Kurt and Smith were in the food room. The pair nodded at him as he came in and gestured to an open seat. Ryan stopped by the food pile first for a new box of protein bars, Choco-Calf Crunchtime, and joined them. His whole body ached for food. Literally. It felt like even his feet were hungry.

Once he sat down, Ryan tore into the food. The pair stopped for a moment to look at him but he paid them no notice. Smith grinned, then motioned for Kurt to continue. Ryan paid them no mind. He could feel his strength returning with each bite.

Apparently, a gorilla had gone missing at the zoo Kurt worked at - along with a host of the other animals.

“There wasn’t even any damage.” Kurt said, with a concerned expression on his angular face. “Gerald is just… gone. With the others, we had some clue as to their new powers when they escaped - a melted bar here, a flaming tree there, but the gorilla enclosure is just... empty.” His trailed off.

“Wait.” Ryan interjected, as he grabbed a new box of protein bars and sat down. “All the animals at the zoo changed too?” Smith nodded as if that were obvious, then realized who he was talking to.

“Right, you haven’t seen them yet, huh?” The officer took a bite of jerky and was silent for a moment as he chewed. “Best as we can tell, everything larger’n’a rat has changed too. They uh… ‘woke up’, I guess, before we did. Been roaming the streets causing mayhem while we were all out. No bugs changed though, thank God. Can you imagine if mosquitoes could multiply like Mike?”

Smith shivered and swallowed as he looked at the other two. “Rather be dead, I think.”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds.” Kurt added quickly at the horror dawning on Ryan’s face. “Well, almost, anyway.” Kurt relented. “A lot of them just have simple powers - pigeons for example can self-immolate but that is generally the extent of--”

“You mean the birds are on fire?!” Ryan blurted out, spewing bits of choco-calf all over the table.

“Firebirds. Yup.” Smith nodded self-assuredly. The former zookeeper narrowed his eyes at the former officer.

“They are not firebirds. They are…” Kurt struggled for a moment.

“Pigeonus Ignis?” Ryan asked.

“Pyro-pigeons.” Smith added. Ryan looked approvingly at Smith then the pair looked towards Kurt.

“Pyro-pigeons.” They said in unison. Kurt pressed a hand to his forehead as the other two grinned broadly.

“Fine. Pyro… pigeons it is.” Kurt said with resignation. “They are not terribly dangerous, however, especially considering what evolutions dogs and cats have undergone.”

Ryan was just about to follow that tantalizing line of questioning when something heavy slammed into the door. A second later, Sherry opened it with Michael slung around her shoulders. He’d been shot in the leg. His jeans were a dark red stained mess.

“Guys… Time to go.” Michael struggled out as he limped to the side of the entryway with Sherry’s help.

A pair of gunshots rang out from below their feet, the sound muffled through the floor. Screams and the hospital’s alarm followed. An automated voice began issuing lockdown instructions and announcing the presence of multiple ‘active shooters’.

“McCarthy?” Ryan asked. That was fast, he hadn’t expected them to come back so soon.

“No.” Sherry answered, shaking her head. She’d been shot too, Ryan realized. Blood was flowing steadily out of her left arm.

“But I heard them, they’re here for you. Some nurse and her friends after the bounty.” She pressed one hand to her arm and gritted her teeth in response, but her eyes were on Michael.

“What happened?” Ryan asked. He hadn’t heard anything, yet his friends looked like they’d already fought a pitched battle. Where were the cops? Hospital security? Where--

Lucky for him, neither Smith nor Kurt wasted any time worrying about the collapse of old notions of security. Kurt’s face and arms sprouted fur and his entire frame began to enlarge.

Smith hauled Ryan to his feet. “You heard the man, move now. Questions later.” Ryan did as he was bid, though he shoved a few more bars his gown pocket.

Everyone spilled into the hallway. It was quiet at first, but then the radio on Michael’s shoulder lit up. Sherry pressed a button on it and Michael called for status. One by one, his clones began to report in.

