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Michael walks carefully to his destination. It's not the best of locations to be headed to but at the same time it is better for what purpose he has in mind for the night. It'd cause quite a bit more trouble if he had to go to somewhere that was a bit trickier to get into without notice and the best chance at being able to pull off what he is planning is to do it without her knowing. So in the regard, Michael is glad that Alex has chosen to live effectively the life of squalor despite knowing full-well that not only is the money he's able to provide more than enough for her to live in a small apartment but she still has her own apartment that she's still paying from her own funds, an apartment from before she converted.

But for whatever reason she chooses to live on the streets, hiding away in a portion of the city that would be both difficult to get to but also makes for easy escapes. She has several of these dens scattered around the city as far as Michael has been able to determine. Done as partly for her own security given her inability to understand speech but also partly done as a means of convenience. Which one she uses is mostly which one is closest to where she is when she decides to go to bed. Michael is very thorough in everything he's done and has built up his reserves just for this one point. He knows the location and routes of everyone in the Underground and would know instantly if someone were to go missing. After she had fled that hospital she had fled to one of these little dens of hers. He knew she was there but didn't alert any of the others outside of Richard on the risk that she might have been contaminated. Especially when she didn't just immediately come right back.

She normally keeps an ear out for trouble but Michael was trained on how to move silently a long time ago. Add to that he intentionally had her run ragged the past night or two to make sure she was completely exhausted. Far less likely that she'd notice his approach and her mind already would be fogged up for her present state as well. A side-effect, intentional or not, of combining animalistic DNA and genetic materials to human bodies is that other aspects of animal physiology also carry over. And chief amongst them is the reproductive tract. Internally, her organs are still very much human, just potentially slightly differently sized, but still human nonetheless. Converts require that. Far too risky to go about making changes that if something goes wrong would spell the death of the person. But the reproductive tract only comes with the risk of being rendered sterile and that could be changed. And as she was given a fox's body, she also inherited a fox's reproductive tract. And Michael could fully smell just how deep into heat she currently was, even with perfumes to disguise it.

As he reaches her he quickly reaches over and jabs her in the stomach with an injector. A good part of it is a sedative amongst other things. He has no interesting in having to spend the entire time trying to fight her off while he's completing this task. Another part that's in the cocktail he just gave her will also maximize the chances that he will only need to do it this one time. It'd be a cruel thing to have to do it multiple times, especially when he's going to need her to be at her best when they go about the mission in a few days. Once her struggles have become muted enough that he is confident he can perform the deed without any undue risk he pulls down his pants and positions himself to enter her from behind. There is no effort made for him to enjoy what is going on, no effort to try and make her enjoy it. For the moment, all that matters is the task in front of him. To empty himself into her and to do it thoroughly enough that there will be no consideration about whether or not it was effective. She still tries to fight him off and he finds such an effort commendable, if pointless. Even still, he'd lose at least a bit of respect for her if she didn't at least try and stop him. Of course, the way their species is, unfortunately the most effective way to make sure that the deed is completed would put him into a situation where he cannot simply disengage and leave.

Even still, he does his best to try and minimize her discomfort. Making it any worse than absolutely necessary isn't going to do either of them any good. And since she's sedated it means she's in far less control over how her body is positioned, so after really starting to get into it and fully hilting himself he takes a moment to pause and adjust her body so that he can do the job as quickly, efficiently, and painlessly as possible. And then he just goes about carrying out his task. And in part due to the fact that he was intentionally trying to not enjoy the act all that much it ends up taking probably a bit longer than he would ultimately have liked but he's able to get the job done and finish. While waiting to detach Michael rests for the moment on top of her as she just cries and attempts to take herself to being somewhere else. He couldn't blame her for that. What he's done is unforgivable. He will not ask for her to forgive him for what he did but still feels the need to speak up, if for nothing else than for his own sake while waiting to be able to disengage and leave. The sedatives probably should be starting to work their way out of her system so she should start to be able to have some sensation of motion again, as he did not have any interest in leaving her particularly vulnerable. And since no longer needed to be driving himself into her he goes about adjusting her body again with the interest of letting her wait out the tie at least somewhat comfortably, even going so far as to grab a nearby pillow and place it underneath her. And after a minute or two of just waiting and letting her cry and dislodge herself from him he sighs before speaking up.

"I know you can't understand me right now and even if you could I doubt you'd have any willingness to listen but I just want to say that this was necessary. This was done to protect you. If there was a better way, I would have gone about doing it but this is for the best. I know you'll never forgive me for what I just did and I will never ask for it. But what we are trying to do is far more important than anything any of us really want or desire. This is the most effective thing I could do to protect you. And if it manages to save your life, I will consider all the hardship I just put you through completely justified. And if not, if everything goes without a hitch, then I apologize and you are free to use that against me."

