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Part 2.

When Charlie entered S.W.O.R.D.'s hangar, she was instantly greeted by the towering form of Bethany Myers, nowadays known as Queen. Queen used to be a normal college student living with a metamorph friend, Kimberly Sanders. Charlie still remembered that mission: She was to capture Kim, a metamorph thief, but she was unaware another organization was after the chameleon woman as well. Things took a turn for the disturbing when Bethany was kidnapped by one of the Betas, bat men and women under the employ of metamorph criminal mastermind Omega, who was working for that organization. Charlie still felt the sting of how in her carelessness, she was unable to keep Queen out of that mess. Even when Kim and she teamed up to take Omega down, the damage had been done. Bethany, through vile psychological manipulation, had agreed to be part of one of Omega's experiments.

Queen never held it against anybody, she lived to understand that besides the fact she had been manipulated, the ultimate decision to resist was hers. Charlie on the other hand; she still couldn't forgive herself for having ruined an innocent's life much like her own; the public would fear her, and unlike Charlie who could find an alternative disguise, Queen was too inhumanely tall. The insect was a looming giantess by comparison, black and yellow striped with the curves of a well stacked female. Her extra abdomen protruded like a tail above the curve of her hefty rump, two pairs of transparent but decidedly powerful wings at her back. Her exceptionally big chest was well hidden in the tuft of regal-like white fluff surrounding her neck and shoulders. Queen's normal red hair had become waist-long, straight and silky; two antennae protruded from her head, assisting her super-human senses of perception. Her eyes and face weren't very different from Charlie's: Her eyes were completely dark, and a chitin mask covered her face from her nose to her chin.

Queen cut her prep job short the instant she saw her partner. "Oh, Charlie! I've been expecting you. How was your meeting with the Chief?" The exuberance in her voice was quite a contrast to what Charlie had been feeling so far. It was kind of silly to her: Queen had it worse than her, she had absolutely no way to come out in the broad daylight without causing a gigantic commotion; Charlie was whining because she wanted to be part of the action everywhere she went.

"I asked for extra donuts for snack time. He disagreed," the scorpion girl casually shrugged as she strode inside the hangar. "Guess Jim's gone over the details for the new job with you already?"

"Reptilian metamorphs. Frankly, I'm surprised. The only reptile metamorphs we know of are Kim and that Fire Cracker guy."

"And neither have especially great personalities. I do not like our odds with the next two."

Queen giggled, "Charlie, don't be mean. Kim might have a short temper, but she's a great person inside."

"You mean, for a remorseless thief?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"Well there's that! But she's doing a lot of good as an S.W.O.R.D. agent, right? That's got to count for something."

Charlie walked over one of the tables with their gear on it. The goggles caught her attention the most. "Night vision, huh. Jim did say we're dropping there at night. Scuba tanks though?"

"The client didn't specify what reptile we are hunting for," Queen was quick to add, "For all we know, we might be looking for a crocodile."

"In the Hudson? You don't think they lost control of a Godzilla, do you...?"

"Don't you find it odd though?"

Charlie folded her arms under her ample chest, "I've been to both NYC and New Jersey. Do you have any idea of what they've been able to find in..."

"No, not that. The client says they'd been treating these guys or gals to reverse the effects of metamorphosis," Queen seemed pensive; Charlie followed her with her eyes as she paced around. "That suggests they were treating metamorphs, so they would know what species they were working with."

"You think they're holding something back from us?"

"It's just a guess but you need to have some sort of biological knowledge if you're treating metamorphosis right?"

"I think I get you. Still, what if they were treating some species we've never seen before? It could happen."

"What? Like extinct species?"

Charlie smacked a fist onto an open palm, "Oh! What if it's a Dodo bird? I've always wanted to see one those!"

"We're looking for reptiles, Charlie. Your Godzilla theory sounds more likely now."

"You're scaring me, girl. Anyway, let's get our act together. Where are your Knights anyway?"

