System of the Damned
Chapter 9 - Roderick
Fetch the alien tech boy, who’s a good monster.
It is so damned painful to be a werewolf, I used to think it would be so cool, but god it hurts to change from one physical form to another. It gave me one hell of a respect for the mimics that could change forms so easily and readily, but they weren’t anything like humans. It took me two earth months to figure out how to trigger the change, and then I blacked out and woke up in the med ward.
Due to the risk of me transforming and breaking a combat space suit or injuring myself, I was grounded. Honestly I didn’t mind, I didn’t like being in vacuum anyway, keeping on the ground was fine for me. Though since I learned to be human again, I’d ended up at about seven feet tall and denser than I’d ever thought possible. Caltunium or Nobu crystal, whatever someone called it, had enhanced and altered me beyond what gene mods had been able to do. It made me understand the other race’s worries about it, aside from severe pain in turning, it felt really good, and that was with having to be more careful not to break things. Like doors, people, dishes, people, I hate glass, oh and all those little bones in people’s hands.
Though the issues I had, was nothing compared to Xavier and his mate Lola’s issues with having four children that were not only intelligent, but fast. Two boys, Albert and Isaac, and two girls Dorothy and Marie. Cute as hell and able to seemingly stop time for themselves much like their dad could. Aside from being the most lethal toddlers I’d ever seen, they were sweet and cute, and impossible to keep out of things.
Lola was a dwarf Hotot unlike her mate Xavier, who was a netherland dwarf. Where Xavier had the odd albino trait, she was rather gothic looking with the black spots around her eyes and a black stripe on her head. The scariest thing about the motherly bunny for me, was the fact that unlike Xavier, she’d gotten strong. Where her mate and kids were about five pounds, she was about fifteen to twenty, guessing since I don’t want to get decked by a bunny. I’d heard one of the lab techs say that she had the strength ratio of a rhino beetle, which was terrifying when she hurled something heavy at you, but hilarious when she sank into the ground trying to carry something heavy.
I ended up being very proud of Evans, and surprised the time she woke me bound to her bed, but proud of her for her work. After the harvest meeting as most called it now, she spent months getting our three newly allied races used to working with Mimics. It was something none of them had been able to do in the many years they’d been on the planet, and Bubbles helped a great deal in her making contact with the other mimics. I just wish the little toddler blob would stop scaring the hell out of me and most others, and those creatures will NEVER be anything other than creepy.
Sadly it only took six earth months or roughly three local for things to start breaking down, not with the various people, but machines. Materials, parts, hell some of the wiring, engines, things break down over time. Luckily for us, there were places to get the materials we needed. Since I was grounded, I couldn’t take part in the work going on in space, of raiding the broken fleet. The most curious part for me was that the Eda hadn’t shown their faces to us, but leave it to the Captain to find work for me to do. One must never mention boredom around a superior officer.
It was morning and I was in the metal shop in my human form tightening down bolts that held a heavy solid wheel to the vehicle I’d been building the last month. It was powered by an electric turbine generator and the engine’s power came from a compressed Caltunium battery pack, and a fuel cell. I’d taken two of the trucks demolished in the storm and used them to build this one. Xavier and his kids had also helped me out, doing the higher math and winding the coils that ran the motors out of a mix of copper, gold, and caltunium. The kids were sitting in front of tablets with their parents, absorbing knowledge at an insane rate.
“I hereby christen this abomination of a vehicle, The Warg.” Came from behind me, causing me to burst into laughter. Captain Rowland had somehow managed to keep clean uniforms and still wore them regularly, which oddly kept things rather peaceful. “I come bearing smoke and beer, which I’m happy to say isn't going to be a problem.” He handed me a canteen of beer and a pouch of smokable that held a pipe. “You don’t need a lighter like the rest of us.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes, taking a sip of the beer and smacking my lips before taking another swig of it. “Good grog, better than I’d hoped for.” Then came the fun of packing the metal pipe he’d given me, a spat of flame onto my thumb and I was puffing softly on it. I murred as the smokey calm filled me, though Xavier was soon standing on my wrist having himself a good puff as well. “I’ll have to give my compliments to the genetics junkies for figuring out how to add nicotine to cannabis.”
He packed his own pipe and lit it, taking a pull from it and letting out the smoke in a sigh. “Captain Evans is having some luck with the salvage runs, but…” He shook his head. “There’s some things that the shuttles can’t haul down here. Like the fabricators in the Eda ships, they’re just too heavy for them. And using those portals doesn’t work in space.”