Four were down, three absorbed. Two were pinning a man down in the hallway near radiology. The rest were spread out amongst the hospital save one who was headed to the garage.

“Where?” Smith asked simply once they had arrived at the stairs.

“One floor down. Radiology.” Michael answered, slumping up against the stairway door. Sherry pulled a bag off her back and pulled out some medical gauze. She examined the wound, nodded to herself, then she started bandaging his leg - mostly with one arm.

Kurt sniffed the air in front of the stairwell. “Four.” Said the formerly mousy zookeeper now nearly 9 feet tall and wide as a fuzzy linebacker. He looked like a blond werewolf out of some Van Helsing movie only… jacked. “Three males and one female. I have their scents now.”

Smith nodded and headed down the stairs. The furry behemoth followed behind him with nails - claws? - extended. Whatever they were, they were sharp. And far bigger than they ought to be.

“How bad?” Michael asked with closed eyes and a rough voice. Sherry’s response was gentle, almost a whisper. Ryan had to strain his ears to hear it.

“Shattered the tibia. Bullet went straight through, thankfully, but you need surgery. I can’t fix this.” She whispered. Her voice was calm, almost detached. It was the same voice the nurses used when they spoke to him, Ryan realized. Had she been one before?

…

Ryan realized something else as he watched the two of them. As the sounds of more gunshots, large thuds, and yelling came from below. The sounds of battle. Real battle, not some game.

What the fuck was he standing around for? He had a power too, right? It was time to move. To act. To help.

…

So why did his legs feel so weak? He’d eaten, right? Gotten his energy back. So why wouldn’t they move? What was this, a book? His first taste of real danger and now he wasn’t moving because he was scared?

…

No. Ryan thought with as much ferocity as he could muster. I did not spend two years paralyzed just to be useless again. He went to the stairwell door and opened it once more.

“Where… are you going?” Michael asked, his eyes firmly meeting Ryan’s.

“To help.” Ryan answered, trying to put the same determination he’d just had mentally into his voice.

Sherry was just about to say something in response when Ryan felt something hard press into his chest. Then the sound of a gunshot rang out and he felt his chest explode outward away from him. Shards of shorn skin and a spray of blood fountained out of him down the stairwell.

Pain that felt horribly like his earlier transformation blossomed across Ryan’s entire upper body.

Ryan screamed and stumbled back to the side as he fell to the floor. His adrenaline surged as he felt his chest, expecting to find a hole right through him. What he found was arguably worse.

The patch of diamond skin he’d just manifested earlier had shattered and taken with it the skin covering most of his chest. Even his freaking nipples were gone. The wound hadn’t opened all the way through, but it almost had - there was a lot of blood coming up.

Sherry kicked the door shut and stood. A pair of knives appeared in her hands as she looked over at him, taking in his miserable state at a glance. The front half of his gown was gone. Sherry could see everything. Some small part of him felt he should be embarrassed, but the pain was too great to worry about that right now.

“Move, Ryan.” She commanded, her tone piercing his shocked state. “One of them is coming up. I’ll handle--” Instead of finishing her sentence, the beastkin woman pressed herself flat against the wall a few feet from the stairwell exit.

The door exploded outwards, ripping off its hinges and slamming into the opposing wall. It struck one of those glass ‘shatter in case of emergency’ cabinets and broken glass littered the floor. Ryan’s eyes went wide.

On the other side was an athletic young man in a squat stance with both arms extended in a vertical line, one above the other. Trails of grey smoke rose from his hands. He was wearing loose fitting jeans, a grey gym shirt that had "No Painz from these Gainz" emblazoned on the front, and the cockiest grin Ryan had ever seen.

Sherry didn't move. Michael had managed to get himself into a seated position and was aiming a gun at the doorway. Ryan, half-naked in a pool of his own blood, could do nothing but watch.