Queen smiled as she lugged the baggage around and pointed right at Charlie with the feelers on her head. The scorpion turned around and became startled to see four burly male bumblebees about her size each. All were gathered in crouching positions with their fists on the ground, as if silent royal knights ready to serve. "I hate when they do that."

---

The Hudson River, that night...

"Ugh, I envy you right now, flier. There's so much muck here you'd think I was scouting the sewers. How come Shade gets intelligence gathering and we're on a croc hunt at the bottom of New Jersey?"

Queen responded: "Stinger, don't use the comms unless you find out key information on the area. As for your other question: She's a remorseless thief."

She brushed the sarcasm right off. "Hey, what if you decide to make a landing? Don't want your feet all dirty, do you?" Charlie joked as she used her arachnid agility to jump from plank to moss-covered rock and other assorted pieces of floating trash. She stopped when she saw the lights on the great island of Manhattan in the distance. "New York freakin' City, huh." She had memories of the place. Back when she was plain old Charlotte Richards, International Police, she had been on the case of a drug cartel's smuggling ring. The city's glamour and bustling activity hid so many great evils most people knew nothing about. That's where people like her were needed, agents of good working to maintain stability and order. Charlie could sleep at night when the world could be told between black and white. Nowadays as a metamorph, everything felt like a big fucking shade of gray.

Omega was out there doing who knows what. Fire Cracker, one of the many cases of neglected youth, wasn't contained anymore; much less treated for his manias. They needed help, even if they were criminals. But who would understand them, if not their peers, like Queen and herself? S.W.O.R.D. didn't seem to understand that, as far as Charlie was concerned.

"...there...!" Charlie's thoughts were interrupted by Queen's high pitched voice. Suddenly she remembered where she was, crouched by one of the many rocks. "Stinger, do you see it? I see some rustling by the bridge! It's to your left!"

Charlie felt her dark hair flutter against the late night breeze as she turned her head in the direction Queen was pointing at. "I'm on it! Give me one of your Knights for support."

As Charlie jumped from humid platform to the next, she was quickly joined by one of the emotionally detached creatures under Queen's command. Knights had been the affectionate term Queen had dubbed them with; they were in fact the product of Omega's many experiments, and they still couldn't tell if they used to be actual bees or people. There was so much about advanced metamorphosis the world did not know. "Go to someone in the street and they'll think we're demons or mutants like some sort of comic book character," Charlie wondered about all the recently surfaced metamorph cases S.W.O.R.D. had been handling as of late. "If that's the case, I feel like I'm stuck playing the role of the witless heroine. This all feels planned. Rex being bit by that altered fire iguana, Omega escaping from prison... What the hell are we missing?"

The conflagration of sound by the sheer amount of car horns above the bridge disrupted her balance. Charlie had to summon her pincers from her forearms not to fall off a great piece of fallen concrete. The Knight Queen had sent hovered above with his head titled. "Yeah, don't need any help over here. I'm fine," Charlie sarcastically said as she pulled herself up, and then continued bouncing her way under the bridge. She knew trying to talk to a gorilla would yield better results than a Knight; they only listened to Queen.

"Now what exactly did you see, Queen...?" Charlie finally bounced to the great overpass's side, freely stuck to it thanks to her adhesion powers. Crawling along she was noisily followed by the Knight. Charlie focused on the green of her night vision, attempting to detect any movement from the underside of the bridge. The Knight's beating of wings was starting to irritate her. "Like a giant fly. At least he's not a mosquito out for my blood."

"Stinger, status?"

"Nothing yet. Might have been some stray... Wait a second." Charlie narrowed her eyes as she focused really hard. She saw a crack by the bridge's support. It was a negligible structural imperfection in contrast to the size of the bridge, but it didn't seem natural either. "Found an interesting spot. Come over here, Queen."

Queen descended and floated by Charlie as they approached the crack at the bridge. "Looks bigger in person." Charlie commented. The hole was at least 10ft tall.

"Looks snug." Queen said as she approached Charlie, her hefty chest resting atop her head carelessly as she peered inside. "Do you think I could fit in?"