Xavier was back typing on his keyboard. “Of course not, the atmospheric pressure on the planet would send even heavy things flying away from a portal. Let alone the issue of not sucking through the people who open the portals, or things around them.” He had a thoughtful expression as the synthesizer spoke for him.
The Captain nodded. “Yes that’s been the worry and issue, apparently our friends have tried it before, or their parents did in the past. The issue for everyone is that the most intact ships on the planet are in very hostile areas.”
I raised a brow and took another puff as I thought for a moment. “Hostile race or creatures?”
“Both.” He grumbled. “The beasts in that area are territorial, predators, and apparently the herd animals of a carnivorous crustacean race. And from what I’ve learned of the Lo’Kar, they eat as much of the Caltunium as many of us do.” He gave me a little grin. “Though not as much as a certain pair I know, and none of our friends have adapted to it as well as you two.” He looked to Xavier and his brood, Lola wasn’t pregnant, but that was thanks to Xavier learning human methods like condoms. “And I know a certain First Sergeant who’s very adept at giving shows of force…”
Xavier chittered as Lola thwacked him across the back of the head and squeaked at him, but the Captain was right. Xavier had stopped several disagreements, and scared two of the other races we weren’t allied with into stopping their warring. Of course having the center of a battlefield explode like someone had bombed it from orbit usually had that effect. The insectoid and avian races had started negotiations after three assaults had been stopped before they’d had a chance to start. It was all thanks to Xavier, and a Lo’Kar that’d opened portals for him to use, though I think it was mostly Xavier making a couple people go splat. Quite literally splat, one second yelling orders, the next a fine paste of goo painting the area.
Either way Xavier bowed softly and rubbed the back of his head before typing. “Yes, well their warring was posing issues for our allies, and…” He growled as the synthesizer trailed off, feathery wings erupting from his back and wiggling as Lola rolled her eyes and chittered in motherly annoyance. Mainly due to her children all having the ability to grow wings like their father could. “I can also scout now, I swear if I turn into a were-human, I’m going to do some very bad things to some mice.”
Captain Rowland smiled at the thought of a tiny human beating on some of the lab techs, he’d learned, like I had, about some of Xavier’s references to humans. “Don’t worry Lola, you and the children are going to be staying here. It is the Major and your mate that I need to do this.” His newly silver eyes looked to me. “Stormwind is sending the head of her Pulsars to join you and Xavier on the mission.” Pulsars were an interesting thing with the Lo’Kar, the Caltunium had enhanced their aquatic sonar ability to a point that they could create focused blasts of sound. Humans had tried it with tech in the past and given up for the most part, but weaponized sound was a fun one to toy with.
I was bolting on another solid wheel and shook my head. “A werewolf, a lightspeed bunny, and a banshee walk into a bar.” I grinned up at him. “I take it, this pulsar is going to be bringing one of their portal staves, since they can’t open a portal to a place they haven’t been?”
Captain Rowland rolled his eyes and looked over to Xavier. “Is he still always this bad?” I heard a chittering from behind me and then grunted as a bunny landed on my head, except it wasn’t Xavier and tiny fingers pinched my ear and made me yelp. “It seems the lady doesn’t like your bad jokes...isn’t she the one that’s ridiculously strong?” A little twisting of my ear and I spasmed, ending up face down on the floor of the shop as the Captain chuckled. “Let him go mum, he’s right. Pulsars sound like a bloody banshee.”
Lola thumped me on the back of the head with her foot and hopped back up to her family, letting me compose myself. I sat up and brushed the grit off my face, sighing as I looked over at the four kids and my friend...who weren’t meeting the female’s gaze as she looked at them. “Oh don’t harass them Lola, and quit doing that damned ear trick on me…” She squeaked at me and gave me a big grin, making her family all squeak as she gathered them up in a hug. My gold ringed eyes looked to my friend’s silver ones. “It looks like the caltunium is having an effect even on people who’re only taking in a little.” Another drink from my new canteen and I got up, stretching and popping my joints as I leaned on the dragon scale fender.
I’m not joking or being metaphorical, the entire outside of the truck had been wrapped in scales from the titan that the ship had shot down. Luckily the mimics had let us harvest enough meat to last months before they’d moved in from the forests to feast. That left us with enough bone and scale to do quite a few things, and if you boiled the scales long enough, you could mold them over things. If you dried and ground the bones finely, you didn’t want to have anything spark near the resulting powder.
