The Alpha of the Pack Hunts.

[Feral]

There was nothing like being covered in blood. The warm liquid oozed over his skin and when it dried it tightened his skin so he could feel it on the backs of his hands when he made a fist. It matted his hair and covered every single bone spike, claw, blade and hook with a smattering design of crimson. Then of course, there was the taste.

Feral loved blood. He was no vampire, but the sight of it excited him. Spilled blood meant someone was dying. Spilled blood on his hands gave him a sense of accomplishing something.

The largest mall in Spain was soon going to be the largest tomb in the nation.

"Aha! Come to your death!"

Feral's whole body sprouted blades and spikes. He leapt from the second floor down to the first, gutting a man, then his wife, and finally splitting their newborn child in two.

"You will all be purged! If the newer, better species is to survive, then you must all perish!"

A security guard drew a pistol on Feral. The wild mutant shifted the bone spikes together and raised his arms to block the bullet.

Feral lunged. He cut off the guard's gun hand and drew him up by the collar. "You cannot stop the wave of death." spikes sprouted form his knuckles and lanced the man through his neck and into his skull.

"No one will be left alive. Humans must fall so that mutants may rise to be the only true rulers of this earth."

[Oddity]

A black gloved finger traced the length of Ferals' jaw, a girlish giggle escaping the lips of the girl as she took a taste. Ilaria Nico grinned at him, taking in the chaos with wide-eyed glee.

"Do we hafta kill alllllllllllll of them? Why can't we keep some as pets?"

She took a delicate step over the twitching body of the guard, stopping to pick up his gun. The girl known as Oddity was a sharp contrast to the blood-soaked Feral - immaculate white face paint, black and red clown costume, always wearing a smile. There were times when she wondered why he hadn't killed her yet, but she figured it was because she was a mutant and not a silly human.

"We could always sell the babies, you know."

[Feral]

Feral knocked her hand away from his face with the flat of a bone blade.

"Humans are no good for anything except making the grass grow. They're worthless and they're all going to be thrown out like the trash."

Feral watched as people continued to run away.

"Would you mind making something impossible happen? I haven't finished killing them yet and they're not playing nice."

[Oddity]

"You know it doesn't work that way, Pooh."

Her grin quickly turned to a frown as he knocked her hand away. Even though she'd been part of his plan for Mutant Domination for a while now, she still wasn't entirely pleased with his gruff demeanor.

Her powers didn't work that way - it would be neato if they did! it was all subconcious, and rarely worked when she wasn't physically in danger...although, sometimes, it took even Oddity by surprise. Somewhere down the hallway, a younger couple took a spill, knocking several people off their feet onto the bloody floor. Another giggle.

"Oopsy. Someone's fallen and they can't get up!"

[Feral]

Feral grinned. "Better go put them down."

The frenzied mutant barreled down on the couple. He sliced their Achilles's tendons and sliced them into ribbons from head to toe. Then he rolled them over and destroyed their faces until nothing could be done to identify the couple.

"More!"

[Oddity]

"Hee!"

Oddity raised the gun, no bothering to take aim - who needs good aim when you have mutant powers? Half the bullets hit the walls, floor, windows. The other half took down 3 more humans, who were quickly turned into hamburger by her sweet little Pooh. The rest of them had run away, leaving the pair of mutants alone...

[Feral]

Feral roared in frustration. They got away! The nearest corpses were reduced to ground meat as he vented his spleen against humankind.

"Oddity, we're going!"

He stalked towards the exit. "The police will be waiting for us outside and I want to make them eat their badges. Feel free to blow up SWAT cars and detonate their tear gas early."

[Oddity]

Oddity rolled her eyes, tossing the gun into a garbage bin and skipping up behind him. He was right; outside the doors was a mess of red and blue lights. There was even a helicopter!

She peered up over his shoulder. "As soon as we step outside, we're gonna look like swiss cheese...I don't know if my powers are gonna help us any."

[Feral]

Feral grinned. His eyes blazed. "Let your instincts kick in!"

Feral walked out into the hail of gunfire like he were strolling through a rain shower. His bones grew out of his skin, covering him in a nigh impenetrable armor.

"I bet you wish you had my bone structure right about now," he snarled.

One of the bones elongated into a point on his arm. "You suck, SWAT man."

The soldier's throat gushed blood.

"Oddity, will you be joining me or are you going to be a wallflower?"

[Oddity]

"Wallflower sounds niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"

A pointed, boney arm reached back, snagging her by the collar and flinging her into the fray. She tumbled through the hail of bullets, narrowly missing being filled with lead, landing hard on her butt in front of a cop car.

A car with a cop using the drivers side door as cover. Oddity eeped as he lowered his weapon at her. Cmon powers, kick in! There was a sickening shluck noise, followed by a shower of warm wet - she squinted up to see Ferals' bone spike lodged into the cops brain.