"I doubt it, balloon tits," an annoyed Charlie complained to a confused Queen. The female bee looked on as Charlie jumped into the hole and stuck to its makeshift ceiling. "Whatever you saw moving outside probably did fit inside though. Keep your boys out. Don't want their buzzing to scare our potential packages."

"Alright. Be careful, Stinger. Radio if you find anything okay? I'll send them all to your aid."

"Count on it, Queen," with a thumb up, Charlie disappeared into the darkness. Queen landed on a rock to keep out of sight of any would-be curious, ordering her Knights to do the same.

The journey inside the bridge's hole sent Charlie to the sub-terrain. She was quickly clinging to dirt and deeply ingrained roots soon after the outside light was swallowed by the blackness. Fortunately, her night vision came in handy to find her way in. "There's no stray dog with an attention span to dig a hole this big, much less claw through concrete and metal supports. Think you were right on the money, Queen. Queen?"

There was static in Charlie's receiver. The concentration of minerals and their magnetic properties was probably jamming their signal. "Guess I can't make a fat joke at your expense n-naaaaaaaaoooww!" a sudden, violent rumble along the dirt ceiling she was crawling on ruined Charlie's balance, causing her to fall down. "Oof, ahh! Damnit!"

Stinger found herself speeding downwards now, the tunnel having long arched in the opposite angle. So she was traveling along the bumps and makeshift steps of the dark hole, rolling down like a stone on a mountain. Her downwards trip came to a conclusion as she reached flat ground all of a sudden. "Oww oww, my tushie..." she rubbed her sore butt with a whimper and looked around. She found the area to be slightly lit for some reason. "Are those lanterns...?" she blinked, removing her goggles to make a proper inspection. "Looks like a cavern... Is this what's under the Hudson? Mole people?"

"Moles? How rude! We decorate with what we have you... whatever you are!" a new voice suddenly startled Charlie, who jumped back and adopted a defensive stance.

The arachnid's less than gracious entrance had not gone unnoticed. The hideout's owner came out to greet her. Seven feet worth of naked woman stood there, yellow scales with a hint of cream on her chest, belly and underbelly covering her thickly armored body. Red slash marks covered her body, maybe imperfections or scars, Charlie couldn't tell. Her curvature was ample, but mostly focused on the flare of her immense hips. A spiked tail swung above her thick buttocks, her chest further accentuating womanhood. The actual surprise came to Charlie's eyes when she met the face of the taller creature: A snout tipped with a horn, head-frills extending backwards from the skull, twin hours spiraling in S shapes above her eyebrows. "A three horned rhinoceros?!" Charlie suddenly shouted.

A meeker voice came from behind Charlie suddenly. "Uhm, actually, she would be a ceratopsid." Charlie looked behind her and only saw a mass of white with chocolate brown on the sides. "Down here."

Charlie's eyes went wide and she jumped away from the long necked head level with her shoulders. "Who the heck are you...?!" Stinger couldn't believe her eyes; she thought she'd already seen it all, too.

The long neck's head retracted and it stood up to its glorious full 10ft tall apex. "Holy cow, I take back what I said about Beth's chest," Charlie blinked, her eyes bouncing with the jiggling breasts on the brown-scaled female's chest. "This chick's enormous...Well c'mon, Sting. You've taken on Omega who's got your proportional strength, and won, twice." She thought, trying to keep her serious face on as she looked between the two huge females.

"What do you think, Chrissy?" asked the long neck with the dark spots along her brown scaled body.

The yellow triceratops responded with a snarky: "Probably some sort of mutant scorpion. I say we squish her for barging in, Ali."

"Wait, we don't know if she's capable of intelligent thought. What if she's here to help?"

"Yeah, no. From where I'm from, scorpions only stab and envenom. I doubt this one's here to offer us a vaccine!" Christy stomped in Charlie's direction. Charlie held a hand out.

"Hold that thought, don't I get a say in this?!"

Alina approached Charlie, looming over her like the titan she was. "I agree, Chrissy. Let her explain what she's doing here. We can then decide if she's good or bad to us."

