Part 2.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid. How come I can face off against five Betas at once but one look at Garret Thompson and I’m ready hump his face off?” a deflated Charlie thought as she took her glasses off and washed her face by the sinks. She had made sure nobody was inside, which she thanked for as a break. “Ugh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I just wanted to have a friendly chat and maybe get one, or a dozen tequila shots. A girl’s night out” frustrated, she head-butted her crossed arms on the marble.

“Freeze.” A crisp voice came from nearby. If Charlie had had any hairs on her back they would’ve stood on their ends. Quickly, she pulled her sunglasses and put them on, then turned on to see a gun facing her way.

“Actually, it’s 30 celcius. It’s going to be hard for me to comply, miss.”

“Shut up, comedian. Give up your valuables, and don’t pull any tricks.”

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” Charlie rolled her eyes as she thought of many ways to insult her luck. With uncanny agility and impressive speed, the concealed scorpion jumped and somersaulted in mid-air, landing behind the shocked robber. “Sorry, what was number two?”

With a light back-handed blow, Charlie managed to quickly subdue her attacker. After months of high-risk missions and brutal training, this was more than simple to her. “Let’s see…” she checked the female’s face, I’ve never seen you before…” she removed the hideous mask she was wearing and widened her eyes, “…You’re… you can’t be older than sixteen,” the scorpion blinked in surprise as she registered the unconscious female. “Who let you in here, kid…? And why are you carrying this?” she reached for the uzi the woman had used, finding it chock full of bullets.”

“What the hell is going on here? Nngh, not much I can do about this right now. Better call the actual police to take care of…” she said to herself, reaching for her cellphone before her internal ears picked up an unusual static. Charlie looked down, realizing that on the girl’s right ear was a receiver. Picking it up, she gently neared it to the side of her head to listen in as quietly as she could.

“You got all the hostages? Music stopped? Good. Keep them quiet, Barney was successful. Now get all their stuff, it’s all going clean so far. Radio-check for exit teams. Green. Check for upper floor. Green. Check for middle floor. Green…”

“What the hell is this?” thought a disbelieving Charlie as she looked down at the uzi she had left by the sleeping form of her ex-assailant, “You didn’t just get this, you were issued this. For a hold-up…”

“…Girl’s bathroom. Girl’s bathroom, Sandy, you alright? Hey, respond!”

Shook up, Charlie took a small gulp and slid her face-guard on so her voice would distort itself a bit. “Only one in this bathroom, do I join the others?” she quickly asked.

“No. Keep that girl in there, we’ll tell you right before we leave. Make sure you milk her for all she’s got if that’s the only one!”

“…I hate Fridays.” Charlie groaned in her head, dropping the ear-piece to the floor. She quickly pondered the facts as she knew them: Nilo was closed off, nobody suspecting anything outside. Cell phones were probably taken and everyone had been alerted by the shots, at least those that could hear them past the loud music inside. Bathrooms were seized, and exits blocked. Calling the police with this much organization and hostages was going to take time. “They have weapons, but they are saving them for the police I bet. They don’t want to shoot up people, they want it clean, that’s why there’s so much organization,” she deduced, “But something’s bothering me. She’s just a kid…” she said as she looked over Sandy’s unconscious form once more, “Nngh, the leader’s probably not even here. Fucker’s sending kids to do the dirty work!”

Angered, Charlie took out a special communicator reserved for emergency calls. “This is Agent Richards. Nilo Bar in Phoenix, Arizona. Organized hold-up in progress, need support, contact the local authorities. Multiple hostiles, all armed. More than a hundred potential hostages. Bring protection.”

“Understood,” said the Interpol operator, “What is your current location, Agent Richards?”

“Inside the bar. Bring psychologists or whatever we’re going to need for the under-aged perps. I’m going for the ones of age.”

