "Go on, doc!"

"Y-yes, what I could gather was that his hide isn't as protective as it looks. It loses its thickness because the raptor DNA rejects the stegosaurus' armor! If we could maybe administer a tranquilizer...!"

"Or venom!" Charlie's eyes focused on her tail. "So he isn't as tough as Christy, that'll make things... GAH!" her train of thought was interrupted as another barrage of spikes flew down her way. "FUCK!" she screamed as one of the spikes got her left leg. "Nnghh...!"

"Look TIMMY, we got a BIG one! HEEHEEHEE!!" Slaughter emerged from the dust cloud that had kicked up from the earlier blow. Charlie struggled to stay on her feet.

"Sheer luck that spike missed a nerve. No time to take it out, he's coming to deal the finishing blow..." Charlie blinked from a realization as she fell to her healthy knee; a plan was in the works. It was risky, but it was all she had left.

"Now, Stinger Stinger STINGER!" Slaughter victoriously chimed as he sharpened his talons, licking his lips as he stood in front of the defeated scorpion.

Closer, closer. She let him get closer, "C'mon, keep gloating." Charlie thought as she panted. She held her ground, glaring right up at him, snapping her mandibles at him.

"Any LAST words before I redecorate the floor with your INTESTINES?"

"Only one. SCREAM!"

For once, Slaughter seemed to be confused, "What?" He suddenly found himself hissing in pain. Reptilian eyes open wide, the raptor looked back to see a segmented extremity whose tip was lodged deep into his neck, liquid rushing into his veins, "What's this? What are you DOING? Stop it! I feel weird, I FEEL WEIRD!"

"News flash, asshole. You ARE a weirdo!" Charlie yelled out as her toxic gland pumped her enemy full of her scorpion venom. She was so thorough that the stab wound began to fizzle audibly, like freshly poured soda in a glass.

"NO NO NO! This IS NOT part of the RULES! I will tear your tail APART!" the maniac reached back with his sharp claws, but his arms soon dropped back, hanging limp. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo...!"

"Fucking drama queen." Charlie panted with the unconscious raptor hybrid collapsed on top of her. He was breathing slowly, quiet for once. Looking over to the side she managed a weak "Doc, you okay?"

Madison nervously made it out of the wrecked work station, thankfully intact. She slowly walked to Charlie, legs trembling. "D-did you kill him?"

"No. He's just asleep. Nnghaaah!" Charlie summoned her strength to push the body of her paralyzed opponent to the side. Madison let out a small whimper as she tried to step away while Stinger grabbed at the bone-spike that had impaled her leg. "D-damn, this is gonna hurt... aaaahhh!" she let out a muffled scream as she pulled the spike out. Blood gushed out, but she sealed the large wound with strategically placed black chitin armor. "N-no running for a while, I guess..."

"H-here! Let me help you up, it's the least I can do..." Madison hurried to help Charlie up to her feet. "What about Slaughter?"

"I'll have my people come get him. He's proof of what Minerva was doing here, and with all the stuff in this place... and YOUR testimony, I'm sure we're set for them to take the fall."

"Y-you're going to make me testify against the people that made THIS?" Madison's eyes seemed to plead, but Charlie would have none of it.

"Whose psychiatrist were you, Karla?" Charlie narrowed her eyes at the doctor.

"I don't see how..."

"I've been telling the jokes so far. Humor me."

Madison looked down at the sleeping butcher, the remorseless killer who had kept her hostage in her work place for so long. She bit her lips, tears welling in her eyes. The woman couldn't hide it anymore. "It was me! I was given his files and told to convince him that he had no other choice but to offer his body for science. I spent a week feeding his head lies and deceiving him, making him think he was all alone, that he had no other worth...!"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?! You people are worse than HE is! Metamorphs aren't a joke!" Charlie groaned and closed an eye as she felt the sting in her leg burning, her growing irritation not helping. "So he was protecting you because of your lies? How does that make any sense...?"

