Marvel Zombies

[Wyldwraith]

For a moment after Rain weakly asked what he was doing here and brusquely explained she'd been bitten, Feral felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Just as the emotion was really beginning to sink in however, the obvious slapped him in the face. With so much of Rain's blood dripping all over the bed of the truck, the sickly burning-metal smell of the Werewolf Infection should be overpowering if the pyromancer had been infected. Thoroughly confused now, since there was no question the barely-conscious woman believed what she was saying, Feral quickly decided he needed to see the alleged bite for himself. Which immediately confronted him with the problem of how to access a wound that seemed to wrap across the top of her shoulder onto her back while Rain was laying on it. Worrying that if he simply tried to roll her over in her condition that he might make the bleeding even worse, Feral chose instead to examine the fresh blood beside her instead. It took a precious minute, but satisfied the mutant that however it had happened, Rain had somehow come to falsely believe she'd been infected.

"You're not infected Rain. Trust me, I'd be able to smell it if you were. I don't have time to figure out what exactly happened, but I'm going to do my best to fix you up. It will REALLY piss me off if I have to waste valuable resources regenerating, so try to relax and not fry me while I work on you, all right?" Feral explained, looking to his "patient" to see if she'd heard and understood him. Having lapsed back into semi-consciousness, there was no way to confirm she could even understand him at this point, so he decided not to waste any more time and just get to it.

Feral's first thought was to anesthetize the injured woman, but her weak pulse and irregular heartbeat convinced him it was a bad idea. Unable to access the wound directly, he was forced to resort to introducing metabolic enhancers and regenerative cellular free radicals from his own bloodstream into the replacement blood he was internally manufacturing to match Rain's blood-type by means of a IV-line he'd quickly created out of a just-formed blood vessel whose far end was inside the temporary blood-storage organ he'd made room for inside his own abdomen, while the other end he'd unspooled a few feet of from his right arm, then hardened and sharpened the tip into something akin to a hypodermic needle. Unceremoniously planting the sharpened tip into the vein in her left wrist, Feral began pumping blood into his injured comrade's body as fast as her system would tolerate.

There were a few tense minutes, during which the blood he replaced was being lost almost as quickly as he could produce and infuse it, but then the cellular regeneration began in earnest. Connected to her biological systems as he was, Feral could feel the ragged half-moon tears in Rain's flesh slowly begin to clot, then scab over as the deeper tissue and broken blood vessels mended. As he listened to her strengthening heartbeat and felt the increasing amount of bio-electric activity in her nervous system, the biomancer was finally confident enough to administer a painkilling compound to his slowly recovering patient. As the scabs fell away to reveal healthy unbroken skin, Feral breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't do much more without shocking her already severely taxed body, but he was confident the woman had moved decisively from being near-death to making a full recovery in the next forty-eight hours. He was concerned about possible side-effects related to his use of his own hyper-evolved cellular healing factors, but without being able to access the wound directly it had been the only thing he could do that could help her in time. Resolved to face Rain's wrath when he explained that later, Feral hefted the by now unconscious mutant soldier over his shoulder in a fireman's carry position, and took off back the way he'd come. After carefully pulling Rain through the small tunnel in the "cork" blocking entrance to the rest of the facility, Feral took a moment to spit a catalytic agent on the edge of the metal he'd cut through. Confident that within five minutes the metal within a couple feet of the hole would be chemically heated to their melting point, Feral picked Rain up in his arms and took off at a dead run for the Gate Room, realizing he needed to get her there so he could then go back out, find the others, and eliminate anything that might prevent their escape.

As he ran the though crossed Feral's mind "No matter what, Rain is going to be PISSED when she hears all about this!" Breathing heavily, and doing his best to ignore the mounting fatigue brought on by the constant conflicts with Class-IV and 5 Metahumans and having used up so much biomass and energy in repairing Rain, Feral had to stop after a couple hundred yards run until the waves of dizziness subsided for the moment. Running on near-empty, the biomancer prayed he wouldn't have to fight or otherwise seriously use his powers again until he'd had a chance to recover. All the while, lurking in the back of the evolved mutant's mind were the first stirrings of the vampire-like instincts that he so dreaded. Shivering despite the blazing warmth of his passenger, Feral ran on.

[shadowrunner54]

Thundershock stared down the concrete werewolf with a mixture of caution and glee. He knew that this foe was going to be a serious threat, but at the same time he wouldn’t have it any other way. Thundershock was tired of dispatching those second rate werewolves. They had only gotten the drop on him when he and his team had first dropped into this new world. But since then, he had restructured his tactics and weapons, and had harnessed new abilities with his own powers and the Time Gem. Now, he might as well have been facing normal zombies for all the threat that the non-super werewolves posed. It wasn’t becoming of the crusader that he had become.