The Captain just sighed and took a drag from his pipe, leaning on the front fender and looking over the Warg as he dubbed it. “Yes, many of us have started to change, including the few thousand we’ve woken up. Sadly we’ve lost quite a few as well, it seems that even the dust in the air is enough to kill some.” He started to walk around the truck, eyeing the heavy winches mounted to it.
I was using one of my claw-like nails to clean out my pipe so I could refill it, shaking my head. “I know, I’ve lost two of my people to it.” I’d helped bury them a couple weeks ago and Prophet had done the services for them, which surprised me. For a muslim, he knew quite a bit about other religions and what was proper for burials. Personally I’d taken one of the larger dragon teeth and carved their names and the dates into them. “Ten to fifteen percent death rate is what I’ve heard from Grek and Stormwind, from what they tell me, no matter what we do that many will die.” I spat some flame onto my thumb and held it to puff on my pipe, holding in a deep breath of the calming smoke. “The good news is...we’re not losing as many as they did, and that’s even with us not holding back.”
He looked over at me as I held my pipe, both Lola and Xavier were standing on my forearm taking puffs from the stem. His fingers tapped an armored case behind one of the seats that had a skull and crossbones on it. “Yes, well any losses hurt us. I’ve had Adam setup a banking program for now.” He raised a brow. “Is this what I think it is?”
I just smiled at him and nodded. “Yep, tranquilizers and some other medical stuff, but mostly tranquilizers in that one.” My free hand pointed to something that looked like a foot tall closet and smiled. “That is Xavier’s tools and weapons.” I saw him point to a case that ran the length of the long bed. “And yes that is my tools and sword, and yes it’s bigger, er well it’s heavier mostly.” I shrugged and went to cleaning my pipe to put it up as the bunnies went back to reading with their kids. “And Xavier’s brood has made a language for themselves.”
Captain Rowland simply shook his head. “Good, now I want you two to load up the rest of the tools and gear you need.” He eyed the truck over one last time, smirking since it was the size of an older cargo truck. “You should have plenty of room for your gear and hers. This woman is off limits for you though...Hound.” Cue a chorus of bunny giggles as I felt my face heat up, damned british prick.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Oh why’s that? Evans and I aren’t really an item, I know she’s been having her own fun, I on the other hand haven’t had any fun…” Hard silver eyes suddenly bore into me, and I could feel at least two sets of eyes glaring at me from behind, so I held my hands up in surrender. “Ok ok, so I might of eaten out one of the Ca’zeze women until she passed out…but she was in heat!” A snort sounded from the Captain and I smiled. “Her group gave her the herbs she needed after that, and no one was going to come near me...was keeping her safe.”
“And the fact that you are a horny no good Hound has nothing to do with it. I want you to behave Roderick, this Pulsar is Stormwind’s daughter, she’ll be here soon and knows to find you, Stormwind and Grek both tasked her with this. They’ve not been able to get their hands on an Eda fabricator, and theirs aren’t nearly as good.” Xavier and his brood moved to start rapidly loading small things into the back and packing them into a cargo crate that Lola tossed into the back. “Oh...were you planning on running off before I came to visit?”
A tablet landed on the hood from the back and showed an aerial view of our current continent with a path marked out leading to the trio of Eda ships nestled inside one of the larger mimic forests. I heard the chattering of tiny fingers flying over a keyboard. “We planned to hunt for the Eda and find them, the others say that they haven’t seen them since shortly after we arrived here. The trio of ships here are giving off energy readings that the scanners on the scouts can pick up, and there is a duo on another part of the planet that are showing energy signatures.” The map spun to show the duo sitting near a volcano, then finally to a larger and broken looking ship surrounded by wreckage half in one of the massive lakes. “This one is one we need to keep away from, there are at least two titans.”
“We don’t have enough missiles left to take down two of them, and if the survivors are sentient enough to have passed on what happened.” The Captain took another long drink of beer and shook his head. “To be honest, we’re low on the heavier ammo all around, though I heard you’ve been testing out some things the chemists have been baking up?” He eyed me.