"You don't understand!" Madison cried, "He was staying in here, waiting for me to leave...! He told me... he told me he'd murder everyone I've ever cared about if I did!!"

"Would you blame him for saying that to you?" Charlie coldly stated, finally able to stand on her own two feet. She was still ways from running and doing acrobatics, but at least she could move. Madison averted her gaze.

"I... I will testify."

"Damn right you will."

---

It took us a little while to get the elevator working. Slaughter hadn't damaged it. He'd only disabled security so people would have a hard time getting inside without Karla getting out first. He was crazy like that, crazy enough to wait that long. I pressed her for every last detail. She was the ideal witness and just what Jim needed; but imagine my face when Karla finally told me the human identity of our certified psychopath. You can already tell who it was, right?

I couldn't find it in me to tell that to Jim when I called him. He lectured me of course, but was glad I was in one piece. I wanted to be the one to tell Christy and Alina about her friend. Queen and a vehicle were on their way; I never realized this all had happened so fast. I escorted Karla out to the extraction chopper that came, but that sadly had been a mistake from my part. When I went back for Slaughter, the warehouse suddenly went up in flames.

No one had any idea what exactly had happened. But we all saw what came out of the burning building. It moved fast, it flew with bat-like wings, but it was not a Beta. It was green and it had a scorpion's tail like mine. It was carrying Slaughter away in its claws. Queen and her Knights couldn't intercept it in time. I knew who had sent that thing; I just couldn't wrap my head around the why.

Christy and Alina didn't take the news well, but if Christy had ever needed any more convincing, this was it. They officially applied to the Metamorph Division's R&D. Christy stormed off the moment I opened my mouth about him being a psychopath murderer now though. I'm sure Alina's taking care of her. I guess I suck at tactful talk.

Samson wasn't very pleased with my report. He gave me a hard hearing as usual, but Jim bailed me out... as usual. I apologized to him this time. Not to Samson though; I want my daily damn snack break. Jim is a special leader. I have a hard time working as part of a team, but he's the one that's looking out for me the most; I was wrong when I said he wasn't juggling people's lives in his hands. By letting me operate in this team, I'm also his responsibility.

The evidence was gone, but at least the witness was still protected and on her way to S.W.O.R.D. HQ. It would take us a while longer to actually nail the bastards at the Minerva Foundation with only one witness. I'm going to make sure they don't get to do this again, no matter what kind of idiots they were, they didn't deserve to be chopped up like that. It can't happen again. No one else can die.

I'll make sure of it.

---

The doors to Charlie's room opened, she closed her laptop. Alina and Christy were at the entrance. The scorpion stood to greet the two tall dinosaurs, their bodies now wearing their actual researcher getups, so they weren't naked. "Hey, Stinger. Thanks for having us over," Alina softly said. Christy was being quiet, so the brontosaurus pushed her friends forwards.

"H-hey." Christy seemed bashful for once. Charlie couldn't meet her eye to eye yet.

"C'mon, you two. All that was said and done is over. We have to move forwards, right?" Alina was doing the talking, this surprised Christy. The triceratops deigned herself to look at her new Metamorph Division partner.

"Hey, Charlie?" Christy was forcing herself to smile. She wasn't pissed at the scorpion, she wasn't even angry at herself anymore. She just wanted to make this work. They all had to work fast so they could get Milton back and help him back to his old self. As Stinger finally made eye contact, the triceratops actually stretched an open hand out, "You're alright in my book."

Charlie slid her mask off and, with renewed resolve, took the bigger woman's scaly hand to shake it firmly. "Welcome to the team, girls."

"Let's do our best, yay!" an exuberant Alina jumped forwards and suddenly seized both girls in her huge arms. The next moment, both reptile and arachnid were almost suffocating against her enormous breasts.

"A-Air... Ali...!" Christy managed to say while Charlie simply laughed.

The End.