"Ben! Ben! Stay with me!"

We'll that's not a promising thing to hear from outside the house before I'd even landed. Mum sounded frantic. Hopefully, he'd just slipped and banged his head or something, and hadn't chosen this exact moment to stop being a fussy drinker...

"I can't get through to emergency services," came dad's voice, equally loud, shouting from another room. "Line is busy!"

"How can the line be busy?!"

I hurriedly let myself in through the back door, glad my waist bag had survived my adventures. I'd left most of my phone collection and looted money here, but still needed it to carry some amount of stuff, thankfully including the door keys.

"It's in the water!" I shouted the moment the door was opened. "Don't run the taps!"

"What?" asked mum. "Lily? When did you... What happened to your arm?!"

"After I went around dismantling the mayor's little operation, one of his minions decided to take revenge by poisoning the city's water supply. I'm sorry... this is all my fault..."

"Well, that explains why the line is busy," said dad, hanging up. "Do you know what poison it is, or if there's an antidote?"

"It's the mutagen that's used to turn people into monsters," I answered, causing dad to immediately pale; he'd read enough of the research notes to know about the age limits.

"What can we do?" he asked.

I saw Ben in mum's arms, eyes open but unfocused, sweating profusely. He seemed conscious, but only barely. The mayor's minions hadn't had any luck, but they'd been trying to make it work. I didn't; I wanted it to not work. That may or may not have made the solution easier, but even if it was a hundred times easier, that didn't mean I could come up with an answer on the spur of the moment. I was no scientist!

From what I remembered, death in the young was because they tried to transform too fast. The body simply couldn't support it. That probably explained why Ben was already showing symptoms when the water had only been poisoned hours ago. Adults who ingested the water would probably be okay for a few days yet. The youngest may well already be dead.

"Ben? Can you hear me? You've got to try to relax. Don't panic, just rest and don't try to move." Telling someone not to panic was rarely successful, and even if it was, it would only buy time, but I couldn't think of anything else.

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"Lily?" he asked, looking up weakly. "Your eyes... beautiful..."

Well, that's nice, but his infatuation with the improved fluffy and cuddly version of Lily was hardly relevant right now. Or was it? His comment about my eyes was disturbingly similar to my own thoughts when I'd first seen the queen. Of course; this is harpy mutagen, and I am the bloody harpy queen. And I also thought how wilfully I would die for her, if so ordered. Then I so order. Everything harpy in this city. Perish!

"Lily! Your horns are glowing," exclaimed mum.

"Good, that means I'm doing this right!" I answered. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was damn well doing something. I was going to save Ben, and if I accidentally saved the rest of the city in the process, well, lucky them. What I wanted to happen was to stop the mutagen dead, and kill off everything 'harpy' that had infected his body, but I'd settle for slowing it down enough for him to survive the process. The mutagen was hardly a harpy itself, even if the mutagen made harpies, but logic could go screw itself. I'd just been fighting something that shot lightning bolts from its face, so logic was obviously not a required participant in these proceedings.

Ben's fever abated, his breathing steadied, and he fell to sleep, mum sleeping next to him, still holding him in her arms. I kept up whatever it was I was doing, just in case. I wasn't going to stop just because he looked better. I was going to stay right here until he woke back up.

Dad, relieved at his improvement, quietly switched on the TV. All channels were broadcasting the same thing, a public warning that a poison had been introduced to the water supply and not to drink it until further notice, and to please stay away from hospitals as they were overwhelmed. They advised inducing vomiting followed by rest for anyone who had drunk any. Maybe that would help, if they were quick enough.

"Have either of you two used the water?" I asked.

"Yes, but boiled if that makes a difference."

"No idea. If not, hopefully whatever I'm doing to help Ben will help you too."

"So..." started dad, carefully, "now that the panic is over... I saw you on the news yesterday."

Oops. Well, I wasn't expecting to have got away with that one in the first place. "Nothing bad, I hope?"

"Twenty-two deaths, apparently."

"Really? There was the mayor, and some others in the car with him, then eight of the thirteen who came at my hiding place, then whatever the rocket did. I didn't do an audit afterwards or anything. Oh, and then there was breakfast, I mean, Jason. I suppose it could add up to twenty-two."

"Well, whatever you did, the military has been called in."

"Bah. Don't suppose they said when?" Very quickly, judging by the swarming choppers at the crash site.

"No, but I can't help but notice that you turned up here in daylight, with the entire city watching out for you."

And going slower than normal too, thanks to my missing wing. Thankfully, it was back now, my upgrades apparently having increased my regeneration significantly. "I needed to warn you about the water. I couldn't wait till night. I was almost too late as it was."

"I know. I'm just saying, those helicopters we can hear outside are probably for you."

Crap. I'd been so busy concentrating on Ben that I hadn't even noticed.