Smiling, he took a fighting stance and stared the hardened monster down. The concrete werewolf smiled back. “Good, I want a fight. It makes the kill all the more enjoyable.”

“I’m going to break you apart, piece by piece.” Thundershock hissed through his clenched teeth. “You’re going to suffer so much pain before I kill you that you’re going to forget all about the hunger.”

“We’ll see, boy.” The werewolf hissed back.

“Yeah, we’ll…”

Thundershock threw the Colonel’s shield against the far wall unexpectedly in mid-sentence. There was a small part of him that felt rotten to the core for employing such a dirty, underhanded sneak attack on an inspecting foe. But only a small part. There was no more room in this world and the one he had come from for lofty ideals of being a better warrior that the X-men had taught him. He had seen all of that ruthlessly die along with his team at the hands of his former mentors.

The only rule that now encompassed every battle was kill or be killed. And Thundershock had readily embraced it.
The Colonel’s shield bounced off the wall and spun wildly towards Grey Gargoyle’s thick neck. The concrete werewolf was light on his feet, and being a villain, was likely expecting such a move. He twisted his body to the side and bent backward, the keen edge of the shield slicing through the air inches above the tip of his snout, exactly where his neck had been only moments before. The shield missed its mark and continued on. As Grey Gargoyle began to lift himself back up, Thundershock was on top of him. Knowing that striking his bare fists against solid concrete would likely result in broken hands, Thundershock summoned up his new found abilities and focused his sonic powers down into his hands. In a one, two, three punch combination, he lashed out small pinpoint lances of sonic waves into Grey Gargoyles’ exposed chest.

Thundershock smiled savagely as he saw small bits of hard grey hair fall from the creature’s body and he stumbled back.
Thundershock suddenly ducked low and held up his hand. He knew perfectly well that his sonic punches couldn’t possibly harm something that wasn’t made of flesh. And he didn’t intend them to. They were only meant to distract him long enough for the Colonel’s shield to come back and slice his unsuspecting thick head from the neck it was attached to.

A faint, sinister laugh escaped Thundershock’s mouth as he was only a moment away from watching the dumb bastard’s head roll. The laugh died in that instant when Grey Gargoyle fell flat on his hardened back and the Colonel’s shield once again missed its mark. Thundershock’s outstretched arm caught the incoming shield, and he realized too late that he had just left himself completely exposed. Grey Gargoyle’s feet lashed out, connecting squarely into Thundershock’s chest. He was knocked off of his feet with dreadful pain. Although hurt, Thundershock managed to roll back into a crouched position. His free hand instinctively clutched at his chest. When he pulled back his hand, Thundershock saw the tips were soaked red. He had just been given a good lick, a harsh reminder that he couldn’t afford to be careless with these monsters. He had gotten damn lucky with Grey Gargoyle falling backwards. Had the beast fallen forward, it was likely that it would have been his jaws that had inflicted Thundershock’s current wound rather than his claws. Although Thundershock was absolutely certain that his body could now fight off any infectious bite of the living dead, he was less than certain about the strain that caused this world full of nightmarish werewolves.

Growling, Thundershock tucked in the Colonel’s shield and braced himself for round two. Grey Gargoyle rose back onto his towering height. His stiff wolf lips lifted with a serious of sinister scrapes. “Please don’t tell me that was your best. The only reason I didn’t just bite you was because I want a fight, not a squealing helpless meal. So don’t disappoint me again, or I’ll finish this before you have a chance to even blink. So it’s up to you, die now, or live for a couple more minutes in absolute agony.”

[shadowrunner54]

“You’re going to have to work for your meal.” Thundershock said.

Grey Gargoyle looked positively satisfied with his answer. “Good,” his stone wolfish lips quivered, “I was hoping you would say that.”

Without another word, he slid the glove that covered his right hand off and tossed it aside. Thundershock had absolutely no idea what dirty trick this stone monster had up his sleeve, but his mind screamed caution. Bracing the Colonel’s shield in front of himself in defense, Thundershock considered his options. Gargoyle was too quick as a werewolf to be hit by the shield, and his sonic attacks weren’t having very much effect on his stone skin. That left only one other option to him. Thundershock silently slid the staff of one from the harness on his back and clutched it tightly with his free hand.
Gargoyle chuckled. “Do you really think that little stick is going to hurt me?”

“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Thundershock smirked. He knew exactly what wish he wanted to employ to bring the stone demon down. He didn’t have to wait long to find out if would work.

