Chapter 6

Friday, December 21^st, 8:05 PM

"I'm thinking it's about time I looked for different work," Blake sighed, sitting in the backseat watching streetlights flash by. He didn't have to look to know Jimmy had turned in the passenger seat and was staring at him. After several long minutes of silence Blake finally turned to look at his longtime friend.

"Are you serious, Bman?" Jimmy asked, the look of surprise on his face almost comical.

"I'm tired of this thug for hire shit. It isn't enough money even when Stanley isn't trying to stiff us," Blake stated, turning to look back out the window. "You know it's just a matter of time before he decides to downsize us for some of those junkies that'll do anything he wants for a fix."

"So what did you have in mind?" Jimmy asked, suddenly acting strange and trying to avoid eye contact with his best friend.

"Jimmy, what's going on?" Blake leaned forward trying to capture Jimmy's gaze. He was about to grab his friend and make him talk but the kid driving, whose name had turned out to be Erik, gasped suddenly. "What?"

"Look!" Erik pointed out the windshield at the sky. Blake and Jimmy leaned forward and suddenly forgot about anything else. The night sky was alight with streaking meteors. It was impressive, but the thing that had the three men so mesmerized was the technicolor rainbow that flashed between the meteors and blanketed the sky like a psychedelic strobe. Unfortunately they weren't the only people captivated by the strange light show. Erik didn't even notice the car in front of him until they had already slammed into it. Erik's seat belt kept him from going far and the steering wheel helped, but neither Jimmy nor Blake had their seat belts on, and they hit the shattering windshield at almost the exact same time. Pain blossomed across Blake's face and shoulder's immediately. The pain of breaking bones became secondary to the pain of glass flaying away sections of his flesh. He wanted to scream but his shattered jaw wouldn't cooperate and all that came out was a strangled, gurgling grunt.

His momentum was such that he actually flew through the missing rear windshield of the car Erik had hit, and landed on the passenger's lap. Before the pain stripped the remaining scraps of consciousness from Blake, he noticed the lap he was in belonged to a woman.

Friday, April 17^th 10:01 AM

"Are you sure about this, Bman?" Jimmy asked, for at least the tenth time, as they stood before the doors leading into the warehouse club called The Zoo. Blake glanced down at the girl clinging to his side like she would float off the planet if she didn't hold onto him. Looking back at Jimmy he simply nodded. "Okay, get ready for the sound."

"Yeah, I've been here before," Blake replied, and Jimmy opened the doors. Walking through the doors was like passing into a different world that instantly assaulted them with flashing lights and multicolored lasers. Bass thumped through them like second and third heartbeats, synthesized notes pulsed, just on the edge of bursting eardrums. Bodies twisted, gyrated, bounced, bumped, spun and ground against every available surface, be it flesh or not, regardless of how human it looked. The majority of people had some form of physical mutation, mostly of the animal variety, and The Zoo was one of the few places they went to ignore what they were for a short time ... or a long time depending on how long they stayed. After the meteor shower, when people started changing, it was estimated that no less than ten percent of the world's population had been affected. That's over seven hundred million people with some form of power, though some of those 'powers' came at extremely high costs, as the hundred or more people currently hiding in The Zoo could attest.

A giant of a woman stepped in front of Blake's group. She was mostly elephant and she towered over Blake who was taller than the others. Her trunk went up in the air and a nearly deafening trumpet erupted, cutting through the wall of sound like a razor, and all sound died before its echoes dissipated. "You don't belong here pretties."

"We're here for Knitter," Jimmy stated. He would have been knocked flat by the bouncer's trunk except Blake's reflexes, though not even close to a super like Zeke, were quick enough to grab the rough skinned appendage before it could hit his onetime best friend.

The woman jerked her trunk out of Blake's hand and he noticed six other people moving up behind her, some of their animal types easily identifiable while others were ... less identifiable. The bouncers were making a solid defensive line that Blake was pretty sure he could tear through like a wet paper towel, as long as they didn't have any heavy hitting powers. A sudden wave of heat just behind let him know Jimmy was amping up his power in anticipation of the imminent fight.