[Gary Cannon]

Outside the mall, about 0.4 kilometers away, there was a pop in the air on top of a building. The air and space bent in on itself and made strange crackling noises. With a strained pop, a man materialized out of the air. Gary Cannon stood on the roof inside of a massive suit of armor. The belt of said suit had a glow that was slowly fading as smoke rose from the armor.

His eyes knew where to focus as soon as he came into existence. Built in scanners zoomed in to show him the front of the mall where the local police were just starting their "show of force" which would end in death for every officer dumb enough to stick around. Then he saw him...

Feral. The frenzied mutant was just as ugly as he remembered....and then he remembered. Images of Feral slicing his parent's Achilles tendons. Remembered the sick, sadistic glee that played on his face, already covered in blood, as he stalked his helpless parents. Remembered the savagery with which he tore into their bodies. Remembered the screams of agony as his parents were ripped to shreds. Remembered being kicked and swept along in a tide of humanity as the rest of the crowd ran from the mutant. A lump formed in his throat as rage threatened to take over.

He forced himself to calm down and watch as one officer's head exploded brain matter all over his squad car at the behest of one of the bones from the bloodthirsty mutant. As bullets ricochet off of that bone armor, hitting other officers. As a whirlwind of death that was one person, no....one...THING, not a person, mowed down officers with stabs, thrusts, and slices. This event had to happen if he was to be successful. He'd seen the future. He CAME from the future, and a bleak one at that. And he knew from another him, that if he started now, HE would be branded as insane, and locked up until his dying days. No....the world had to see the mutant menace for what it was if he was to have a chance at saving the future. And for the future to survive, for HUMANKIND to survive, it all depended, ironically enough, on the survival, at least for a while, of the rampant human killing machine in his sights.....Feral...

[Feral]

Feral flicked the brains off his bones. There were a few officers trying to hold ground against him. Some of the SWAT had those huge crowd control shields. How amusing.

They arrayed themselves as a phalanx against him and leveled their guns at him.

Feral bared his sharp teeth at them in sadistic glee.

"If you cooperate it won't hurt as badly!" He cackled.

Feral's movements until now had mostly been quick lunges or sudden strikes. But these men feared him. He could tell. Feral straightened up to his highest posture and strode towards them slowly and with purpose.

Some of them were holding, but a couple were starting to show panic. He continued to walk towards them without hastening his stride. When he reached them two of the officers dropped their shields and ran.

Feral jumped on them and raked claws down their backs and tearing out their spines. He whirled around and cut through the others as they turned to shield themselves. But he was too fast. Too strong.

"BETTER! BADDER!" He roared in victory.

[Oddity]

Oddity hung back, keeping a safe distance behind her Pooh, clapping and laughing with glee as he tore through the remaining police officers. The rest had run, leaving a wide berth around them. The helicopter was still buzzing around, big deal. None of these humans would risk their pretty little heads to try to stop Feral.

She couldn't keep the smile off her face as she skipped up beside him. "You're the baddest, bestest mutant ever, Pooh!"

[Gary Cannon]

Cannon turned his head. He didn't need to see more. He knew what happened. For one, he was down there, on the other side of the mall, being hurried off by ambulances, police, and all other manner of officials. For another, he'd read the papers, seen the news coverage, even the footage that hadn't been aired due to graphic content. Hell, he'd devoted his entire life based on this moment. He knew what was going to happen inside and out. The only thing that could interest him now, is something unexpected. But, the past was written in stone. Only he could change it now. And unless he did something, it would never change. But, while he wasn't here to do nothing, he WAS here to make sure, just in case, that nothing changed this moment. After all, if this moment didn't happen, then he wouldn't be here. His family, on a vacation from his home of Britain, would still be alive. He wouldn't be plagued by nightmares and visions of the bloodthirsty mutants. In fact...there was a chance that he might even get along with mutants...

Cannon shuddered at the thought. Mutants were an abomination. In a mere 30 years, the future would be a bright, shining city on a hilltop of darkness. Sure, technology had advanced 100 fold, thanks to mutants. Some of them were supernaturally smart. But, then again, so was he. He stroked his armor as he remembered his home in the future.

Cannon was now 38, watching over his 8 year old self being spirited away, back to Britain. But, in the future, it was indeed a sight to see. Flying cars, floating buildings, space stations, the works. The only problem, was that it was ALL owned by mutants. They were EVERYWHERE. Any humans left either lived like servants if they were lucky, slaves or livestock or hunting game if they were not so lucky. The rest lived underground, or up in trees, or in jungles, or under water. Wherever they could, but not out on the open surface. Cannon's only reason for being here as he was, is due to the tenacity he gained as a child from this very moment.