Gargoyle snarled, and lunged for him with his gloveless hand held out. Thundershock leapt back from the attack, but the stone monster was much faster than him. He rammed his gloved hand into the Colonel’s shield, knocking Thundershock completely off balance. As he stumbled back, Thundershock gave a blind thrust towards Gargoyle’s exposed midsection. The pointed tip of the staff jammed in between Gargoyle’s stomach muscles. Instantly, dozens of miniature fissures branched out from point of impact and spread all across his abdomen like a personal earthquake. Thundershock smiled with savage glee, all he had to do now was wait for the rest of the wish to take effect and watch the blockhead crumble apart like a broken statue.

The smile vanished an instant later when he saw the small fissures slow to a halt, and then began to seal up. Gargoyle growled with pain, but that didn’t stop him from attacking. He grasped Thundershock’s outstretched hand by the wrist. Thundershock watched in horror as his entire forearm almost instantly transformed into solid stone. Before he had a chance to scream, Gargoyle brought one of his cinderblock like feet down on Thundershock’s toes. Waves of shock exploded throughout his body from his toes being flattened like pan cakes. As he started to fall back, Gargoyle grasped his still exposed shoulder and ripped a large chunk away. Thundershock collapsed to the floor with a large spurt of blood. Gritting his teeth, he watched as Gargoyle took the chunk of his flesh and stuck it in his jaws the way he would a five star meal.

“Yum.” he cackled as he sucked the blood off each of his gloved fingers. “Best I’ve ever had.”

Even writhing about in pain, Thundershock was still aware enough to see that Gargoyle had left himself open momentarily. Summoning up the last of his strength, Thundershock let the Colonel’s shield fly. It spun wildly through the air, striking home. Gargoyle’s nearly ecstasy like state instantly transformed to one of agony as his exposed right arm was severed close to the shoulder. He stumbled back as his arm fell limply to the floor.

“My arm!” he screamed, staring at the stump that he now had. “My arm!” he wailed again.

“Now…” Thundershock said through clenched teeth as he watched the monster writhe around in pain equal to his own. “We’re even.”

“Why you…”

“That’s what you get for playing with your food.” Thundershock laughed.

Grey Gargoyle snarled, leaping the short distance that stood between them. Using his fangs, he ripped off the glove covering his remaining hand. His cold grey eyes shining with near madness, he plunged the claws into Thundershock’s injured leg. Thundershock screeched as the fire daggers of suffering sunk into his very bones. As he looked down in helpless horror, the area around where Gargoyle had stabbed him began to change to stone. And worse, it began to spread slowly up his leg.

“Where’s your jokes now?” Gargoyle laughed. “I’m going to turn you into a statue. Then I’m going to smash you into a thousand pieces. And then I’m going to devour each piece one at a time as it turns back to flesh. Yes, your end will be slow and painful.”

With one arm turned almost completely to stone, and another pinned under the immensely heavy foot of Gargoyle, Thundershock was completely and totally helpless. All he could do was watch as the stone wave continued to work its way up his leg. And each inch that it gain felt more and more like he was slowly being crushed by a steam roller.

**

The fire witch and the mutant with the enchanted sword nearly ran into him in a dead run. Wolf Man leapt back in a defensive stance, his mind almost completely convinced that she had already turned and had infected one of her companions. But when he saw that they were both perfectly normal, Wolf Man could do nothing except scratch his head.

“But…I saw you…”

“She’s not infected!” the mutant exclaimed.

No more needed to be said. Wolf Man leapt in front of them and blocked the passage. “Go. I’ll stop them here.”

[JessieWolf]

Rain was fairly certain she was in some kind of nightmare when Feral arrived out of nowhere and started to tend to her injuries despite her weak protests. The man didn't seem to understand, or accept that she had been bitten and if he brought her back to where the others were, it was likely going to be a bloody mess, but she couldn't really do anything to stop the other mutant either. She could barely keep her own eyes open, let alone be forceful about getting the mutant to just leave.

She felt the pain in her shoulder dim and some of her dizziness and nausea faded as well. She wasn't entirely aware of what Feral was doing, but she was aware enough to know that is was his doing. She felt the world flip upside down as she was tossed over Feral's shoulder, the change in position was enough to steal consciousness away from her. The fire barrier that had been keeping the lycans from entering the base's front door lingered for a few minutes longer, despite the fact its creator had since passed out.

Distantly she heard voices, something about not being infected and another saying that he would take care of the lycans. Not that it really mattered at this point...In the blackness of her unconsciousness there was a pinpoint of light, like a candle flame in a void. The orange flame danced and flickered in the dark before it was suddenly joined by another, a blue flame. This must be some sort of strange near death dream or something....Finally, below the orange and blue flames a white flame sparked to life below and between the two original flames, forming a triangle.

