While my loyal subjects were running around arresting their colleagues, I paid a visit to the newspaper offices. Once again, some amount of panic was caused by my entrance, but this time I wasn't after anyone specific. I simply walked into the middle of the room, held up the heads of the commissioner and mayor, one in each wing, and shouted out. "I look forward to reading your front-page retraction of your story about Justin in tomorrow's edition, along with the story about what really happened."

I dumped the heads on a particularly snazzy looking desk, hoping it belonged to someone important, then turned around to leave. I didn't feel that explicit threats were required, given the situation. I'd made it halfway to the door when a very nervous lady whimpered, "excuse me, but what really happened? We... kinda need to know if you want us to print it."

For a moment I thought she meant that she wanted me to give her my own made-up version of events, but on reflection, they probably really didn't know what had happened. Having someone lie for you doesn't necessarily require them to be in on the truth. Thus began a very strange hour in which a bunch of newspaper reporters interviewed a harpy queen. From my own questioning, it turned out they didn't even know what they were printing was a lie; it was all based on information received from police PR, which at least saved me from needing to murder anyone mid-conversation.

A biologist friend of one of the reporters was magicked up from somewhere to inspect the data I'd swiped from Maximilian, and concluded that yes, it looked plausible. Someone looked at the mind control chip, and confirmed that yes, it was indeed a very complicated piece of electronics and that it did still have brain matter plastered to it, but they had no idea what it actually did. Someone poked at my face and concluded that I was indeed not wearing a mask to make myself look like Lily. I fired a bolt of lightning at a potted plant to confirm that yes, I can shoot lightning, and also to give an example of what would happen to the next person to poke my face.

When the time came for my appointment at the police station, they even sent a couple of people with me, a reporter and photographer. I believe that, aside from carrying Ben up the stairs, that was my first time giving someone a lift of their own free will and without intending to eat them afterwards. From their faces by the time we landed, it might also be the last. Harpy-airways apparently did not make for a comfortable flight experience.

There was a crowd outside of police headquarters, at least half in uniform. Apparently, when I'd ordered them gathered in the foyer, I'd neglected to account for just how many corrupt cops there were in this city. A lot of them were raging, contained by handcuffs, rope or in several cases broken legs. Others weren't, just standing there like zombies. At least until they saw me, when their eyes lit up. Silly me for not considering that; of course the corrupt ones would have been poisoned just like everyone else. That would explain how they'd gathered so many; their own had turned against them.

With reporters watching, and me having a half-formed wish to take the city for myself, I decided that indiscriminate lightning was not the way forward, and instead had them each talk about what sort of things they'd done. I was even kind enough to think of their well-being, and that they didn't want to be stuck out here in the sun with nothing to drink, and that people should go and fetch them something. Preferably something fresh from the tap.

It was actually surprising how well the city was holding together, given that it had theoretically lost its water supply. My best guess was that my actions had meant that some sick kids were all that had happened, and now that they'd got better, the panic had died down. I didn't even know if the mutagen was detectable. They might think the whole incident was over already.

Despite my intolerance for being controlled, I had no qualms about controlling others, and before long the whole group was infected. That was a titbit I didn't let the newspaper know; I let them believe that they were being so cooperative on account of their terror, which was not only plausible but also not completely inaccurate.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Some of the tales were harrowing. Innocents killed just because they'd seen something they shouldn't, being in the wrong place and the wrong time. Police being brought into the kidnapping squads when they needed more manpower. One man admitted murdering the woman I'd rescued from muggers back when I'd first escaped, simply because she'd recognised my face. That one needed all of my self-control to not vaporise there and then, but I noted down an address, and would certainly be making a more personal, private visit later on.

Criminals would no doubt have a field day today, with pretty much the entire police force tied up here, but it wasn't as if they'd been particularly effective to start with, so the city would probably survive. I let them get back to their jobs eventually, with suitable orders to start doing them properly, by which point the newspaper must have had months worth of material. The reporter and photographer decided to go back to the office by bus, having had their fill of the monster express, which left me with my last task of the day.

I flew back to Project Menagerie: B Site, hoping to find the secret of the batteries. My revenge was done. I'd dismantled the mayor's operation, killed the people at the top of the command chain, and exposed those who helped cover it up. I didn't know if the orders I'd given to the infected would stick around after my death, but neither did I know if they'd stick around long term even if I was alive. I'd carried out all of the goals I had when I first escaped, but that didn't mean I planned to give up and die.

Yes, I was a monster, a thief, a murderer. With a few exceptions, I cared little for human life. But even the original, innocent Lily hadn't wanted me to die. She'd made the decision to protect Leona, even when Leona was a berserking beast incapable of anything except raging at her captivity. Now that there was a chance, however remote, I had to try to seize it.

The underground tunnels were dark and cold, power to the place apparently having been disabled or lost. I made my own light, channelling a tiny amount of lightning and making my horns glow. I found the metal prisons, closed and locked, but the doors providing no resistance to my claws. Inside were corpses, some half or fully transformed, others completely human, but none alive. They weren't starved or injured, so I assumed that poison had been pumped in through the vents. From the distressed state of most of them, it hadn't been fast acting.

In one of the cells, I found Alicia. She still looked human, except for the white hair and skin, and blood-red eyes. She also had significantly lengthened and sharpened canines. At a guess, she had been some sort of vampire. What was she doing here? Had she not been killed back at A site? They'd transported some of them here? Samantha wasn't here, nor were there any monsters that matched the transformation she'd been going through, but even so, Alicia was. I'd been mourning her death when she was still alive and imprisoned. I could have rescued her... The Lily side of me was distraught at that knowledge, leaving Leona to be the logical one for once, insisting that Alicia's mind would have long since been gone. Despite how much it looked like her, I had to remember that it wasn't.

I moved further in, finding labs full of unidentifiable equipment and monster parts. A half-dissected corpse still lay on an operating table, a cache of control chips nearby suggesting that the table was used for more than just research. The well-worn straps on the table suggested that some of the patients to cross this room hadn't been sedated at the time. Everything was clinically clean, smooth white walls, steel surfaces, not a single plant or decoration.

I found what I was looking for even further in. A room in which the walls were lined with green fluid filled cylinders, each containing a human floating within. Tubes were inserted into every orifice, more embedded into an arm, presumably tapping into the bloodstream. All were dead now, but they had obviously been kept alive in there while the setup was active. Wires fed from the top of each cylinder up and across the ceiling, all congregating in the centre, where they dropped back down to a pedestal in the centre of the room. On top sat one of the small blue orbs.

So, whatever it was, they pulled it out of humans, apparently not killing them in the process, and then stored it in those orbs. Would it all start working again if I got the power turned back on and found some fresh meat? Did I need to find someone who worked here? Would the computer systems have data on what this was and how it worked? They were answers I didn't need immediately; I estimated that I would need two orbs a day to stay at full power, or could survive on one, and at the back of this room was a cupboard containing hundreds.

Even if it's a monster like me, it's okay if I live a little longer, right?