I sighed and moved to step up onto the back tire, reaching over and opening the case to pull out an oversized lever action rifle and a few shells. “It turns out that Armorer Cutler is a fan of some older weapons styles, he took a design by Marlin and sized it up to a .950.” I grinned as he seemed to strain a little holding the gun. “He had to do such a heavy rifle since I might need to shoot a dragon...and the dragon bone dust and caltunium powder make a hell of a bang.”
He looked from me to the rifle and back a few times. “A lever action anti-tank rifle, with enhanced metals to handle the blast of the powders.” He handed the rifle back and took a bullet, hefting the round and eyeing it. “We’re trying it for tank rounds, but we’re having to wait for a fabricator to make the new parts. Probably the reason you went with a lever action and not your favorite one?”
I casually pointed over to a crate that had almost a dozen shattered weapons. “I’m really glad that I heal much quicker now, I spent an hour getting metal picked out of my skin. Then we set up a testing rig.” Xavier squeaked when I said that. “And then one for each of the gun types we tested.” There was an annoyed chitter from Lola and I smiled. “Yes and then he made that rifle for me and it scared Lola so badly that she kicked me through a tree.” Cue a growling chitter from behind me, such a cute, tiny, and terrifying little bunny. I swear the smaller a woman was, the crazier they were. “Honestly I’d forgotten she was in my vest pocket and shot the gun…”
“And I kicked you through a tree.” Came from the synthesizer on the table.
“Well go and check in at the tech dungeon and get what they have for you.” The Captain smiled as he looked past me to Xavier. “Like the new exo suit that they built for Xavier and the long range com system that they’re going to need to…” He trailed off as there was a sudden rush of wind and only Lola remained with us, father and children were gone.
***************
Build it and they shall come, a fun old saying, but you build a tiny bunny the equivalent of a mech suit, you had to deal with the five others that wanted one too. I spent two hours watching six bunnies go over all of the readouts, the controls, the whole exo suit. I’d brought the Warg over and was helping put in the new com system and get it hooked up, but Xavier’s brood was harassing the human techs and assaulting their computers with new designs or tweaks. Mainly Marie.
I had to admit that I liked the new suit, it had the same sort of caltunium power pack as the truck, but a smaller set of them that fit in the biceps and calves of the humanoid form. That opened up the usual place of a power pack for another pack that had the same sort of electric jet turbines that powered the truck. There were other fun things like a water, food, and waste system, each being easily changed when it was shut down. The truly fun thing was the…
“EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee…” My eyes followed the bunny that was fired out of the top of the suit, the head and neck having snapped back against the thruster pack. Albert, if my eyes had picked out the fur patterns correctly, then sure enough tiny black wings opened about forty feet up so he could circle and glide down. Xavier chittered up at his son and flinched when there was a loud thunking sound of the head and neck of his suit snapping back again...and we watched Dorothy fire up into the air letting out the happy squeal of “EEEEEEeeeeeeeeee” as her brother had.
“Hey, look at it this way Xavier.” I grinned at him and pointed to his almost completely shattered original suit. “No more breaking your suit when you need to go super bunny.” I got an arm crossed glare and chitter for an answer. “Oh don’t give me that, you pouted for a few weeks after the storm where your last one got broken.” He chittered as his other two kids fired themselves up into the air, but I could see him smile as he looked up and watched them glide around.
I heard a soft warbling and looked over to see Lola scratching around the ears of the baby monster that was warming itself on the ground beside my truck. It was making little noises as it shifted its plated tail and uncurled to get more love from the bunny momma. That was of course the time that the horde descended and moved around on Bowler and scritched his softer fuzzy skin. I could hear the bitching chitters and growling from under my dash as Stanley used his teeth to strip the last of the wires, a flick of his fuzzy head and goggles dropped over his eyes before he welded the ground into place. He welded with his fingers, somehow instead of just being able to transfer energy from the mineral in his body to other bits of mineral, he could make arcs like a welder.
Stanley is what everyone in the shop called a certain genetically enhanced and caltunium infused honey badger that was once the pet of Pfc Omar “Honey” Ayad. A clawed hand paw moved to poke the on switch and then adjust a few things, giving me a clawed thumbs up. “A deals a deal.” I said and handed him down the pack of rolled smokes I’d made for him. “Thanks for hooking up the radio, where’s your person?”