As she drew closer, she could see that the orange flame, was indeed a candle flame, the second however, was a blue fiery aura around what looked to be the Mind Gem. When she glanced down at the third flame however...Rain's eyes snapped open and she could see the ceiling, she was laying on her back someplace and it took her several moments to get her bearings. She was laying on the floor in the Gate room. The world remained hazey, and her body ached but..it all seemed real enough. Had Feral dropped her off and run off again? Rain's attempts at sitting up failed horribly and she was reduced to groaning there on the floor, pondering if she was still dreaming, if she had already died, or if she would try to devour her friends if they entered the room...her glazed eyes scanned the nearby area for anything sharp...she may have to use on herself...

***

Lupus wasn't entirely sure how long it had been that he had been dragging Grace through the halls. He released the bit of shoulder armour he had been dragging the young woman by, and stood there over her, panting hard. It wasn't that she was heavy, far from it. it was just that he was so weakened his ribs were easily seen and his muscle mass had degenerated. If he had a few dozen pizzas he would be back up to full strength in as long as it took him to inhale them all, but as he was, he was having a hard time pulling the light weight asgardian goddess along the floor.

"Just....a little....further...Grace..Hang in there.." he shook his head briskly as he didn't have the ability to slap his cheeks and took a big breath, trying to get pumped up for another bout of dragging.

[Wyldwraith]

Running into Canis-Wolf Man was surprising for Feral, even moreso once the wolfen humanoid made it clear he was under the same incorrect impression that Rain had been infected. Canis seemed to accept his exasperated assertion "She's not infected!" readily enough though, even going so far as to act as rearguard for the weary biomancer and the unconscious pyromancer he was carrying to safety. Lacking the energy to stand around with Rain in his arms while having a conversation, Feral simply nodded his thanks and ran onwards towards his Gate Room destination.

After taking the right at the western corridor hub that lead to the Gate Room, Feral's steps quickened as his goal came into sight. Which of course was when he felt a sickeningly doubled sense of Deja Vu.

Thundershock....
The waves of agony, fear and helpless fury emanating from the former X-Man staggered the psi-sensitive mutant, nearly causing him to drop Rain. As the impressions continued to wash over him, Feral gritted his teeth against the sympathetic pain and crossed the last few yards to the Gate Room. Once he had carefully laid Rain down on one of three hospital-like beds the mutant called out to the A.I Jarvis to assess his/its condition. In the synthesized tones of a cultured English voice the A.I quickly informed Feral that his systems were 72% operational and rising. Satisfied, Feral asked the A.I to emphasize defense of the Gate Room and its occupants at all costs and to require the most discriminating means at its disposal to detect whether an individual attempting to gain access to the Gate Room was infected or not, and to use all available measures to prevent the Infected from entering.

"Feral, if I may be so bold I suggest you take one of the adhesive-backed portable communicators with you when you depart. This will circumvent any difficulties that might arise due to the current gaps in the main Communications Grid. Should any of the Infected manage to withstand the deployment of Facility security measures and continue attempting entrance to the Gate Room I will contact you. Further, now that the secondary sensor arrays are back online I can keep you apprised of the movements of those inside the Facility. I'm sure I don't need to explain the potential tactical benefits of accurate intelligence to you" Jarvis explained. Doing as the A.I suggested the biomanipulator quickly moved to the bin indicated by the A.I and affixed one of the tiny communicators below and in front of his ear. Once he was satisfied it wouldn't fall off due to a sudden movement he exited the Gate Room rapidly, doing his best to home in on Thundershock by the emotional emanations the young mutant was emitting. To his dismay he determined Thundershock was some distance from his current position and that he might not be in time to make a difference if the sonic mutant couldn't extricate himself from his current plight.

"Still, I'll be damned if I don't try" Feral grimly vowed. With that thought foremost in his mind the predatory mutant raced from the room and back out into the labyrinth of Facility corridors. Under such strain and spread as thin as he was by trying to look out for and help everyone the way Carl had been doing since this all began, Feral forgot to leave an explanation of what was happening for the still-unconscious Rain.

[shadowrunner54]

Thundershock thrashed about as the stone sickness spread up to his groin and was beginning to overtake his guts. Before too long it would consume his liver and kidneys. Thundershock knew with the dread of inevitability that after that point, even if what Gray Gargoyle had said about his stone touch wearing off eventually, his body wouldn’t be able to survive without those vital organs. Thundershock needed to stop him, but he was in far too much pain to even lift his still good arm. But even if he could, there was no way he could hope to knock the stone monster off of him with just his feeble sonic blasts.