“Negative Agent Richards. You are to remain incognito at all times for public- fzzzt…”

“Oops,” Charlie half-heartedly said as she crushed her communicator in her hand, “These guys are stirring trouble in my city, threatening my friends, and they think they can get away with using kids for their little robberies? Picked the wrong day and place for it.”

Getting rid of her civvies in a bathroom stall, Charlie quickly willed her chitin armor on. It formed around her back, shoulders, chest and underbelly, covering all of her sensitive spots. Clenching her hands, her thick pincers protruded from her forearms, the two appendages snapping violently as if channeling her rage. “You guys and I…” she took her sunglasses off, her entirely black eyes almost invisible in the darkness, “…are going to have a serious chat about manners.”

---

Outside, everyone was with their face and hands to the floor while the masked robbers pilfered their pockets. The plan was going smoothly. “Third floor’s empty,” one of the older robbers said via ear-piece.

“Acknowledged. Move on and help the lower floors, they’re bigger.”

“Move, go downstairs,” the adult robber motioned the younger ones with his weapon, but a racket coming from above made him look up. “What the heck?”

“Ugh, stuck stuck stuck!” cried a voice from inside the ventilation shaft. “I just had to say yes to that cheeseburger!” the whining continued, making the robber smirk as he pulled over a stool and climbed to begin removing the grate.

“I’ll help you down, don’t worry,” before he could bring his arms up, however, a long, segmented tail rushed down and wrapped around his neck. He didn’t have time to grab at it that the extremity forced him into the darkness.

“No, let me help YOU up,” Charlie smirked, squeezing around her prey’s neck as he squirmed, “Go to sleep,” she ordered right before her cheek pouches opened and two big mandibles came out, snapping an inch short of the guy’s face, “Now.”

Shortly afterwards, the muffled sounds in the ventilation ceased, and Charlie silently dropped to the floor. The patrons couldn’t believe their eyes, so she turned to them with a sassy expression on her face, “Cheeseburgers. They always fall for that one,” she said, pointing up at the third floor ventilation.

The dim lighting couldn’t really allow anybody to see what Charlie was, other than she must be a nut wearing a costume. One of the women that saw her actual appearance realized the costume idea worked too realistically and prepared to scream her lungs out, before Charlie knelt down and quickly put a palm over her mouth, “Shh. I know, a friend did my hair. Can you believe it? Now keep it down while I kick some keister.”

Sneaking about the third floor proved fruitless. The rest of the robbers had moved on to the lower floors already. The scorpion pondered moving into the network of ventilation shafts again, but she figured it would take too long. “Have to keep groups as small as possible, and the fewer the shots fired, the better my chances of keeping them from ricocheting and hitting someone.”

Decided on her cunning strategy, Charlie took a deep breath, slid her face-guard off and suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs: “AHH! MONSTER!”

It didn’t take long before a couple of robbers climbed up to the third floor, both flashing lights and pointing their guns. Fortunately for Charlie, only the grown ups had come up. Fortunately for her, they didn’t bother to look up at the ceiling. She dropped between them, then crossed her arms to poke their shoulders to draw their attention before jumping back at the ceiling.

The two gasped and nearly pulled their triggers, “What the hell do you want?” they both asked in unison, “What, you didn’t…?”

“Wow, you could be twins,” said a mischievous voice from above. Both flashlights pointed at the ceiling, where the scorpion was standing upside down, arms folded under her prominent bust. “On that topic, I got a quick physics question that is bothering me: If I knock A down, will B fall too?”

“OPEN FIRE ON THE FREAK!”

The guns went off at the ceiling, piercing holes on the surface just as Charlie had predicted from walking along it. The metamorph bounded off the ceiling with stunning speed and agility, and swept the one to her left off his feet with a quick kick. Before the other robber could react, she palm-thrust her quarry and sent him crashing into his partner, knocking both out instantly. “Well whaddayaknow.”

“Freeze!” commanded a voice from the stairs. Charlie frowned a bit.