He stood up and plopped a smoke into his mouth, using an arc between two claws to light it as he looked around. Finally he pointed into the shop’s depths and snorted. “Thanks, you do good work.” I casually strode into the shop to find Omar leaned over an anvil hammering on a large curved plate of metal, bending it to his will. The man was quite a bit like me in one way, he’d not watched what he ate, instead eating much like I had, only he’d not eaten the tasty omnivores. Except for the dragon meat, but that was because he had to in order to survive.
Omar towered like a demon before me, though he was a good few inches shorter, and snarled like a beast as he tossed the metal into the fire with his bare hand, which was clawed. He hadn’t fully turned forms like I had, instead he had a mane of black streaked blonde hair running down his back. His eyes were dark as coal in the dim light of the shop and he had sharp teeth that shined when he grinned at me. We both reached out and grasped the other’s forearm, the slaps of palms on flesh making cracks like whips before we jerked each other into a hug. “It is good to see you, Major, I have a surprise for you.”
He was always such a loveable guy, devoted to his people and the teams. He was also homicidal as hell when someone threatened something he cared for. Nice guy, just a cheerful guy you never wanted to see angry. “You’ve already given me a hell of a surprise...you beat out the shell for Xavier’s suit didn’t you?”
He grinned at me and bowed lightly. “Machined every plate after I beat it to the will of Allah. I’ve also got a box of shards...each I’ve put through a press to turn into a dart. He can throw them when he’s being fast, and it will be as if Allah smote them himself.” Happy homicidal, and so long as he wasn’t trying to kill us, I didn’t care. He had the odd cafe ole complexion a lot of the muslim contingent had, but he’d been darkening more lately.
“Awesome, he’s going to love using them and not having to waddle over to punch something, but you mentioned a surprise for me?” I asked as he moved between a couple of racks and came out with something like a tower shield. I say like, because it ended in a bladed edge, hell the whole lower half was tapered to an edge. I could tell it was an alloy, but I couldn’t figure out what it was, it had a snarling wolf’s head styled into the metal.
“It took me a week to forge this shield for you, and a month before that to work out the parts and alloy.” He said as he laid it on the bench and let me see the back, which was a thick handle, then a series of belts attached to springs. “The springs will stretch when you change and keep the shield tight to your arm when turned or moving about. The lower half is bladed with sword catches above the blades, when charged…” He trailed off and laid it down, popping the metal with a stun stick to make the eyes of the wolf glow. “I made it by finely grinding dragonscales from the big one, and mixing in the steel from one of the ruined truck’s armor. It's actually what I made Xavier’s suit from, it should be hard for even either of you to break.”
I couldn’t stop myself, I bent and shoved my arm into the straps to grip the handle as I stood, a roll of my shoulder to double check how it felt to hold the shield. I knew Omar and others were watching me as I moved around and took stances, not even thinking as I moved to my truck to unhook my sword and took a stance. “Wow...it actually helps with my balance. I’m going to have to practice moving around with a shield though.”
A flicker of movement caused me to look over in time to snap up my shield, a loud clang ringing in the air as a hammer head slammed into it...instead of my shoulder. My first mental reaction was to wonder just who had thrown a damned hammer at...there were four Lo’Kar standing off near a building and one armored figure was rushing for me. It was taller than a Lo’Kar and wrapped in an odd mix of dragon scale armor that had been dyed in almost a camouflage pattern. What the hell was this? Some short Ca’zeze?” The wind was wrong for me to get a scent, but I backed up in time for the second hammer to assist one of my steps. The hammers were both long handled with metal wrapped shafts leading up to I figure ten pound hammer heads?
The sounds this one made were odd as I was forced to move myself around and catch the hammer blows with my shield. It actually took me a moment to get back from this one, I’d gotten enough of a scent that this one was definitely female. “Stop this...why the hell are you attacking me!?” I snarled, forcing myself to keep as calm as I could. I heard chittering from off to the side and fell flat on my back as something tiny kicked off my shield, tiny, fuzzy and able to kick harder than my attacker swung a hammer.
Sonic shockwaves slammed the air for a split second as my attacker was slammed down into the ground violently. I sat up in time to see Lola standing on the female’s chest, looking down into the helmet’s visor and tapping her foot as she chittered. When the female tried to rise, the stout bunny just hopped lightly and kicked her back into the ground. What surprised me was the odd noises and musical sounds that came from under the helmet, an angry chittering sounded from Lola and she pointed over at Xavier and chittered more.