This wasn’t right. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was The One. The only one, aside from the Wolf Man, to have survived a bite from the infected. How could destiny place such a tremendous burden of responsibility upon his shoulders, only to have it snatched right out from under his nose by his untimely death. It couldn’t end like this. But, there was no way that he could see how to save himself. Through all the misery that he was enduring, Thundershock cursed himself for being so weak. Why was he so weak? Why couldn’t he just plow through this monster on his own, they way any of his other teammates could? As the first horrible touches of the stone sickness embraced his liver and kidneys, Thundershocked released a howl of anger and pain that was unmatched by even the animal like infected.

“Get off of him!” Someone nearby shouted.

Thundershock had no time to even register who had said that, because an instant later a powerful ball of energy struck Gargoyle right in the chest. He hissed from the blow as bits of his massive stone chest were chipped away and the entire surface of his torso skin was cracked. But more than anything, the attack served its most dire purpose. It knocked him away from Thundershock, and with it, Gargoyle’s poisonous touch of stone death. Thundershock looked on through clenched teeth and nearly shut eyes as several more blasts struck Gargoyle, propelling his statue like frame into a nearby wall.

A small, shady figure leapt between him and the one armed werewolf. The timely intervention of this mystery savior caused even the one armed werewolf to stop. “What the hell…” he hissed.

“You touch him again, and I’ll vaporize you into a pile of dust!”

“Who the hell do you…I’ll ripe you apart for interfering with my meal!”

With the blind viciousness that all of the infected possessed, Gargoyle threw himself at the small figure. The shadowy guardian nimbly dodged his attack and struck him in his side, and he howled in pain. As the two combatants mixed it up, Thundershock weakly looked past them, and at the Colonel’s shield far away. It had been thrown with such force that it had embedded itself into the wall almost completely. With a trembling hand, Thundershock held out his still good hand and summoned it to return. Although weak as he was, the command had nothing to do with his own strength and power. It all relied totally upon the power of the Staff of One, and the wish he had made not long ago to always have the shield return safely to his hand upon his command. And the staff was still very much intact.

The shield vibrated for a few fleating moments, and then exploded from the wall as if it had been shot out of a cannon. It spun wildly back towards Thundershock’s waiting hand. Gargoyle was far too mixed up with the mystery combatant to even notice the blinding blur of the weapon as it skimmed past him. Thundershock caught the shield at the exact moment Gargoyle grasped the shady figure and slammed them into the floor. And with it, completely exposing his entire back to Thundershock.

There wasn’t even a hint of hesitation within Thundershock as he let the shield fly. It struck true, embedding a quarter of its full surface into Gargoyle’s back. The stone werewolf arched his lupine head towards the ceiling and released an agonizing cry that far surpassed the one he had made with the loss of his arm. As he stumbled to turn around, Thundershock smiled savagely at him as he watched the silver rim of the shield begin to take its poisonous effects upon the stone monster. Thundershock could have easily thrown the weapon completely through the infected bastard, but that would have been a quick and clean kill. And that was the very last thing that he wanted to do. He wanted it to suffer as much as it had made him suffer.

“You’ll die slowly, and painfully.” Thundershock hissed at the wild eyed Gargoyle. “And I’ll enjoy every second of it.”

And he would have, if the pain coursing throughout his whole body hadn’t completely consumed him in that moment. As the world blackened for Thundershock, he got the satisfaction of watching Gargoyle collapse to the floor, his stone skin beginning to slowly crumble away into dust…

He began to regain consciousness sometime much later. How much time had passed, he couldn’t say. All he was aware of was that his head was being cradled in someone’s arms.

“Eric, are you ok? Speak to me. Just open your eyes.”

Who the hell was that? Grace? No, it didn’t sound like his sister. Rain? No, there was simply no way in hell that Thundershock could ever bring himself to believe that Rain would cradle him in her arms, even if he was on the verge of death. Polaris I or II? Maybe, but he didn’t see how either of them could know his real name. The only people who knew that were…

The realization struck him the force of having been shot. Thundershock’s eyes flew open, and he gazed up into the face of his unexpected savior. Her face was deformed in some ways, but not enough to the point of it being unrecognizable. And more than anything, her eyes hadn’t changed one bit. They were exactly the same as he had remembered them from every day that he had seen her, and every time she had walked his dreams.

He was staring up into the face of the Flicker of Kayla, the living physical memory of the only girl he had loved. Another creation of Carl’s mind.

“Eric…” she whispered, sounding almost exactly the way Kayla had.

Thundershock’s completely stunned expression instantaneously morphed with her uttering his name. His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits and his lips peeled back into a vicious sneer eerily similar to that of the lupine infected. And as he gazed up into the face of this…thing…only one thought dared to cross through Thundershock’s mind.