“Guys, we’ve been over this, it’s 30 degrees…” the robber opened fire, prompting Charlie to pounce in the direction of a column, “Oh wait, silly me. Spent a few weeks in Asia, stuff you can do when you’re not, like, robbing and stuff?” the robber aimed and began to shoot a barrage of bullets again, all of them absorbed by the concrete fortunately for the hostages. “Okay, okay! It’s 86 degrees in Fahrenheit!” she said as she bounded off and used her momentum to crash into the robber.

Both tumbled over the stairs. Charlie was alright due to her organic armor, but the robber, not so much. He ended up unconscious after they arrived with her on top. “Oh silly you, you didn’t have to point your gun at me just to get my boobs on your face.”

Click. Click click click clicka click.

“Okay, I’m starting to think you all want something from me, but there are better ways to ask!” Charlie straddled her attacker and raised her hands in defense as his four companions all pointed their uzis at her at once, apparently having been in wait for her. “Hey kids,” she said to the minors holding guns, “Shouldn’t you be at home, say, watching cartoons or something? There’s this really good one about a cat and mouse, it’s hilarious let me tell you…”

“God-damnit, shut her up! Whatever she is!” the adult leading them shouted, but the fifteen-something seemed as awe-struck and helpless as he was. Whoever, whatever this thing talking to them was, it had taken out a fourth of their team already! Charlie, already aware of the helplessness they were feeling, decided to take it as an advantage.

“That’s right, kiddies and kiddo in adult’s pants,” she stood up, glaring at them as her pincers and mandibles came out all at once, her tail stinging at the air as it dripped pink liquid that fizzled loudly and fell to the floor where it evaporated with an even louder sizzling sound. “I can be nice, but the Stinger doesn’t hit twice. It’s just once and you’re dead. Do you want to test if I’m bullet-proof, too?” she offered, snapping her pincers threateningly. As expected, three of the four dropped their guns and hurried to hug the floor with their faces. “What about you?” she said to the remaining one. To Charlie’s surprise, the brave one was one of the minors, with his face concealed by both mask and a red hood. His grip and form were wrong, but he was tightly holding onto his gun like a symbol of strength and foolish bravado.

“You don’t scare me none, bug,” the boy said, “I’m gonna pump you full of lead, and I’ll be a man. You’ll see!”

“Cute, but I want to hear more. Surely that’s not your only pick-up line, is it?” Charlie rebutted, making the kid growl with aggravation.

“Grr, shut up! Shut up, just shut up!” he shouted, ready to pull the trigger, when his ear-piece buzzed.

“Team 2, downstairs! The heat is on, we gotta bail! Jamal, bring the guys downstairs! …Jamal?!”

“He’s down,” the boy quietly said, keeping his eyes on Charlie. “The freak got him and the others.”

“Rex?! Get downstairs and bring all you can carry, we’re leaving, now!”

“Freak? Hey, is this what it’s boiled down to? A name calling fight?!” Charlie snapped, taking a step towards the boy in red, but then he pulled his gun to one of the females on the ground. To Charlie’s horror, it was Cassie, who had been brought up along some of the other patrons for better organization. “Cassie…!” she thought, stopping dead in her tracks.

“Maybe you’re bullet-proof, maybe you ain’t,” the teenager cocked his head to the side, “But is she?”

“Look, Rex right? Rex, lower your weapon. She hasn’t done anything to you. You said you were gonna be a man, right? This is between you and me!” Charlie tried.

“It’s not between you and me, it’s between me and the feds. You keep away from me. You don’t, and you’re going to make me a murderer. I may not be a good shot, but there are dozens of targets to pick from.”

Charlie growled, feeling helpless for the first time in the entire night.
Rex slowly stepped downstairs, keeping his sights on any potential target in case the scorpion decided to approach him. When he was a good distance away, Rex joined his partners and vacated. Charlie groaned out of the helplessness of the situation and rushed over to her friend after they were gone. “Hey, are you okay? Did they do anything to you?” she asked, holding by Cassie’s arm, “It’s okay, they’re gone now.”