The Cannon family line was responsible for first outfitting the British Empire's Naval fleet with cannon brand cannons. Since cannon cannon was redundant, they just dropped it to one "cannon" and that's what they have been called ever since. And his family has kept the tradition alive with cutting edge technology throughout the years. The newest leap, and the last unless he managed to save the future from these...monsters...was the nanobots swimming around inside himself. Superhuman strength, speed, regeneration, mind power, all brought to him by technology. Enough to match any mutant currently on the books. He had weapons to match. Lasers, heat guns, sound wave generators, cold rays, missiles, bullets, spikes, swords, knives, a weapon for pretty much any mutant he could find, a defensive suit of armor to protect him from the worst they could do, turning blades, absorbing blunt force, even sapping energy. Even a teleporter, and, back at home in the future, his greatest invention, his time machine. Of course, it had never been tested extensively, but in the few tests that were done, it all worked. One of the neat things about his gear was that, other than the suit, nothing showed. Another technology impossible without the unbridled mind of a child. Some devices were shrunk, some took up very little room and expanded themselves out. Still others were stored into pouches that lead into a miniature "other dimention" for storage, bending the laws of physics.

The only thing not covered in those tests was how mutants of this day and age might adapt to these armaments. Mutations had a nasty habit of adapting while the mutant was still young enough for it to do so. When mutants got older, as a general rule, the mutations get "stuck in their ways" if you will and adapt far less quickly, if at all.

Cannon shook his head at the sight of the world around him. It would have to get worse still, but eventually, he would save it. Flicking the teleporter on his waist, he set course for his old home, where the 8 year old him would be sent in a few days. He would wait for his younger self there.

[Feral]

Feral looked at the sky and saw the helicopter. He wondered if it was going to shoot or something. He'd love to pluck it out of the sky.

"Oddity, come here. Keep an eye out on the helicopter. We're going to go see who else we can kill."

The helicopter irritated Feral. There was no way to reach it, which made his life a bit more complicated than he usually liked. If it was an enemy, then it would pose a serious threat to him and his plans.

[Oddity]

A salute. "Yes sir!"

Oddity glared up at the helicopter, pointing at it and mouthing the word "bang". Maybe one day she'd be able to make THAT happen with her powers, but she didn't think it would be any time soon. She moved closer to Feral (as close as his bone spikes would allow), carefully putting her arms around his neck. A tiny pout formed on her black painted lips.

"Do we hafta keep killing? I was thinking, we could go home and relax together."

[Ricky Rider]

The helicopter banged back at Oddity, firing a stream of concussive red light from the side that swept the ground between herself and her more energetic ally. Inside, Ricky Rider made a frustrated sound; he'd been aiming right at her! The pilot obligingly tilted and hovered the craft to try and help Ricky get a steadier shot, readily displaying the name on the side that had been previously too angled for anyone on the ground to read: JERICHO.

Ricky sighted down his forearm again, taking his time, wishing he had a scope or something to help, and fired at Feral.

[Gary Cannon]

As soon as he appeared on the outskirts of the Cannon Compound, Cannon immediately began tapping into global info feeds. A mere 30 years separated his tech from the technology of the day he was in, but it was so inferior now compared to that 30 year advantage, that tapping in to satellite feeds from news to government agencies took mere seconds.

Of course, it helped immensely that his suit was connected directly to his brain, so Cannon didn't have to do anything other than think for his suit to react, so hacking was a breeze. However, a few seconds was still more than he would have liked once Cannon saw what was going on.

There was a helicopter circling and firing some kind of laser beam at Feral and his "girlfriend" if she could so be called. This wasn't supposed to happen....was it? From what Cannon saw in his time tho, a future version of himself killed Feral right when Feral stepped out of the mall. Maybe this WAS supposed to happen...but he couldn't let it. Feral had to LIVE. The other him from Cannon's past (in the future) told him that Feral lived and was a key instrument in starting a human genocide movement among mutants. Of course, in his haste to correct that, the other Cannon caused it to happen SOONER when he killed Feral...but that's besides the point. Bottom line: Feral had to live.

The laser sliced between Feral and his "girl". The copter spun around and steadied. Cannon's teleporter was warming up. Damn the few seconds it needed to warm up the first time after he let it cool down... A light formed inside the copter, and started lancing down towards Feral... camouflage Cannon thought.*BZZZZZTPOOF*

Invisible to anyone, Cannon materialized right beneath the copter, and planted a concussion grenade on the bottom right side, away from the shooter. The beam from said shooter moved closer to Feral. *BZZZZZZTPOOF*

Cannon was on the ground and the grenade went off, doing no real damage, but tossing the helicopter around as if it were spun sideways on a swing set. The shooter was thrown from the spinning craft. Zooming in, Cannon saw the face of the fallen attacker. Files flashed up on his HUD and the name Ricky Rider slipped under the face with a bio to match off to the side.

Of all the things he hated, Cannon hated saving mutants most of all. And now, after just saving the one who killed his parents, he was going to have to save another. Rider was supposed to join up with Feral. Since it was inevitable, Cannon didn't feel too bad. All he'd done is just sped up the time table.

Gritting his teeth in a grimace at what he was about to do while he watched the mutant plummet, Cannon readied an anti-grav burst. *BZZZZZZZZTPOOF*

Invisible still, Cannon was under Rider and off to the side. About 50 feet from the ground, Rider covered his face, and Cannon unleashed his anti-grav fied. Ricky slowed dramatically, but without perception of slowing, and after a second or two longer than it should have taken to splat, Ricky was softly, and safely plopped down on the ground. *BZZZZZZTPOOF*

Cannon shuddered. How easy it would have been to just let the mutie splat... But, certain things had to happen for the world to accept Cannon and those like him. He'd continue to monitor the situation from near his home on the outskirts of London. HOPEFULLY there would be no further use for his intervention.