I’m going to kill that motherfucker! Thundershock thought with a hatred that was only matched by his rage for the infected. I’m going to tear Carl’s black, soulless heart out for this!

[shadowrunner54]

“Eric.” Kayla’s flicker whispered again, reaching out a hand to touch his forehead.

“Get away from me!” he screamed, slapping away the hand. Kayla’s flicker looked both shocked and horrified by his words.

“But, Eric…”

“Don’t touch me.” he growled in a low voice, weakly pulling himself to his feet. “Don’t you ever touch me.”
Turning his back to the flicker, Thundershock used the staff of One to brace himself up and began to limp away. Every movement in his body was a session of absolute torture, but he refused to let himself succumb to the pain. If he did that, then the flicker might try to come rushing to his aid. Not that it didn’t try.

“Eric, you’re hurt. Let me help you.”

“I don’t want or need your help!” he snapped, not even turning to face it. Using his still good arm to hold himself up against the wall, Thundershock dragged his still stone leg behind himself. It was almost impossible for him to stay up as his unaffected leg had a foot that was nearly crushed. Thundershock randomly teetered on the edge of blacking out as he forced himself to move on. He really didn’t care where he went, as long as it was away from that abomination that Carl had created.

As he moved on, he was hit by a sudden surge of feelings. Thundershock didn’t know where it had come from or how he could decipher the meaning of the raw emotions, but he could. And what he understood made his blood run cold. Thundershock instantly knew that he was somehow picking up what Lupus was feeling through his own Infinity Gem. Grace, she was hurt badly…maybe even….

No. Thundershock refused to even let that thought cross his mind. His sister was his whole world. He would not lose her. He would not. Thundershock quickened his pace, determined to reach Grace before it was too late. He only managed a few awkward steps before losing his balance and crumbling to the floor. As he gritted his teeth and started to try and pull himself up, a pair of hands fell upon his shoulders.

“Get…” he started to scream, but was cut off.

“Eric, please, you need my help. You can’t get there in time without me.”

**

Wolfman, or Canis, whichever party preferred to his reference, stood rigid in the hallway. His oddly mis-colored fur was standing on end as he braced himself for the coming storm. The fire witch had done a remarkable job of defending the complex’s main entrance, something he wouldn’t have thought possible for any individual to do. But now she was out of the fight, at least for a while. In the back of his mind, Wolfman hoped that the other mutant that had been carrying her away from the fight had been right about her not being infected. Otherwise, everything that he was about to endure would be wasted.

He could feel them out there, even if he still couldn’t see them. The dreaded infection that had once coursed through his veins and had nearly brought him to the brink of the hunger driven insanity now gave him a sense of oneness with those that it had consumed. And now, very soon the wall of fire that held them at bay would diminish enough for them to break through. Then it would just be him as a final barrier to preventing the few non-infected from being completely consumed by this monstrous horde. But before that, there was one that had braved the flames, and nearly died getting through to face him.

Wolfman knew which one of the furry monsters was coming to face him. It was the only one that had sought to fight him even after they had learned how toxic his blood was to them. For this creature was not driven by hunger, but by the maddening desire for revenge.

As it slowly began to climb its way up the narrow stair case, Wolfman braced himself for the coming battle, one that was likely to be his hardest fought one yet. Because, deep down, he understood exactly what the creature was feeling. When the slightly bulky outline appeared around the corner, Wolfman hunched low, drew back his ears and bared his fangs.
Into the light stepped the monster. Although much of its costume had been ripped away from many transformations, enough of the red and blue colors mixed with the intricate web patterns remained to identify who the creature was.

“Peter.” Wolfman whispered as he gazed at the hunching werewolf with a mixture of sadness and determination. “It’s been a long time coming.”

“Shut up!” the werewolf Spiderman roared. “You killed MJ! I’m going to peel your flesh off for that!”

[shadowrunner54]

Wolfman took a defensive fighting stance. Parker was a formidable opponent, even before he had been turned. Now his strength had been amplified significantly. Wolfman was under no illusion that this was likely to be the hardest fought battle of his life. But before they would tear each other to pieces, Wolfman had to ease one final burden from his chest.

“I know how you’re feeling, Peter.”

“Quiet!” the werewolf Spiderman snapped.

“I loved her too.”

“You know nothing!” the nimble werewolf screamed, launching himself at Wolfman. The speed was astonishing, so fast that he barely had enough time to leap out of the way as the infected Spiderman rammed one of his fists straight through the wall where his head had been only a moment before. Before Wolfman could regain his balance, Parker lashed out with a clawed foot and pierced Wolfman’s lower midsection with the talons tipping his padded feet.

Growling from the pain, Wolfman jumped out of the strike range and brought his claws up. “I did what I had to do…for her. I had to take away her pain.”