The triceratops' nostrils flared and she snorted a grumpy: "You have one minute to explain what you're doing here."

"Friggin'... why didn't I get the dodos instead...?" With both Jurassic women staring down at the female scorpion, Charlie didn't see much other choice. The tension slowly began to whittle as the three chatted about Charlie's origins; how she became a metamorph employed by an organization that takes care of metamorph related issues. She insisted the name couldn't be disclosed yet. "First, I need you girls to come with me. There are a bunch of people out there who want to help you."

Even sitting down, the brontosaurus towered over everyone with her long neck and voluminously curvy body. She and her cretaceous colleague exchanged looks. "Assuming you're telling the truth, what do you get out of this, huh?" Christy asked.

"Ease of conscience, I guess." Charlie was reluctant to tell them the bit about Omega having been created from samples taken from her blood. "We're on the same boat, and I want to help."

"How do we know your organization won't turn us over to the government the second we step out of our refuge?" Christy pressed, making Charlie narrow her eyes.

"We're not government driven; only monitored. I give you my word that we won't turn you to the nearest Jurassic exposition in New Jersey," Charlie smiled, and then made it even more evident after sliding her mask off her face.

Alina seemed wary, but willing to talk. "Stinger, right? I want to go back out. We've been surviving off whatever scrapes of food we've been able to find, no clothes and constantly in hiding. But who are these people you say are out to help us?"

Charlie blinked, "Hmm. I read the files. Client name is... Damnit, I can't remember. One second." The scorpion reached inside her vast cleavage to pull out a smart phone, which got her a couple of curious stares. She replied to those with a snicker: "No pockets."

That was when Charlie saw her screen was cracked, the display a mess of data instead of its usual waterfall background. "Ahh! Crap, my cell phone's busted! It must've broken when that quake knocked me off the ceiling in the tunnel..."

The dinosaur babes blinked at once another. Alina seemed more bashful than usual all of a sudden. Christy grinned. Charlie was all around confused. "Yeah, while Ali was switching the flashlights' batteries she tripped over some of the wiring. She's pretty heavy so when she..."

"Chrissy, that's enough!" a flustered Alina complained, flailing her arms at a giggling Christy. Charlie saw a bit of Kim and Beth in both of the friends. She realized that while their lives had been forced into a great change very few people would admit was possible, they still had one another to get through their hardships. Just what had they been before turning into these two huge dinosaurs, though? Then it hit her in the head. She stood up and waved at both for their attention.

"Shouldn't you two know about the place? Think it was a girl's name..." Charlie pondered as she scratched her chin. Alina widened her eyes. Christy seemed wary. "My client listed you two as missing. You were part of a project to reverse your condition, right?"

The two girls exchanged looks one more time. They didn't even need to speak what they were thinking. "You should leave now," Christy was the first to say to Charlie.

"Wait, what? I thought you were tired of being down here."

Alina was the first to speak. "Stinger, the company you're talking about... Was it by any chance called the Minerva Foundation?" Charlie found herself nodding after Alina, her memory jogged.

"Knew it! Those bastards are still looking after us, and they sent YOU to play the buddy game with us!" Christy snarled, flashing her fangs.

"Whoa! Calm down, three horns. They didn't send me. I work for another organization, they're just our client!"

"What difference does it make? You're going to turn us over to those assholes so they can continue to experiment on us!" Christy was scraping the ground with her feet, ready to charge. Alina was standing right behind her.

"They have to experiment on you so they can turn you back to normal, don't they?" Charlie tried to be diplomatic, but things weren't looking good.

"Is that what they told you?" the long neck was more shocked than she sounded. "They're the reason we are like this!" Charlie's eyes went wide.

"And you're not taking us back to there!" Christy suddenly launched herself forwards in a mad charge. Charlie was sent flying into a wall from the impact; she had only managed to get her face guard on and brace for impact.

"Chrissy!" Alina seemed horrified by her friend's actions. Charlie began to rise from the crumbled down debris. The triceratops looked back with anger in her eyes.