Dropping the invisibility camoflauge, Cannon's suit glowed bright white, but surrounded in blackness as he absorbed energy to replenish what he just used. He had a battery capable of sustaining fighting power for 7 days, but it was a lot better to make sure it was kept topped off rather than run the risk of his suit running out of power and be unable to charge in a time when the power was needed.

[Feral]

Feral watched the helicopter lose control for a moment when he noticed the bright red beam slide right by him. Pathetic. Then he saw something.

Out of the side of the chopper was a mutant. The laser came from a mutant!

Feral's blood boiled in his veins. He roared a challenge to the humans. "Let him go and kill me yourself!"

[Oddity]

"Huh? OOOOF!"

Once again, she was on her rear as some sort of lazery beam cut between her and Feral, narrowly missing her arms. The next thing she knew, the helicopter was flopping all over, and some kid was dropping out of the sky.

She folded her arms over her chest, a scowl crossing her face as she looked up at Feral. "We are NOT bring that stray home with us! He just tired to kill you!"

[Ricky Rider]

A sudden explosion had bucked the helicopter, and Ricky had been pitched head-first out the open door. He tumbled end over end, watching the ground come up, and shielded his face with his forearms. He braced for impact...and found himself suddenly, inexplicably lying face-up on the ground behind the police's line. He stood shakily, uncertain of what had happened, and tried to rub at the crick in his neck from where he'd been hiding his face. His hands touched his metal control collar, reminding him of his obligation and objective.

He stalked through the police line, ignoring them as they stood aside to let him pass. He heard, but didn't comprehend, the words coming out of Feral and Oddity. He had tunnel vision in the worst way, his focused tuned to the singular task of incapacitating these marauders. He'd been promised his freedom again, if he'd just do Jericho's work, and he would have it this time, dammit. Ricky pointed at his two opponents, shooting a stream of bolts at each.

[Feral]

Feral extended a bone blade and sliced the restraining collar off of Ricky's neck.

"You're better than them. Why don't you kill them?"

[Oddity]

"Maybe he likes humans? Maybe you should kill him because he tried to KILL US!"

Odditys' annoyance was obvious in her voice, as she dodged the beam Ray-gun shot at her. She stood behind Feral, in case this kid got any ideas about zapping them and stuck out her tongue.

"You should stab him in the head! he's a traitor!"

[Ricky Rider]

The collar shocked him powerfully as it was cut, bringing Ricky to his knees even after it had fallen to the ground and ceased to trouble him. He was sweating visibly, and his breathing was heavy. Behind him, half the police shifted their weapons to him, whispering fearfully. Oddity was saying something, but Ricky was considering what Feral had said.

"You're better than them. Why don't you kill them?"

He'd barely had the guts to rob a grocery store, and hadn't had to chops to take on another mutant in combat, even when that mutant's powers set him at such a terrible disadvantage to Ricky. The boy honestly wasn't sure he'd be able to kill ordinary humans at all, even if they were defenseless. He looked up at Feral and tried to find his voice.

[Feral]

Feral's eyes burned with a savage fire.

"What's wrong? It's easy."

Feral lifted Ricky's arm up with the flat of a bone blade.

"Just point this thing at the helicopter and shoot."

[Oddity]

Oddity pouted behind Feral, side-stepping so she was out of the way.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky's hand wavered slightly as Feral pulled his arm back. The helicopter had regained control, and was clearly displaying it's JERICHO insignia. He stood, grounding himself, and took careful aim at the O. He drew in the light and expelled it in time with his breathing. He missed the O, but hit the helicopter, causing it enough damage that it would be forced to set down. The act boosted his confidence, and he aimed his palm at the police. Most of them were paralyzed by fear, the rest were running scared, recognizing their hopeless situation.

[Feral]

Feral grinned. "That's good. Now, let's redecorate this parking lot."

Feral's body exploded into a pincushion of bone spikes. He body tackled some of the remaining officers, pulling one into a deathly bear hug.

"Some of them are running. Don't let them get away. Oddity, make yourself useful."

[Oddity]

"Yes sir!"

The pin-cushioned officer was spraying blood all over the place (not that Feral minded, but he didn't have to do all the laundry!) and Oddity was almost soaked in it as she pulled his gun from his belt. One unfortunate officer ended up with his brains splattered all over the two mutants as the gun went off. She shrieked, spinning around and firing wildly, all while trying to wipe the goop off her face.

[Gary Cannon]

On top of Big Ben, Cannon watched the mutants causing havoc in Spain over his satellite feed. This was just the beginning of what would become a bigger movement. History as Cannon knew it had already been altered a few times in just the few short moments he'd been here. It was not time for him to become public yet, but that didn't mean he could do nothing.