"Page, bring them to me."

The voice echoed through the gymnasium sized room, and Blake saw frustration flare bright and hateful in the elephant woman's eyes. A moment later the music was back on and people were dancing like nothing had happened. The woman turned and started walking along the outskirts of the dance floor. Blake looked back at his group and stared at Zeke who, having taken off the ugly orange shirt and mask, was dancing extremely vigorously in a space no wider than his shoulders. His grin showed every pearly white tooth in his head and he pointed at the rapidly moving bouncer, but he never stopped spinning, sliding and bouncing as they moved quickly to catch up. At one point Blake had to pick May up because she wouldn't stop watching Zeke's feet. After her third stumble he decided it was easier to just carry her. The bouncer Blake assumed was Page waited for them impatiently beside a door much like the one they had entered through. As they got closer she pushed the door open for them and gestured impatiently with her trunk for them to go in.

The noise level dropped to almost nothing as they crossed the threshold. The door closed behind them, and Zeke let out a sad sounding, "Aww man. This place is off the hook! Shelly would fucking love it!"

"As long as the bouncer didn't sit on you." Jimmy snorted.

"So, that was a nice welcome." Blake said, only a slight accusation coloring his tone, as he gave Jimmy a narrow eyed glare.

"It's been a few months and those are all new bouncers!" Jimmy grumbled defensively, steam literally coming off his head as the temperature suddenly jumped twenty degrees and he glared right back at Blake.

"Gentlemen," a calm voice, with a slight French accent, echoed down the hallway in front of them, "you will not fight in my home."

Friday, 11:57 AM

Patrick Lertz and George Bahlm were sweating profusely. George looked like he might hyperventilate any second, as they hid in the alley waiting for just the right time to rush the jewelry store. Both in their mid-twenties, neither was a stranger to violence or theft, though they were quite new to the powers that appeared just over a week ago. The two young men spent three days trying to learn how to use their new found powers and five days planning this robbery that they were certain would set them up for the rest of their lives.

"Aight, Georgy..." Pat started, then flinched as George punched him in the arm.

"Dude! Call me Turbo!" George grunted, using the anger to finally get himself as much under control as possible.

"Aight, aight chill out man!" Pat made calming gestures with his hands, trying to ignore the little electric charge that jumped from finger to finger on both of his hands, before pulling his ski mask down. "Grab the bag and get up top, I'm going in!"

"Gone!" George exclaimed as he grabbed a bulky gym bag and started rising into the air, slowly gaining speed. Once on the roof he pulled a severely battered AK-47 from the bag and watched as Patrick shoved a woman back into the store as she tried to leave. Pat didn't even flinch at the audible pop the woman's wrist made as she landed badly and screamed in pain. Waving a Glock 17 and firing two shots over the heads of the nine people in the store, Pat shouted, "This a mothafuckin' stickup! I will fucking execute every last one of you mothafuckers if you even try to move!"

To prove his point Pat unleashed his new power on the still screaming woman he shoved before. Gasps and screams erupted from the employees and patrons alike as a jagged line of blue white electricity tore across the four feet between Pat and the woman, but those fell to silence as the poor woman jerked, twitched and screamed in a strange gasping way until he released her from his power. "I'm Tasergun bitches and I'll fry you all!"

All eyes, except Pat's, were fixed on the still twitching woman as he began smashing cases and filling his bags with everything in the display cases. Grabbing a woman with a name tag by the throat he snarled right in her face, "Gimme the fuckin' cash and open the vault!"

"I ... I ... I can't!" Her sobbing turned to shrieking as electricity coursed through her body. He continued to taser the woman while sweeping his eyes across the three other employees, until a heavy set man, clearly the manager, finally jumped up. "Let her go!"

Pat dropped the now unconscious woman, who landed in a puddle of urine, to grab the manager by the scruff of his neck. The distinctive sound of the AK-47 firing unnerved him. It could only mean cops or supers had shown up. "Hurry the fuck up!"