Eventually he's able to soften enough that he's able to withdraw. And then without any preamble or further action towards her he pulls up his pants and leaves. In the end it doesn't really matter to him how she feels about it. Just another reason for her to want to kill him. And once everything is done, once everything has been made safe for all Morphs, he'll let her have her chance. But she's not some stupid kid anymore. She understands that there are things at stake far greater than she is and though she will likely refuse to understand his reasoning, she will not simply lash out at him at this point. That is simply not in her nature, despite his efforts to the contrary. Simply wouldn't do to have a blunted weapon at hand. Even still, he's going to need to inform the handlers to go about changing up the routes tonight and maybe the next few days. He'll see how things go but she'll almost certainly not be in the right headspace to be able to do her job effectively. If she hasn't gotten back to the level he needs her at for the mission then he'll take a much more aggressive stance in this but for now he'll simply let her be. No comfort he could provide would help at this point. There is simply no logic in it. Instead, he must be looking forward. Black is most definitely planning something. He knows it for a fact and he's not going to simply allow things go down to chance. The world is on the brink of chaos and there's no way that he's not going to be prepared for what they're going to do. They will act against him again. That much is certain. He needs to be ready. And he needs more supplies to be ready for that. Michael sets his course back to the main base of operations. He needs to go over with Richard how to go about securing some more guns for what will come after. And there he'll be able to monitor Alex's mental state. She'll eventually come back to take care of the otter. If she does he'll say out of her eyesight for the time being, seeing no need to aggravate he further for the moment. But he'll check to see if she's mentally fit for the mission. If she doesn't show up, though, he'll send someone to go check on her.

Detective Ryan puts his hand on his forehead and feels the sweat coming off it. He seems to be under some form of a minor fever. His whole body's felt increasingly sore and tired the past few days. There's just no going around it. At first, he attributed it to either overworking as he has to try and put his investigation into the whole Underground thing on his off-hours but as it wasn't getting any better and was getting far worse that he couldn't only reasonably assume that he had caught something or other. It was certainly annoying and he tried to work his way through it. But now he's starting to wonder if perhaps he should go to the hospital and get it looked at. He doesn't want anyone to worry about him so he just shrugs it off whenever someone else asks him about his condition, just claiming to be tired. But every time he gets the inclination to go ahead and call in sick to go see the doctor just in case he has this little voice in his head telling him that he's overexaggerating. That everything is perfectly fine. It was almost frustrating in a way. He knew something is wrong and should try and get some help, but there is that sense of everything is fine.

To try and help cool down before going back into the case file of their current murder assigned to them he takes a drink of water and some of it must have gone down the wrong tube so he begins to cough. There is still that voice saying that everything fine speaking in his head, independent of his thoughts and as a courtesy he coughs into his sleeve for a good minute. Detective Matthews tosses a napkin over at him from their lunch earlier and Detective Ryan wipes his mouth for a moment, feeling some liquid having come up. And when he looks back down at the napkin, however, he sees a bit of blood in it. He sticks a finger in his mouth and doesn't feel like there's any cuts in his mouth. And when he looks back at the napkin it does look a bit darker than normal blood. He discretely holds it close under the excuse of wiping off a bit more and notices that notices that not everything in the spittle looks like just blood, but rather there are little bits of something black mixed in. He has no idea what it could be, but he definitely knows that something is clearly wrong with him. But as much as he wants to panic, to try and freak out over the fact that there is apparently something in his blood, there is still that voice in his head, constantly telling him that everything is fine and that he should be worrying about something like this, that it is perfectly normal.

"Everything all right?" Detective Matthews asks.

"Yeah, it's fine," Detective Ryan says in response, deciding that as much as he wants to freak out over the whole situation, it would be best to not cause a scene or cause his partner undue worry. He'll just pretend that it's nothing and then as soon as he gets off work go to the hospital and see what all they have to say on the matter. "Just say some blood in the napkin, but I think that I must have just cut my lip sometime recently. But I'll be fine," he says while balling up the napkin and throwing it into the trash. "Just surprised me a bit. That's all. Though I think I might be coming down with a cold or something. So I'll probably head over to the hospital after work, make sure that everything is still fine."

"Well, okay then. You take care of yourself. If you need to, feel free to take a few days off. You know the unions make it illegal for them to punish you for taking a few days off because of being sick."

Detective Ryan half grins in response, but inwardly he's still somewhat panicking. Though he didn't want to upset his friend, it is very strange to him that he would lie in such a way. That wasn't his intention at all but when he was speaking that voice telling him he was fine distracted him enough that those words came out instead. Though other than the bit lip part, it is at least in part telling the truth. He does think he's coming down with something and he is intending on getting checked out at the hospital after the shift is done. But the terrifying thought is that that voice in his head was enough of a distraction that he said something completely different than he originally intended. Of course, there is even more of a distraction to be had as another task force from the FBI starts walking in the door. None of the people look to be at all familiar so brand-new people. Detective Matthews groans slightly at the sight of them, expecting that they'll be given a very stern talking down to like last time. Detective Ryan does suppose that it was only a matter of time until they try and take out the Underground again, he was just hoping they'd let things settle down a bit more first.

Most sort of go about setting up shop in the same location the last group from the FBI set up at while their leader goes to have a talk with the chief. One of them, however, sees the two detectives and immediately walks towards them, grabbing a nearby seat so that he can sit down next to them.