Cassie looked up, the brunette’s eyes tearful as she looked at her savior, but instantly let out a whimper and went back to hiding. “H-hey, come now, I’m supposed to be one of the good guys!” Charlie tried, but then decided to drop it. She didn’t even want to try to reveal her identity, it would just make things worse for everybody.

Standing up, Charlie looked over at all of the scared patrons. Some of them couldn’t help but avert their gaze away from her. Without their cell phones, even the braver or more obsessed ones couldn’t take pictures, which she thanked God for. Either way, none of them were going to have them take a bow in a row of applause. “J-just stay put, help is coming, I’ll go get the fleeing ones!”

She jumped onto the handrail and slid down on it, kicking off in the direction she saw Rex leave with the others. Charlie trusted the police had probably set a perimeter up already, but she didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Especially that boy, “To them… they did something to them!” she kept thinking, “That boy was ready to blow Cassie’s brains out. I can’t let them run free!”

A blur in the darkness, the scorpion that nearly nobody had seen fight it up with half of the robbers’ team left as unnoticed as she had appeared.

It was thundering ever so loudly outside. The rain had begun to pour down. “We gotta split! Police are everywhere, Rex, you take down that alley. Mordecai, go with Sally, I’ll go the other way. Meet up at Jason’s!”

Rex’s heart was beating fast. His hands were still shaking. Whatever he had just faced off with, he felt stupid. He had threatened to shoot someone, that wasn’t the plan. That wasn’t anybody’s plan. This was supposed to be a clean job, and he had nearly botched it all up. “REX, what are you doing?! SKIP!”

He was greedy. His step-father had always told him he would be nobody. Who was he anyway? He was merely a pencil pusher, regular salary, and nobody. That wasn’t his fate, but neither was this one. Rex knew he was destined for greater things, and he would have none of he got captured. Filled with rage and pain, he hid his tears and began to run for his life, stopping for nothing, not even to check if it was safe. He didn’t know how, but he was running block after block with no police after him. Rex had been lucky, perhaps.

The predator jumping from building to building after him knew he had not been lucky at all.

Eventually, he had to stop to catch his breath. Unlike any other P.E. class where his limits had been tested, he had run for nearly half a mile in less than twenty minutes. Rex panted, taking generous gulps of air, “Chest burning… damnit, I’ve never had to run this much. Didn’t even look where I was going…” he gasped, dragging himself over to the street to catch a sign, anything to tell him where the hell he was. “I know that market. God, I’m so far away from that place…”

The hunter after him knew what place he spoke of. She had to tail him if she hoped to get the ones responsible for this. The sky lit up, which startled the distracted Rex. The boy looked up and by chance, noticed the perched Charlie. “Crap!” he panicked, but then looked away, panting again, “She… she doesn’t know?” he mumbled to himself, then desperately looked for a way, any way, to confuse her. There were another set of alleyways, no, she had followed him this far. He had to move to somewhere with less mobility for his chaser. A warehouse to his right looked promising. Rex had nothing to lose by this point.

As he climbed over the fence, the predator looked intently at his moves. Unaware her quarry was already wise to her chase, she carefully jumped from building to building until she saw him sneaking in through one of the windows on the far right. She thought it odd at first. No alarms? It had to be the place. Charlie was ready to storm it, when suddenly the ear-piece she had taken earlier began to buzz.

“The cops, the cops followed us to Jason’s, damnit! Anyone left? I’m not going to go down like this, not like this! YAAAAHH!” the screams were followed by loud gunfire. Charlie’s eyes widened before she crushed the ear-piece in her hand. Thunder roared after a brief flash of lightning filled the skies. She wasn’t amused as the hunter in her was.