Cannon quickly downloaded the whole feed from the satellite starting from when Feral stepped out of the mall, covered in blood, up until the live feed, and kept recording. While that was going, Cannon hacked into the mall's security cameras, and copied all of the video footage there too. With the amount of cameras in the mall, Feral's murderous rampage was caught from every angle, along with Oddity's gleefulness being openly displayed as humans were ripped apart.

Cannon grinned a tiger's grin. This would do nicely. There's not even a real need to splice or edit anything in. The whole naked truth would be more than enough. Using the computer in his suit, Cannon quickly tied the back end of the security footage to the start of the satellite feed to make one cohesive tape, and continued to watch. There was always the possibility of Feral, Oddity, or Rider doing something unexpectedly noble, tho he doubted it very much. Monsters, after all, had no redeeming values. But on the off chance something like that did happen, he would have to edit that part out.

Cannon hacked into the TV broadcasting satellites and waited for the scene on his view screen to play out to a finish before unleashing the unbridled, unedited, gory, bloody, sickening videos to flood the airwaves. And just to make sure nothing got left out, he pulled up youtube. Never discount the internet. Youtube would get a shocking video that would probably get hits numbering in the billions once this was done.

Cannon watched and impatiently waited....

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky was the only one not targetting people. He was shooting the cars, rationalizing to himself that he wasn't actually killing anybody by disabling vehicles and eliminating cover for them to hide behind. He's not responsible for the other two and their killing spree, and he can look the other way in exchange for freedom. At least, that's what he says to himself.

[Feral]

Feral was running out of people to kill. It was just as well. Between the new kid's car explosions and his own ravaging attacks, the amount of people left alive were slimming down quite to Feral's liking.

Coated with a fresh layer of blood Feral smiled, showing his blood-stained teeth.

"Looks good to me. I'm full up for now. Let's get out of here."

Feral retracted his bone spikes and hefted Oddity over his shoulder.

"Come on, boy. Let's go. You're with me now."

[Oddity]

Oddity shrieked with glee as Feral flung her over his shoulder. She folded her arms and frowned.

"Why does HE hafta come? He didn't even KILL anyone, we did all the work!"

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky looked after the fleeing law enforcement, then back to Feral. Oddity was pouting like a child, and he stuck his tongue out at her, returning the childish action. If he stayed alone he was likely to be caught again...but if he stayed with them, he was likely to be killed by one or both of them, or their opponents. Better to die, he thought grimly, shuffling off after couple.

[Feral]

Feral unceremoniously dropped Oddity.

"He's with me because I say so."

Feral extended one slender blade towards Oddity's throat.

"I'm in charge here. When I say, you do. I say he comes with us. I say you will not give one peep about it."

Satisfied he had made himself clear, Feral turned back to Ricky.

"They took something from you when they kept you with them. Making you do their work. Turning you against your own. It does something to you. Messes you up. But you'll get it back if you just come with me."

He held out a hand, the same one with the blade protruding out. "I can make you wild again. Fill you with the spirit of what you truly are. The new cap of the food chain."

[Oddity]

"EEP!"

She swallowed hard, leaning back as far as she could on her hands. She nodded at his words - he was the boss, after all, sitting in silence as he spoke to the kid.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky was sure becoming a mass murderer would mess him up even more, but he wasn't about to say so out loud in front of the man who'd just threatened physical violence on his girlfriend.

"Look, I don't know what to tell you. I'm just trying to live."

[Feral]

Feral retracted the claw and waved the kid away. "Fine. Do what you want. But if they come get you again, I'll kill you just like all these things I've destroyed. Love your stupid humans, if you thing being their collared dog will help you."

The blood-stained man helped Oddity to her feet. "Come on."

[Oddity]

She grinned as Feral pulled her to her feet, dragging her behind him by the hand. She turned to face Ricky, giving him a big smile and an equally big wave goodbye.

"Byeeeeeee! Have fun being an itty bitty mutant puppy!"

[Ricky Rider]

A red beam lanced between them, dangerously close to their clasped hands.

"I never said I'd be their dog," he spat. "But I'm not gonna follow you blindly, either. Maybe I'm not gung-ho enough about the whole humans suck thing to go killing them blindly, but I'm not in love with them either." His brow furrowed. Somehow, he'd have to get it across to these people that he was at least a little on their side. "Jericho treated me like a lab rat; them I especially hate. I'll fight anybody if they get in the way of me and what I want. But killing just to kill? Not gonna do it. But if you got a damn good reason, I'm in."

[Feral]

So the kid could put some bass in his voice.

"A damn good reason?"

He paused and let Oddity go.

"How much do you know about the Spartans?"

Feral stalked towards Ricky, bones growing out of his skin into armor and weapons.

"They gave battle for glory, honor, and fame. To prove their strength. To show that they were better."

Feral stood tall over Ricky. "Is it not enough to prove yourself better? They chose to fight us. To kill us. To prove that we are freaks. That they are right and strong. They want to impose their force and their rule on us."