I could hear squeaking bunny giggles as I got up, confused as hell and set my sword and shield in the back of the truck. “Just what in the hell is going on?” I asked in a mild growl as I moved to gently pick up Lola, my other hand grabbing the armor and jerking my attacker to her feet. “Who the hell are you, and why did you attack me!?” I barked out, keeping my calm as best I could.
The rapid tapping of keys made me glance over to Xavier, while Lola sat on my shoulder and my attacker just stood slumped. “This is Thunder, head of the pulsars. She was told to come here and to join us. She was told that she would be working with you and that I would protect her.” There were more bunny giggles and then he went back to typing. “She’s never met us and apparently is one of the more dominant ones...and thought you...were me…”
I looked down at Thunder and raised a brow. “Stand at attention!” I barked out and the female snapped to, looking at my chest as I circled her. “I have no use for anyone needing to prove a point. You will work with us as we work like a team. Xavier is the bunny with the fancy armor. I’m Major Roderick O’Connel!” I said as I looked down at her in a drill sergeant’s tone and pose. “You will not blindly attack allies. Xavier is my First Sergeant, he is also the most lethal being on this planet…” I trailed off as I held up my hand, letting my anger show in the claws and fur that grew slowly on it. “But you will NOT risk sending me into a blind rage. IS THAT CLEAR THUNDER?” I boomed out...probably a little loud.
I heard a squeak from Thunder and she nodded rapidly, bowing softly. Her gloved hands moved to her helmet to remove it. I just stared at her head as she bared it, she was a hybrid. The normally hairless Lo’Kar female had a thin layer of light blue and dark brown fur, and a short muzzle. Her fur was almost an orca’s pattern, while bright blue eyes looked up into mine as she clipped something to her ear and clicked on her translator. “I am Thunder, daughter of Stormwind, Mistress of the Pulsars.”
I raised a brow. “And your dad must be the leader of the Ca’Zeze, I thought they acted quite a bit like a married couple.” My fingers scratched my chin as I thought, eyeing her. “I hereby give you the team name of Banshee. And you may use mine...which is Hound.” I saw her eyes narrow at me and I smiled back at her. “Now did you bring along what gear you need and a staff? This is going to be a bit of a trip, you know.” I could smell her anger and flashed my hand out to catch a short fuzzy ear, then went to gently rubbing it and scratching lightly around the base. “And you will not act like a hateful sexist idiot, you’re also banned from annoying Xavier. He could kill all of us accidently, let alone if you pissed him off.”
The noise she made was almost a chittering purr as she couldn’t help but lean into my hand as it worked her ear. “Yes, I have a poison sensor for food, a medical kit, the staff, and my personal weapons.” She stepped back from me quickly and went still as four terrifying fluffy children landed on her shoulders and head, then made a few odd notes of sound as they assaulted her ears and bared fur with tiny claws. “I...I have also been given my family’s rifle…it’s advanc...ed.” The more she was assaulted by bunny scratching, the more squeaky she got. She really sounded like a damned otter when she wasn’t faking being a stuck up pain in my ass.
Lola got all of our attention when she tossed one of Thunder’s hammers into the back of the truck, the hard packed soil supporting her. She chittered at us when she moved to lift the other hammer, giving it a bounce in her paw hands and casually tossing it into the bed of the truck. I couldn’t help but grin. “Thunder, that is Lola, mate to Xavier and first lady of the Order of Bun Bun.” I heard six squeaks in unison and smiled. “Adam has it logged into the network, Xavier and Lola are Firsts of the order, which is part of the military government we’re currently using.”
We’d had to keep things going as if this was still a military run colonization mission, I knew it wouldn’t last forever. Human’s absolutely sucked at keeping a Junta functional, but for now, everyone had a job, and the job earned the things you needed. Don’t like the job and there’s room to move you, sure you can see if you fit for another. I’m a fighter, a soldier, I knew what was needed and did it. Now I was a damned werewolf that glowed when he got enough power, my eyes moved to Albert and I smiled when he looked at me. “Albert, you got your wish as well. You get free run of the labs...within reason. Please no new monsters or mutating people for kicks. I’m told Doctors Lee and Williams commissioned the keyboards you asked fo….” He was just flat gone, no rush of wind, no blur, just gone.I looked to the other kids. “Now get back to studying, I’ve got to get your dad to help me load...and your mother to not break things.” They were still scritching Thunder and seeing what sort of funny noises she’d make.