“You killed her!” Parker snapped, ripping his arm free.

“I know that you didn’t mean to bite her, Peter. I know of the hunger, and how it drives the mind to the brink of insanity. She wouldn’t have wanted to live like that. I know you, the real you, would have understood that.”

“I could have saved her!” Peter snarled. “I… just needed time to cure her.”

“You know you never could, not the way you are.”

His soul shattering howl echoed throughout the hallway as the infected Spiderman threw himself at Wolfman. Wolfman was ready for him, though. He ducked out of the wild swipe that he threw and raked his sharp claws across the smaller werewolf’s chest. Undeterred by the attack, Spiderman threw his head forward and smashed his forehead into Wolfman’s snout. The blow sent him reeling, and Parker was on top of him in an instant. His claws slashed wildly at any portion of Wolfman’s body that he could. Through the maddening melee, the rage filled werewolf had enough state of his mind left to not bite into his flesh.

The heavy iron smell of blood filled Wolfman’s nostrils as the pain rocked through all across his body. Roaring furiously, he grasped Spiderman’s arms and swung him into the wall with all his might. Almost as if it was an instinctual reaction to the attack, Spiderman pointed both of his arms at Wolfman. The next thing Wolfman knew, his entire face had been covered by the sticky substance of Spiderman’s webbing. All air was instantly cut off for Wolfman. He danced about madly as he tried to pry the webbing from his face, finally ripping a small portion away from the front of his snout with his claws. But he was still both blind and deaf. A heavy force hit him from behind before he knew what was going on. The blow was right into his spine, and it sent waves of crippling pain up through his back. A knee rammed into the back of his kidney, bringing Wolfman to his own knees. There wasn’t even time for him to cry out in agony as his head was slammed into the hardened concrete wall.

Thick strands of something ropey, likely Spiderman’s webbing, was laced around Wolfman’s throat. It tightened in the space of a heartbeat, choking off all of his air. The horror of realizing that he was being strangled to death.

“Die, you son-of-a-bitch! Die!” The infected Spiderman hissed into Wolfman’s ear with a hatred he had never before been aware of.

[Wyldwraith]

Sensing the cessation of the terror that had so recently underscored the fury consuming the former X-Man, an exasperated Feral suddenly wheeled left down a different passageway, now homing in on a deeply worried Lupus. The evolved mutant felt a pang of guilt at the realization that the snap decisions he was making about whose aid he would next rush was tantamount to playing God with the lives of his comrades, but his coldly pragmatic side quickly fired back, citing the impossibility of him being everywhere at once, and noting that if he pushed himself much harder he wouldn't be fit to help anyone. Still, despite being forced to acknowledge the reality of his situation, Feral didn't have to like it.

Progress was slower than the biomancer wished, feeling the wolfen mutant's desperation coupled with deepening exhaustion he could empathize with, but Feral was limited to "merely" the speed of an Olympic sprinter until he found some uncontaminated biomass his body could absorb and use to replace the massive amount of energy and the over fifteen pounds of weight he'd burned up in the course of the many battles he'd been forced into recently. The individual toll each battle had exacted was bad enough, but collectively they had drained him so severely as to jeopardize his survival. Still, Feral refused to give up on any of his teammates. Carl wouldn't, so neither would he, even if it killed him.

Within minutes, Feral had arrived at what appeared to be the site of a very recent, extremely intense battle. Most puzzling was the fact that Lupus's scent literally oozed from the rubble of the ruptured hallway, yet there was no sign of the normally cheerful wolfen. Fearing the worst, Feral began picking through the larger rubble heaps to ensure the young mutant hadn't been buried beneath any of them. Instead of Lupus himself though, the perceptive mutant discovered the reason his young teammate's scent was so strong here as he began unearthing large broken-off bone plates of the sort Lupus normally used as self-grown body armor. As he located more and more pieces of broken bone plates, it occurred to Feral that as revolting as some might find the notion, the sizable heap of bone shards he'd gathered might be just what he was looking for to restore himself to some extent. A quick test proved the idea's merit, and from there it was only a couple of minutes until his unique physiology had finished absorbing nearly twelve pounds of the discarded bone and begun converting it into more useful forms. Feeling more than a little refreshed, the biomancer took off once more, now hot on his comrade's trail judging by the strength of the mixed odors of Lupus and Grace.