Then the wild man got especially close to Ricky's face. "I will prove them wrong. I will impose my force and my rule. Like the Spartans, I will gain glory and fame for myself. I will prove that I am the better, and they will have no choice but to bow to me."

He stood up straight. "If this is not reason enough, to defy those who would enslave you, then roll over and die. The outdoors is not for the faint hearted."

[Oddity]

Oddity just listened, arms folded behind her back. She loved listening to Feral talk, especially about his goals...It made her heart pound and her stomach flutter. When he'd finished, she had to hold herself back from applauding.

Instead she gave Ricky a grin and a thumbs up. Hopefully he'd pick the winning team!

[Ricky Rider]

Feral's anger and Oddity's goofy thumbs-up were bizarre things to see together. Ricky was quite sure he didn't get them, but this situation was looking worse and worse the harder he tried to make sense of it. He wasn't sure he followed Feral's logic. Whatever had happened to Feral, Ricky hadn't encountered most of it.

"Fine, I'm with you. Let's go."

That way, he'd at least live a little while.

[Feral]

"Good to know."

Feral walked beside Ricky. Together the trio headed towards the manufacturing area of town. It was a long walk and most of it was silent.

At last they reached a rather run down looking factory. A large hole had been dug under the fence and was covered over on both sides by plywood. Feral moved these aside and allowed Oddity and Ricky to go first. He came along last and put the boards back.

"Kid," he said as he addressed Ricky, "You ever fought someone before? Like, a real fight?"

[Oddity]

She felt a small twinge of jealously, since the kid was walking beside Feral (that was her spot!) so she skipped ahead of them. If they weren't going to pay her attention, she'd just ignore them...

They finally got home - home being an abandoned factory - when Feral asked Kiddo a question. She stopped, turning to see what Ricky answered. She was sure Feral would have an interesting reaction no matter what the answer was.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky had been hypnotized into silence by Oddity's legs as she walked ahead, and wasn't paying attention to Feral when he asked a question. Belatedly he snapped out of his daze and answered.

"Uh...like once. I got schooled pretty bad," he admitted bitterly, still sore at his loss to Michael Stern a few weeks back. "Even though my powers were superior to his, he beat me by actually knowing how to fight."

[Feral]

Feral nodded. "Is that a fact? Why were you fighting him?"

Feral strode confidently into the building. "We're going down. This quarter of the plant isn't generally used, but sometimes people keep spare parts and machines in this place. They think it's haunted, but until you get used to killing someone, don't show your face in a place where someone's likely to see you."

[Ricky Rider]

"Trying to get free of Jericho. They said if I could stop him they'd let me go. I almost did it, but the guy...he could turn into light. He just went flying off in a streak of it and lost me."

He listened through the rest with a noncommittal shrug, uncertain of what to say to it. "So...we live here? How's this work, exactly?"

[Oddity]

"Hey, hey, hey!"

A finger was suddenly waggling in Rickys' face. Oddity wore an offended look, as she poked the boy on the end of his nose.

"This is our home, and it's looooooooooooovely! I worked hard getting it livable, and if you don't like it, I'm sure there's a broom closet or something I can stuff you in!"

Oddity turned on her heel with a loud "HMPH!", skipping past Feral on her way to their part of the factory. She had spent a lot of time (mostly when Feral was out wrecking havok without her, which was more often than she liked!) making a home here - she found old abandoned furniture, scraped together enough money to buy some linens that weren't full of holes and set about making a perfect little house set-up for her sweet darling Pooh. She was not about to let some kid call her work into question!

[Feral]

Feral ignored Oddity's tantrum.

"You can come and go as you like. Food can be snatched from any number of places nearby. We don't cook down here, so get your hands on fresh stuff."

Feral shrugged. "When I go out to take weak lives, you can come with me. Sometimes I want to take out important people and I might need you to come with me anyway."

Feral pointed at the leather sofa. "It's enough for you to sleep there. Oddity sleeps on the mattress in that section over there."

"If you need anything, ask. Sometimes rodents will show their faces. If you have a mind to, practice your aim and shoot them."

[Ricky Rider]

He scowled at Oddity's legs and butt as she skipped off, shaking his head at the crazy lady. Ricky took a seat on the sofa designated as his, sinking into it and relaxing a little. He'd nodded his way through Feral's exposition, and suddenly felt very tired as the man wrapped it up.

"Yeah, okay. I think I'mma sack out, if that's alright." It was odd to be speaking so casually with a mass-murderer. He supposed it was the exhaustion. "Thanks for the help." He genuinely meant it.

[Gary Cannon]

"Finally..." Cannon breathed. Finally the mutants had left for their hideout. It didn't matter where they were going. Not now anyway. Cannon brought his full attention to the finished recording he had on his HUD. After splicing a few feeds together, mashing ends up, clearing up some blurry spots, and getting different camera angles, specifically from the mall security vids, and adding in the sounds of what went on, the video of Feral's rampage was finally ready by Cannon's standards.