On the roof George was sparingly firing at the cop car that came out of nowhere; if he had been more observant he would have seen the police cruiser was merely driving by. Instead of waiting to see what happened, he panicked and opened fire. Reversing with a squeal of tires, the driver put a safe distance between the gunman and themselves while his partner radioed for backup. Within three minutes, six additional police cruisers skidded to a stop on the scene and George "Turbo" Bahlm started thinking about leaving Pat, but knew his longtime partner would roll over on him in a heartbeat. So instead of flying away like he really wanted to, he began spraying the cop cars liberally with the AK-47. Moments later Pat burst through the door of the store, firing his Glock and lancing the nearest cars with his taser power while hoping the cops thought it was something deadlier.

Pat stuffed the pistol in his pants and brought both hands to bear against the police. Twice as much power zapped the cars while the police peeked over hoods and around tires, trying desperately not to get hit with bullets or the criminal's electricity. He was practically in the alley when a manhole cover, almost directly between him and the police cars, suddenly launched itself well over thirty feet into the air with the sound of a gong being rung. Everyone watched the spinning circle of metal as it made a short and lazy arch before descending right on top of a police cruiser's roof. Officers scrambled out of the way an instant before the almost three hundred pound disk impacted the car. Glass sprayed in all directions and the tires blew out, sounding almost as loud as the crash itself. Silence reigned for perhaps two short breaths before a comparatively quiet thump at the manhole drew everyone's attention to the pale and muscular arm sticking out, holding a sledgehammer.

A split second later and another arm appeared holding a bladed object Pat had never seen before but thought looked very dangerous, especially with all the crusted blood he could see. With a small heave, the arms flexed and a torso appeared. Its back was to Pat but judging from the cursing from the cops it looked to him like accidental backup just arrived for him and George, as the big guy started taking long loping strides toward the police. Shouting his excitement, Pat started blasting at the cops with full power and the man suddenly about faced without breaking stride. The man's face startled Pat; the green eyes that seemed to burn with an inner light and the bloody tear tracks down the otherwise smooth face, and the fact the guy was almost running at him had Pat stumbling backward. His feet tangled with each other in his haste to run, and caused him to land ungracefully on the sidewalk as the man from the sewer loomed over him.

"Get away!" George screamed as he floated directly above Pat's supine form, firing the AK-47 point blank into the big man's chest and face, grinning as chunks of flesh and bone flew in all directions. The click of the now empty assault rifle made George's grin fade a little. Watching the jagged holes knit themselves together right before his eyes made terror spike through him, a second before the being grabbed his ankle. With a slight flexing of his muscles, it yanked George violently out of the air, causing his head and upper body to slap the sidewalk, making a noise like a watermelon that had been thrown to the ground. Patrick felt bile burn up his throat as he watched George twitch several times before lying still. As the monster stared down at his friend's corpse a gash slowly crawled across its face where a mouth would normally be. Seconds later the creature threw its head back and spread its newly formed maw of razor sharp fangs. Pat couldn't stop his bladder from voiding at the sight.

Slowly working its jaw the creature lunged with incredible speed at George's corpse, ripping huge chunks of bones and muscle off the body and swallowing them whole. Pat distantly heard people retching. The one sound that he couldn't help but focus on was a high pitched shriek that he soon discovered was his own scream. Without thinking he discharged his power at the monster over and over, but the creature ignored him while Pat's electricity danced and skittered all around it. Most of George's head and upper torso were devoured in less than three minutes. Once it gulped down the final bite, it turned toward Pat and pounced faster than he could blink. The creature tore into the screaming man's chest as the police started firing. Pat prayed a bullet would kill him and end the utter agony of the creature eating him alive. He wasn't that lucky, and screamed right up until the creature ripped his beating heart from his chest.

Moments later the creature tossed the body away, still crouching where it had devoured Patrick Lertz. The police stared in horror at the twitching, jerking body of the creature. A moment later it stood fully erect, rolling its head around its shoulder and its fingers twitched, electricity sparking and arching along its hands.