Several hundred yards and a couple more turns brought Feral to within sight of a deeply disturbing scene. Slender enough to be described as skeletal, a wolf-form Lupus appeared to be trying to gnaw his way through a badly injured and unconscious Lightningstrike's shoulder armor. Not yet close enough to determine whether one or both were now infected, Feral decided to test the waters by calling out loudly, shouting "Stop chewing on Grace's shoulder Lupus. If both of you are clean I want you to lie down while I approach and figure out what's going on here. One way or the other, I promise I can help you, both of you. You just need to put Grace down, back off and lie down. Just DON'T MOVE until I say it's all right, ok? I can smell whether either of you are Infected once I'm close enough, but if you don't stay still I can't take any chances my friend."

Explanation and warning given, Feral started slowly making his way forward, eyes fixed on the pair of battered and potentially Infected mutants in front of him.

[JessieWolf]

Lupus had heard someone, or something approaching, and all he could think of to do was to try and drag grace at a faster pace then he was, growling from his effort. In the next moment he heard a familiar voice"Stop chewing on Grace's shoulder Lupus. If both of you are clean I want you to lie down while I approach and figure out what's going on here. One way or the other, I promise I can help you, both of you. You just need to put Grace down, back off and lie down. Just DON'T MOVE until I say it's all right, ok? I can smell whether either of you are Infected once I'm close enough, but if you don't stay still I can't take any chances my friend."

His first instinct was to drop Grace and flee, afraid of what the scene might look like, and remembering what the owner of that voice had done last time things involving the young Morlock had gone badly. But on the flip side, Lupus was also fairly certain he wouldn't be able to run very far, even if he wanted to. "This isn't what it looks like! I swear! I didn't do this to her!" he sounded paniced, but he did back away from Grace, his tail tucked between his legs as he slunk backwards "Just safe her...I..I can't...I...shut up George!" Lupus didn't want to think of the possibility of what Feral might do if he wasn't able to convince the other mutant that he wasn't infected. Even to his own nose he reeked of lycan. But he assumed that was from having been given a bear hug by Juggernaught.

"Some guy with a club attacked her...I..." his back leg bumped into a wall behind him and he sank into the corner "I tried to help...but...I couldn't move till I fixed myself...but I was too slow...Juggernaught broke through the wall...and...no...some other guy broke through and..." He couldn't even remember the correct sequence of events. He felt so cold, even with his fur, he felt like he was standing in a freezer. Lupus huddled against the wall, curling into a ball, both for fear of what might happen to him next, and to try and stay warm. "Just...save her.." He muttered, trying to keep himself from whimpering.

***

Rain slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position on the floor of the gate room, a screwdriver of some kind or another gripped in her hand. She wasn't entirely sure how she had ended up in the gate room, but she did remember the bite...and the fact she was still alive, and was feeling much better, rather implied that the lycan regeneration had kicked in. She was silently mustering the courage to drive the screwdriver through her own temple when the cultured voice of Jarvis came over the speakers of the gate room. "Excuse me Miss, but might I inquire as to what you intend to do with that spanner?"

The voice startled Rain slightly before she realized where it came from. "I healed, Jarvis...I don't have regeneration powers, I should be dead I can't risk infecting the others." There was a long pause before the AI butler spoke again "I am rather confused, Miss. My sensors show no evidence of you carrying the infection. I believe you are mistaken. You're rapid recouperation from your injuries I believe is compliments of one of your companions, the one that carried you here." Rain furrowed her brow slightly, trying to remember who it had been that had found her. "Ca...no, Feral.." Rain climbed to her feet unsteadily, falling against a nearby worktable as her sudden change in position caused a massive wave of nausea and dizziness to hit her.

"You may wish to sit down, Miss, your companion may have saved your life, however you are certainly not in any condition to be moving about just yet." Rain glanced down at herself, her eyes half lidded and saw that almost her entire left side was dark with blood. She stood there a long moment, evaluating her own condition. She was bare foot, and her geans were gone from the knee down. Her clothes on her left side were dark with blood. She stiffly removed the biker jacket the Rider had given her and pulled off her tattered black t-shirt to examine her shoulder more thoroughly, revealing the black sports type bra. There were scars on both the front and back of her shoulder in the shape of bite marks. How was it possible she was bitten and not infected? She tenderly rolled her left shoulder before examining her t-shirt carefully. There were most definitely holes in her shirt. She dropped the shirt onto the worktable and picked up the leather jacket and examined it carefully.

It seemed that the jacket had sustained absolutely no damage what-so-ever from the encounter with the lycans. "How the hell..." The double crescent marks on her shoulder still felt raw, even though they were fully healed. Another set of scars to add to the collection she had. Down her back she had a series of older scars, jagged lines, mostly running vertically, with a few running horizontally, they looked as if they had been cuts that had been stitched and the stitches pulled out during healing. Rain leaned heavily forward against the worktable. She needed to try and stay awake and alert for when the others arrived, in case there was fighting that needed to be done. But till that time she needed to try and get her head together.