To add just a little bit of flare to it, Cannon added three, 3 second scenes of black screen. One at the beginning, one about halfway through, and one at the end, to break up the video and send a clear message. The broken up message, being book ended and intertwined into the video was simple, and read as such:

THESE ARE MUTANTS.

Start video feed.


AND THIS...

Continue video feed.

IS JUST THE BEGINNING.


End.

"Very well done if I do say so myself..." Cannon purred to himself. Satisfied that it would make a good first impact, Cannon opened the flood gates and poured the video out onto the internet, and set it to broadcast on every TV station, looping twice, at 1 hour intervals, for 16 hours, so that everyone in the world, regardless of work or sleep schedule, would have a chance to see it.

With one last glance around, Cannon teleported away. He had other things to attend to.

[Oddity]

He scowled at Oddity's legs and butt as she skipped off, shaking his head at the crazy lady. Ricky took a seat on the sofa designated as his, sinking into it and relaxing a little. He'd nodded his way through Feral's exposition, and suddenly felt very tired as the man wrapped it up.

"Yeah, okay. I think I'mma sack out, if that's alright." It was odd to be speaking so casually with a mass-murderer. He supposed it was the exhaustion. "Thanks for the help." He genuinely meant it.


Oddity came from behind a shower curtain divider, carrying an armful of blankets and a pillow. She'd taken the few minutes while the men had been talking to change into a t-shirt and shorts. Her blonde hair was pulled up into pigtails, and her make-up had been carefully scrubbed off. She shooed Ricky off the couch, starting to make up a bed for him.

"And he means ask me, since Mr Mutants Are Superior never lifts a finger around here." She gave Ricky a wink as she leaned over to fluff up his pillow.

[Feral]

"I never lifted a finger because I didn't need all this luxury."

Feral went back over to the stairs. I'm going to go grab food. I think the punk kids at the McDonald's are still leaving the back door open.

"What I get what I get. I'm not threatening these people so you can get a Big Mac or a set of Nuggets, Oddity."

Feral growled. He was full up of bloodshed. Besides, he was certain one of the kids was a mutant. When he sneezed fires happened in the kitchen.

The McDonald's was only a block or two away from all the industrial factories. It made plenty of money from workers looking to get breakfast on their way out, lunch on their breaks, and dinner on the way out.

As such, they nearly always over-prepped food and there was plenty of it. Most of it got thrown out at the end of a night, but Feral knew that if he showed up at the right time he could step inside and take what he wanted.

The only real security in the place was at the safe in the little manager's office, the outside doors, and the registers. Feral found out quickly that the cameras never actually recorded any video and the kids who worked the store at these hours never were at their posts during this time of the day. The place was dead, so they'd be mooching drinks off the soda machine and sitting at a booth talking about nothing.

Feral walked in through the back door of the restaurant and found it like he expected it was. He grabbe a large paper bag and stuffed it full of cheeseburgers, fries, and nuggets. He also took a couple of the apple pies for good measure.

Then he walked out.

When he returned he tossed the bag on an empty spool he overturned when he started living there.

"Wake the kid up. He needs to eat."

[Ricky Rider]

Oddity's sudden warmness was disarming. Ricky sighed as she finished making the sofa into a bed and settled onto it, readying himself for more sudden twinges in her attitude. He ignored the almost-squabble behind him and was asleep before Feral had even turned to leave. He was too tired to even dream. When Oddity poked him to wake him up, he stirred slowly, rolling over to face out towards the couple. "Whuh?"

[Oddity]

"Dinner time."

She handed a paper wrapped burger to him, plopping down on what little couch wasn't occupied.

[Feral]

Feral went into the next room where a gallon of clean water sat in a corner. He picked it up along with a stack of paper cups he stole from the same McDonald's and took them to the others.

"Here. It's good water," he said, pouring some into cups for each of them.

"Eat all you want. It's cheap American food, but it's enough."

Feral had a couple of Big and Tasty burgers stacked up by his foot. He grabbed one and tore into it.

"Sleep well so far?"

[Ricky Rider]

"Yeah," Ricky lied. He didn't feel at all rested, which to him, didn't count as good sleep. He took a bite of the burger, staring fixedly at the floor between his feet as he sat up to allow Oddity more room. After a minute, he spoke again. "What do we do other than hide out here and kill humans?"

[Feral]

Feral smiled. "It's not all random attacks and sitting down here. I've been looking at places of high profile for several weeks now. Then of course, I have to gauge how quickly the authorities respond and how willing they are to escalate their efforts to stop me. They have not brought the Spanish Army to get me, so I am not quite the biggest threat imaginable."

Feral finished his burger, took a big gulp of water, and started in on the second one. "Most of the people I kill are of no consequence. However, if you kill enough of them it starts to matter. Soon I will be assassinating the government. Once the government crumbles and things begin to fall apart, the humans will kill each other out of fear of mutants. And we can feel free to sit by while they destroy one another."

Feral chuckled. "And if you would like, you can help me topple civilization. Once the rest of them are dead, the mutants I have found and hidden can emerge from the bones of those beneath us and we can begin the next era. One for mutants."