"Hello," he says, raising an arm. "I'm Agent Arrow. I've been briefed that you two are likely the ones I should be talking to in regards to the Underground terrorist group."

"What, here to come kick us off our current case again?" Detective Matthews snides.

"No. Or at the very least not that I'm aware of. I've been told of no such instruction regarding whatever your cases are. But the director and the others way above my paygrade all agree that the reason we failed is not so much a matter of incompetence of our forces, or being outgunned, as it is we failed to take into consideration how they operated. They outmaneuvered us heavily and made the government not only look like a laughing stock to the entire world but also violent thugs. And we mean to address that in a much more calm and collected manner. And to do that we need more information. They were able to move us how they wanted because they knew how we operated. Knew our playbook and methods. Studied us perhaps. And we did not think of them as anything more than base animals acting on instinct and aggression. You two have had the most interactions with the Underground in a manner that didn't end up with arrests or violence. So I'm here to get some feedback from you so that we can try and figure out how to better approach them this time."

"Well for starters," Detective Ryan speaks up, somewhat glad to have a sort of distraction from what's going on in his head, "don't think of them from the perspective of a terrorist."

"Except, they are."

"Not in their mind. They don't see themselves as terrorists. Neither do the people of the city. There is a very big bias when it comes to the law regarding crimes against us humans and crimes against Morphs. Anyone saying otherwise is lying or stupid. This bias exists. We know it. They know it. The Underground's primary purpose, what they and the people of that city believe, is to take the place of a justice system that doesn't protect them. They see what they're doing as a means of establishing and maintaining justice for the Morphs. So if you want to know what goes on in their heads, how they approach things. Don't think of them as terrorists. Think of them as an organized vigilante group that finds the government and the police as being in opposition to maintaining law and order in their city."

"Except for the fact that they are routinely shown killing synthetics and waging terroristic attacks against Black Industries."

"That," Detective Ryan starts and then stops. The voice in his head is telling him that it really isn't in his best interest to tell this agent about the Black Serum, that Black Industries is turning morphs into synthetics against their will. Detective Ryan considers this for a moment and decides to air on the side of caution for the moment. Regardless of what that inner voice is, it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't know this agent and this could entirely just be one big fishing expedition, to make him say something that would get him and his partner dismissed or arrested. "They have concerns regarding actions taken by Black Industries that they feel violate their own personal rights. And because these actions are not technically illegal they are striking out at a corporation to try and bring about justice for them doing actions that this group feels is wrong, even if completely within their legality to do so."

"Perhaps, but that doesn't excuse their actions."

"I never said it did. Just that you asked why they do the things they do."

"Regardless, they are still carrying out illegal activities against not only the government but a major corporation and must be brought to justice. I don't suppose you know how we can get in contact with them to take them down without any violence."

"I'm sorry," Detective Matthews speaks up, "After the last time your organization tried taking them down as far as I've seen they've all gone into hiding. Not even the ones that were more active and approachable are visible. The only ones you're likely to find would be the scouts that are too low level to have been guilty of anything worth arresting for beyond association. And as was said, they aren't really on good terms with the police, and we're still police as well. So I don't think you can really expect to take them by surprise anyway. They have the entire city working on their behalf. They'll be alerted the moment anyone enters that doesn't belong and if they don't want to be found, I fully expect you won't find them. Honestly, the only way I think you'd even be allowed to get in close to them is if getting close is to their benefit, or if all of you became Morphs as well."

"What do you mean if it's to their benefit?"

"They're vigilantes. Their number one goal is to bring about peace and stability to all morphs, at least in their city. They actually do help keep crime down. And if helping a cop will help them take care of things they are ill-equipped to handle, they will most definitely do what they can to assist. Usually in the form of information-dumps from one of their scouts or a citizen they convinced to do the job."

"Are they really down, though, or do they just make people believe they're helping?"

"It's down. Take a look at any believable statistic of crime rates for Morph cities. Well, crime is a tricky matter since a lot of what the Underground prevent are things that would not be considered crimes. But if you look at hospitalizations, deaths, rapes, all that stuff that the Underground would try to put an end to, yes, Vitraan is still far higher than any human city. But it's at most only half the value when compared to any other area with a high Morph concentration. Granted, the destruction of synthetics are way higher in Vitraan than any other city in the entire country, but they have put a significant dent on the attacks of its citizens. Do they have some sort of vendetta against Black Industries? Yeah, that's fairly apparent from their actions. But the average person doesn't care about the feelings of some big corporation. All they see is the group reducing attacks and making everyone else feel safer. And as long as the people have that perception that they are safer with the Underground there than the feds or police, they will defend them. And you will not be able to just route them out until you approach them from the perspective that they are not terrorists, but vigilantes trying to take care of their own city in spite of the police."

"Well, you've given me some to think on, at the very least," the agent says as he stands up. "I don't know how much of what you said will be helpful, but I'll come back if I have any more questions I'll be sure to come back and we can have another talk. Anyway, I better report in and share my findings. Oh and do take care of yourself, you aren't looking all that good there," he says as he heads off to go join up with the rest of the agents.