"Haha-haahh! Damn! Now that is what I'm talking about!" Laughed the gym rat Ryan didn't recognize. The man flexed his arms and then snapped his fingers towards Ryan like they were guns. "One tap and BOOM! Got 'em." Added the man with a gleeful wink at him.

The gym rat paused, obviously waiting for a response, but Ryan couldn't think of one. It was currently all he could do not to scream even more.

The man pursed his lips and arched a brow, the expression one of utter disappointment. "Lame." He said simply. "She said you could explode too, but bruh…" He looked Ryan up and down as if genuinely confused. "You're not supposed to explode yourself, dum-dum."

Ryan met the man's gaze as he spoke. Partially because he didn't want to give Sherry away by glancing at her… and mostly because it gave him something to focus on besides all of the angry nerve endings in his chest reporting a fire.

While he did, Ryan's mind raced. The man obviously didn't consider him a threat anymore, but he knew who Ryan was. Given that he was still alive, Ryan could reasonably expect they were hoping to take him in that way and not kill him.

Which meant he had time to do something. But what? Once that man stepped forward, Sherry was going to attack. Ryan hadn't checked her stats, but if her race's were anything like the elves', this fight might be over when she did.

… Then again, she'd fought these guys earlier and gotten shot for the trouble. And that smug idiot had just blown a metal hospital door off its hinges. What if he did the same to her? An explosion like that might cut her in half.

Ryan needed more information. But he didn't need everything about this guy - just his power. With a thought, he checked what they were up against.

Superpower: Explosive Palm. Can channel explosive blasts of energy through one's hands. Blast intensity is commensurate with energy invested.

That power… rang a bell, for some reason. Reminded him of something he'd watched before, but Ryan couldn't remember where from so he dismissed it. It basically made this guy a walking, renewable stick of dynamite. Great.

How do you fight that? His uncle Kevin, a lifelong martial artist with a black belt in Judo, had always said the best way to fight someone who was armed was… not to fight them at all. To run. Even if it was just knives. "Nobody wins a knife fight." Kevin would say. "One person just loses less."

And Sherry was about to take knives to a bomb fight.

Ryan had to warn her. Even if this guy might blast him for it.

He just had to wait for the right time.

“Yo! Betty! I found ‘im!” The gym rat yelled behind him. “He’s up here all bleedin’ and lame. Still alive though, pretty sure.” The man made a dismissive gesture towards Ryan then hunched down to his feet, turned, and shouted down the stairs again. “Finish up those other nerds and let’s get paid, baby!”

The instant his back was turned, Ryan locked eyes with Sherry. Then he made a cutting motion at the base of each of his wrists. The beastkin looked confused for a second, then nodded in understanding. She tilted her head, as if in question and made a gesture towards the door with a knife. Ryan shook his own slightly and laid back.

If only he could fix his chest, then maybe he co--

Ryan blinked. Then mentally smacked himself in the forehead and activated his power.

Restore lost blood and skin on upper chest? Cost: 48 points. Yes, or no?

His response was the most emphatic ‘yes’ Ryan had given in his life. Within seconds he felt the pain recede and his breathing ease. The skin on his chest regrew before his eyes, though it was still covered in the blood that had welled up from before. Even the diamond skin came back, which he hadn’t expected for the cost.

Gym rat hadn’t noticed. Apparently ‘Betty’ was having more trouble with his friends than they’d expected. And now that Ryan was healed up… it was time to cause some more.

Ryan scrambled to his feet and rushed towards the downed door. There was a startled “Hey! Not cool!” from the stairwell and then an explosion knocked Ryan off his feet. He tumbled into the shattered glass, earning himself dozens of thin cuts along his arms, chest, and legs. Ryan scrambled backwards, found what he was looking for, and held it behind him as best he could.

Footsteps approached. Gym rat was laughing. “Yo man, I don’t want to kill ya so don’t make me--”

Blissfully, Ryan was spared listening to any more of the man’s terrible hip-hop wannabe accent as gym rat finally crossed the threshold into the hallway.