Inside of the warehouse, Rex did his best to scour the place for a hiding spot. Before he could get very far, he had to force himself under one of the mantled tables as he heard a loud crash, it smelled odd, but it had to do. The freak was inside, and she didn’t sound happy. He carefully moved from place to place. This time, there were no quips, no chat, no idle banter. This time, he knew she was mad. Mad at him. Rex had to keep his breath in, he somehow knew that anything, just even the simplest of moves would give him away. He could leave nothing to chance.

She was approaching him. She was going to get him. She was going to turn him over to the cops, then everything his step-father had said about him would become true. Rex didn’t want that, he needed a chance to make a name for himself first! That’s when he noticed it. She wasn’t there anymore. Could she have gotten bored? Given up on him maybe? Legs nowhere to be found, steps couldn’t be heard no matter how much he strained his ears. Had he finally beat her?

He had to know. Rex quietly poked his head out from hiding, unable to find the so called Stinger. He darted his eyes left and right and got rid of his mask for once, to allow himself a greater field of view. “Am… Am I off the hook…?” he asked no one in particular.

“Not even close.” The crisp voice coming from above made him look up just as the sky lit up again. Every window filtered the light inside. Charlie was perched atop the mantled table and the container on top of it, her tail tip almost staring right at him.

“F-fuck! Get away from me!” Rex swung his arm holding his weapon as hard as he could. Charlie bent backwards to avoid the blow and acrobatically spun around, kicking him off his feet. Rex landed on his butt and began to let loose a barrage of bullets that could’ve woken the dead up. In fact, a certain someone in the room was beginning to stir awake once more. Charlie jumped off the container, her feet kicking the mantle off as she began to bounce around, making a display of excellent reflexes and speed to avoid every single incoming bullet. Rex stood up and backed himself to the cage for support and prepared to let loose a final bullet as she stood right in front of him, her eyes piercing his very soul.

“50. Game Over, kid,” Charlie growled, then put a hand on his shoulder gripping tightly. “Give it up. You didn’t get me with a full mag, you’re not going to get me with anything…”

Before Charlie was allowed to finish that sentence though, something came from within the darkness of the cage she had backed the kid to. Something she couldn’t have foreseen. The creature within had been stirred awake. It head-butted its prison in its clumsy path to freedom, which startled the scorpion. That shock was all it needed to tear the weakened padlock holding it closed apart; with Charlie letting go, a scared Rex turned around and shoulder-bumped her away.

Right at that moment when she landed on the ground, her arm outstretched as she tried to grab the kid before whatever was inside that cage got to him, but it was too late. The door flung open and out came the creature, a desperate captive seeking only to be free from its prison. Rex was too slow, the reptile too fast.

But the creature was too weak, as well. It knew that. It knew its origin had not been natural, it knew it did not belong in the world as it was. It had not a lot of time left in the world. Nature would not have something that had been brought to life via synthesis, much else something so unstable. In the end, the creature was forever bond by the shackles of a twisted, cruel existence.

But something had changed in that grand scheme. A new element had appeared in the equation. The boy underneath it, the boy changed it all. It didn’t have to die. The creature did not have to disappear. Its maw opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth. Rex opened his eyes at the wrong time.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAH!” one bite was all it took. A crunch. Violent, swift, almost murderous in intent, if not deadly. Several fangs sunk inside Rex’s neck, tearing through the flimsy fabric of his hoodie, rending skin, flesh and bone without quarter.

In the span of a few seconds, a scene so gratifying to the hunter had become a gruesome display of unfairness. Charlie, unwilling to see this go through anymore, jumped to her feet and rushed over to the oversized animal. “Get off, off! Damnit!” she cursed and pulled. Thanks to her strength, even the creature lost the battle and had to let go. Charlie hurled it aside and held Rex in her arms. “No, no! This can’t be happening…!” she groaned, looking at the unconscious boy’s bleeding neck. Blood was gushing out too fast! “Damnit, at this rate, he’s going to… No. I can get him some help. The Santa Esperanza Hospital ward is five blocks from here. I can make it!! I… I have to!”