"I'm tired of living like this too, Ali! I'm not going to let Minerva push me around anymore, and I'm going to show them exactly what happens when they send two-bit mercenaries after us! If they want to see how dangerous we are, I'll show them!"

"D-damn, that hurt. How can someone so big move so fast?" Stinger was finally back up on her feet, ready for a counter-attack. "Look, missy. I came here expecting trouble, but I don't want it."

"Shut up, bug butt! I'll squish you!" Christy roared and kicked off into another charge. This time, Stinger reacted accordingly and jumped several feet into the air to stick herself to the ceiling, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the tri-horned metamorph. "Where did you vanish to?!"

"One: I'm not a two-bit mercenary. I'm a crime-fighter. Two: I'm not a bug, I'm a scorpion. Three: TAG!" Charlie bounced from the ceiling to the wall to distract Christy and then kicked off the surface to deliver a square punch to the triceratops' face.

The yellow reptile was sent reeling back with as much potency as her earlier attack against Stinger. She crashed into a wall and almost lost consciousness. "Wh-what strength... felt like a car hit me!"

Charlie landed and held her numb arm. She felt like she had just punched a bulldozer. Quickly she got into her defensive stance and barked out: "Proportional strength of a scorpion, bitch. Want another one?"

"RRRAAAAH!" Christy quickly jumped to her feet, growling as she charged the scorpion. Charlie merely bounced away with her super agility and landed behind her.

"Olé! Guess you're just a clunky slab of meat, huh?"

"Say that to my face, insect! I've a knuckle sandwich with your name on it!"

"Stop fighting!" Alina's shouts were falling on deaf ears. Alina didn't want to be captured either, but their tunnels had not been designed with a battle of such magnitude. The vibrations on their floor were concerning here. "Please, stop!"

But they continued to duke it out. "She's strong. I can't take another one of her charges," Charlie's mind raced with every blow she managed to parry. "At least she isn't faster than I am. Her armor is much thicker than Rex's too. I doubt I can inject my neurotoxin fast enough to incapacitate her..."

Christy was doing all she could to catch Stinger. The heroine was far too fast for her to grab. "Damn, I'm only wearing myself down. I can't catch her...!" she thought, looking back at Alina. "Ali, stop standing around and help me deal with this pest!"

"Oh pest? Excusez moi for not being a butterfly! You don't look like a super model yourself, sister!" Charlie held her arm back and clutched hard. Her pincers came out and snapped together. "These will be perfect to punch with. The armor will absorb most of the impact...!"

"Eep!" Christy ducked at the right instant, causing Charlie to instead slam a wall with her powerful claw. A sharp pain coursed through her leg; her reflex move had twisted her ankle in the wrong direction. She couldn't move it, but this still felt like a small victory. "Hah! You missed! Ow...!" Christy gasped as a pebble bopped her on the snout. The place was vibrating wildly now.

Charlie's eyes went wide as the ceiling was about to cave in and smash both Christy and herself. "Oh sonuva...!"

"We have to get out of here!" Alina screamed with a chunk of rock over her bent neck. She was struggling to hold tons of heavy dirt trying to crush them. "Now!"

"Ali!"

"Don't worry, I got it!" Charlie quickly hid her pincer back and jumped at the wall, sticking with her feet and stretching her arms up to help Alina with the falling rubble. "Go, grab Christy and get to the exit!"

Alina gasped as she could feel the effort she needed to push against the debris had been reduced to less than half of what she had been exerting. Blinking, she briefly thought: "Just how strong is this woman...?"

"I meant NOW!"

"Y-yes!" Alina quickly reached down to pick her friend up.

"Gah! I didn't want to be saved by you, bug butt..." Christy groaned as she couldn't move. Alina's chest felt soft as she transported her outside, a contrast to the burning in her leg.

"Stinger, what about you?!" Alina asked quickly.