Sherry interrupted whatever threat he’d been about deliver by delivering her own flying right knee to the jaw. The blow slammed his mouth shut so hard it shattered teeth and clipped a part of his tongue off. Bits of white went skittering across the floor.

Before she’d even landed, the beastkin grabbed gym rat’s head with her left hand and slammed her other knee right into his ear. A muffled cry escaped from the broken man’s ruined mouth as she rode him down to the ground face first.

Sherry wasn’t finished. With a calm determination she held high her weapons - large kitchen knives by the look of it - and prepared to sink them down into her foe. Then a shot rang out, and gym rat’s brain splattered across the tiles.

Ryan froze… and looked over to Michael. His wounded friend was breathing heavily, slumped up against the side of the wall with his smoking pistol extended towards the now corpse.

“Nobody…” Michael huffed. “Hurts my girl…” he added tiredly as his arms fell to his sides.

That was when Ryan noticed it. Gym rat’s other hand. It was extended back towards Sherry, palm up. The man had blown a thick metal door across a room like it was a paperweight. If Michael had waited another second…

Ryan was just about to get up and go help when an ape sized man pushed his way easily through the stairwell door, popping out the bloody wall like it was cardboard. In one of his massive hands he held Smith’s head and chest like he were carrying a babe. The man-ape’s eyes were hard and his massive mouth turned up in an angry snarl.

The battle downstairs had finally ended. And his friends had lost.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kurt was gone. Smith’s voice was muffled, but he seemed to be talking even as he struggled against his captor.

“You fought well, but I’ll be taking that one.” growled the ape, pointing a sausage-sized finger at Ryan. “Betty, James, and I are going to take that bounty and… and…” The creature’s voice trailed off as his eyes fell upon his friend’s corpse. Large knuckles cracked around Smith’s head as his grip tightened and the officer’s struggling intensified.

“No… NO!!” Roared the ape as he pounded both fists - and Smith - against his chest.

Then he hurled the officer down the hallway, out the sixth floor window, and charged at Ryan.

A couple things happened at once after that.

One: Michael opened up with the pistol, firing as rapidly as he could pull the trigger. Pouring lead into its hind legs in a desperate attempt to slow it down. The large primate ignored him as if he weren’t even there.

Two: Sherry moved to intercept the creature and sunk her knives into its upper arm. Unfortunately, melee weapons brought her into swatting range and she was slammed down the hallway. A cry of pain followed a heavy thump as she crashed into the wall.

Three: Ryan waited till the hairy bastard was almost on him before pulling the fire extinguisher from behind his back and unleashing a torrent of foam right in his stupid face. Man-ape or not, humans hated being sprayed. Especially in the face. The creature roared again, this time in surprise, and stumbled backward.

Right as the shaggy form of Kurt hurtled down the hallway from Ryan’s right and slammed into the ape. The pair went tumbling and skittering across the floor. Right towards the open window Smith had gone through.

“Sherry!” Ryan yelled towards the now-stumbling woman who was just now picking herself up off the ground. She turned towards him. Ryan shook the fire extinguisher with emphasis and then motioned towards the ape.

Her eyes took a few seconds to focus on him. One arm was limp and held close in front of her. When she did finally look up at him, her eyes narrowed on the metal canister. Then towards the pair of roaring animals still tussling by the window.

Then the pretty beastkin’s face lit up with a wide, savage smile and she started towards him. As she picked up speed, Ryan simply let go of the canister. His muscles were about to give out anyway. Sherry caught it easily and fell into a dead sprint.

“Kurt! Toss!” Ryan shouted as she passed him.

In just the few dozen meters separating them the beastkin picked up speed, leapt… and cracked the man-ape over the head using the business end of it with all her might. The loud clang reverberated down the hallway and seemed to stun the beast.

Kurt, for his part, seized the chance to kick the ape off him with all the strength his great canine form could muster.

Right out the bloody window.