Doing her best to apply pressure with available cloth from Rex’s shirt, Charlie covered the wound and began to carry the sixteen year old on her back. “Wait, that creature…” Charlie didn’t want anyone to fall victim of this, whatever it was. She looked over where she had knocked the creature over and saw witnessed a bizarre spectacle: Over the time she had applied first-aid, the creature had caught on fire, and now was slowly vaporizing into nothingness. “That… that’s convenient.”

“Ugh…” came the moans of pain from an almost bled-out adolescent. Charlie’s eyes widened.

“Hospitalherewego!”

---

Fortunately, Charlie was able to make it in time. Not wanting to raise a panic, she made sure to yelp for help at the top of her lungs as she arrived and left Rex by the entrance of the hospital before sticking to the walls and crawling over to a safe spot; even the rain couldn’t do much against her powers. The nurses and doctors wasted no time in wheeling their newest patient in. Charlie cared little about her run-in with criminals either, this boy needed attention; she was just glad she had apparently made it on time; all she wanted was for the boy to receive proper treatment.

She followed them by peering into any window that allowed her to see him being wheeled around the complex until he was left in a room. Operation went under away almost immediately. Charlie sighed in relief and wearily put a hand over her forehead. “That was so close… so damn close. Why the heck do I have to be like this? I should’ve just grabbed him and come out, turn him over to the authorities. But no, I have to play big fucking hero and get the kid nearly killed!” she lamented, truly embarrassed and angry at the same time. “Ngh… hope he has parents. I don’t think most of those kids back there did. Back there… crap! Cassie and the others!”

Quickly, Charlie got her cellphone out and dialed Cassie’s phone number. “Cassie, Cassie! You guys alright?”

“Charlie, oh my god I’ve been calling you for ages. Where are you? We were so worried!” Cassie sounded as sad as Charlie could almost see her being.

“O-oh, uhh… y’see, I was actually stuck in the girl’s bathroom all that while. A team made it in and got me out before they went in for the big groups. They sent me on their way…”

“Oh god, god… you’re alright, thank god,” Cassie repeated, truly horrified from the earlier events. “I thought the robbers, or… or maybe the monster had kidnapped you.”

“Monster…?” Charlie frowned in disappointment.

“Yeah! There was a horrible monster back at the club, I’m glad you didn’t see it. I think it was aiding the robbers; I was so scared, I can’t believe there are things like that out there! Hope you’re at home, I don’t think I’m leaving mine anytime soon! I’ll talk to you tomorrow and let the girls know you’re okay, alright? See you soon!”

Click.

Inside Rex’s operating room, a miracle seemingly had occurred. The doctors hadn’t been able to begin surgery that the patient’s wound had already mended. “What is this?” the head surgeon growled, “What nurse filed this report? This patient doesn’t have a deep bite mark on his neck; sure, there’s a lot of blood but otherwise he’s clean as a whistle!”

“He’s still unconscious, though,” one of his aides spoke, steadily monitoring the heart rate with the equipment beside the unconscious teenager.

“Kid seems to have gone through a lot. Just keep his vitals stable and notify me if anything out of the ordinary happens. I have to go have a chat with the nurse. We have enough emergency cases as it is!” One by one, the specialists left.

She looked at the emptiness of her screen. “But… Cassie…” defeated, Charlie let her head hung under the rain. Saddened, she looked at her cellphone and clutched it firmly in her grip, but not too roughly. She had broken enough things for the day. “Monsters, they… they don’t exist.”

Back in Rex’s empty room, the beeping of the pulse oximeter had begun to run wild. His body was stirring, his fingers twitching. At one point, they snapped together, and a spark lit up like a firecracker from the tip of his digits.

To Be Continued...