"I'll catch up, JUST GO DAMNIT!" Charlie held the debris above her for long enough. Alina was well on her way out. "And since I don't plan on becoming scorpion sandwich between dirt and ground... nnnghh!" she exerted her strength to its limits, using her pincers to tear through the dirt patch. She pushed her mandibles out and began to dig through, making a hole in the tons-heavy material to be able make it out of the big pile of rubble. "Gah! That took a lot of energy... time to run!"

Alina raced as fast as her thick brontosaurus legs could carry her. "S-sorry, Ali. This is my fault. I lost my temper back there..." Christy seemed apologetic enough.

"Chrissy, Stinger seems to be in the dark about this. Maybe we should explain it better and give whatever help she's offering a chance!"

Christy sighed. "If you say so, Ali. I hope we can make it out first!"

"We'll make it, fat ass!" the snarky voice of Charlie brought Christy's attention down to see Stinger had already caught up, and was running on par with Alina. "Just don't stop, Alina. I'll speed through and have my partner help us get out!"

"You got it!"

Charlie began to pump every muscle in her legs, breaking into a dash. She accelerated as much as she could. "Lungs about to explode. Leg muscles burning. Beth, you better not have left...!"

"...respond... Stinger, respond!"

"That you, Queen?! I must be close! Quick, send your Knights in!"

"What?!"

"There's no time! Tell your Knights to rush inside and help push a really big, big cargo out! We need help!"

"We...?" Queen blinked, but quickly understood the urgency. Her hand pointed at the tunnel. All four of the bumblebees rushed inside. "Do as Stinger says, my Knights!"

Charlie skidded to a halt as the buzzing of the Knights alerted her inner ears. "Guys, go pump those muscles. There are two big girls back there, you need to jet them out of here, go go go!"

Charlie groaned as the ceiling began to collapse again. She caught it with her hands and a groan. The knights rushed down the path to meet with their quarry. "Stinger! Is that you? Are you okay?!" Queen's voice was reverberating in the dirt hole.

"Agh, hope your guys are fast, Beth! I won't be able to hold all of this down for much longer...!" all Charlie could do was move forwards while still holding what she could of the collapsing ceiling, knowing the dinosaurs and bees would be quickly advancing towards her.

"Curses! If I try to fit inside I'll just block their only exit... please make it out fast, guys!" Queen helplessly fluttered by the hole. She recognized the buzzing becoming louder soon enough though. The Knights approached the struggling Charlie as she held the ungodly amount of weight from crushing them all to death.

"F-fuck...! I won't make it...!" the scorpion gasped as her tendons felt like they were going to burst at any second. She was going to die!

"Hang on, Stinger!" Charlie gasped as Alina's voice broke through the falling rubble. "Let go now!" A whip of sorts wrapped around Charlie's waist. She was yanked right off, and the ceiling began to collapse behind her. Looking forwards she saw Alina's tail holding her while all four of the Knights pulled her forwards with their combined strength and flight speed.

KRA-KOOM! The tunnel under the bridge had collapsed.

Queen caught Charlie in her arms after she and the others were expelled from the resulting cave-in. With a dinosaur per pair of Knight, they all flew right off and back into the coast of the river. Fortunately for the people above, the sub-terrain had only been leveled slightly, making no difference to the bridge's supports.

Christy was lying down with a panting Alina besides her. "Alright, scorpion. We'll follow you and hear the rest of your story, but if we don't like it, I want your word that you'll leave us alone. Else, I'll show you these tusks aren't just for show."

Charlie panted as she was lied down on the beach next to the other two exhausted dinosaurs. "You got it, boss. And Christy?"

"What?"

The female arachnid was about to pass out. "No more fighting underground."

Christy seemed to smile for a brief moment "You got it, Sting."

Queen was already arranging transportation. "Command. Both packages are secure. Awaiting extraction. Bring a first aid kit," she said as she looked at the triceratops holding by her wounded leg, "Or ten. No, they are not hostile. They just had a little run in with a risky situation, but they're mostly fine now. We're awaiting for that pickup now. Over and out."

Turning around, Queen glared down at Stinger first. "What were you thinking?!" she yelled. Charlie couldn't take it anymore. She fainted from exhaustion.

To Be Continued...