[Oddity]

"Mmmph!"

Her mouth was stuffed full of french fries, as she waved a hand in the air. She swallowed and grabbed a burger from the bag.

"Sometimes I go out and do normal things, so maybe we can do some of that while Feral is busy with that government stuff."

[Ricky Rider]

Shopping? He laughed a little.

"Man...I haven't been shopping in so long. I used to get handouts, right when I finally spent the last of my money, and when people stopped being charitable I tried stealing. That landed me in Jericho for a good month, so...yeah."

He wanted to eat, but he wasn't hungry.

[Feral]

"Well, you won't be getting handouts anymore. As for stealing, well..." Feral's voice trailed off. "We will have to make you stronger."

Feral took a fast bite of food and wolfed it down. "We're going to get Jericho. The governments, Jericho, all that has to go away. I hear there's a school in America that takes in mutants. We will have to pay them a visit as well and see if they would be willing to help us."

Feral frowned. He would have a lot to acquire for most of this to work. He needed resources. A real facility, a way to get around, and people he could trust to handle things he needed to have handled.

"It will take a lot of work, but it will all be worth it."

[Oddity]

"Yeah, well. Don't expect me to wash your one set of clothes every day if you don't go with me to get new ones."

Oddity took a sip of water, making a face. She would have to ask Feral about grabbing sodas or shakes next time...Suddenly, Ricky found himself pounced upon, Oddity bouncing excitedly on his lap, grinning from ear to ear.

"But hey hey hey, we don't even know your name! Or do you have a mutant name like Oddity, which is mine! My normal name is Ilaria. And that's Feral, he doesn't have a normal name. Well, he probably does, but he won't tell anyone."

She leaned close to Rickys' ear. "I bet it's a girly name, that's why he won't say it out loud."

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky was startled by this sudden display of interest. He shifted a little, looking to Feral, then back to Oddity/Ilaria.

"Um...I'm Ricky."

[Feral]

"Ricky."

Feral scowled at Oddity. "Get off him! He needs to eat."

He reached forward and grabbed her, hauling her off Ricky and onto the floor.

"Ricky, what do you know about the Jericho Center where you were?"

[Oddity]

"Hee-owww!"

A pouting Ilaria crossed her arms in a huff, glaring at Feral. She pointed a finger at the still reclined Ricky.

"He didn't mind it at all! Did you?"

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky shook his head at his cheeseburger, and finally decided to eat it whether he wanted it or not, at least to appease Feral. He reached down with one hand and helped Oddity sit back on the couch.

[Feral]

Feral snorted and started in on his third burger.

"Cheap American food."

Feral finished the burgers and drained his plastic cup of water. He stood to refill it and looked over at Ricky.

"I still want to know about the Jericho Center where they kept you. Do you want some more to drink?"

He chose to ignore Oddity's comment about Ricky. She was a handful, and probably more than Ricky could handle. Her off-the-wall manner and random flights of fancy would probably frustrate him eventually. Sometimes they certainly frustrated Feral.

"If you want to go shopping," he said as he filled his cup, "you can find work. What do you need that is so important?"

As far as Feral figured, he had most of what he needed. A few pairs of pants and a few wife beaters served well enough to cover him. A long trenchcoat and a hat kept his features hidden. He had a place to sleep and he could go for days on little food. There wasn't much that he lacked.

[Ricky Rider]

"I don't know where they kept me. They put me in a room that was totally dark, so I couldn't use my powers. They let me out to fight a mutant with light powers, then knocked me out and put me right back. Then, they tested my powers a LOT, like for hours every day for months, then they sent me out to shoot you, and you know the rest."

Ricky was surprised to see his cheeseburger was gone, and oddly he missed it. He picked up another.

[Feral]

Feral considered what Ricky told him. It spoke to their cunning and the idea of treating mutants as lab rats rather than as people. As better people.

"That is interesting," Feral said at last. "And since you don't know where it is located, we'll just have to hit them all one by one until they're all gone."

Feral would have done that anyway, but he would have at least gone after the one that held Ricky first of all. But he would have to start somewhere.

"I will be around. I'll come back later. I need to decide what it is we're doing next."

[Ricky Rider]

"Uh...okay." He settled back on the couch, feeling too full. "The guy who ran the place had a German accent or something." Ricky shrugged, then kept talking, impersonating Klaus's voice "He tokked like dis, hyu see, vin he vos in de room."

[Oddity]

"Hahaha! Does he have a curly moustache and a monocle too?"

Oddity mimed twirling a moustache while giving an evil chuckle.

"He sounds like a total dork!"

[Feral]

Feral paused just outside the doorway leading to the outside when Ricky described Klaus. He heard Oddity's comment and snarled.

"That 'total dork' is successfully imprisoning and abusing mutants. He is thorough and unrelenting and is not to be underestimated."

Feral didn't like it. The place sounded awful and he knew sheer strength and determination would not hold up against the vast resources pointed at him to contain him or kill him. He stepped outside.