"Nero? You there?"

Fetter coughed, bits of blood splattering onto the dirt in front of him. Grant stepped out of the way, with Fetter riding on his back. Rain fell, and soon the blood had washed away.

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"Where's Don?"

"He ran off."

"What!? Why didn't you stop him!?"

"I tried. He just threw me aside."

"Well go get him and give him the phone!"

Nero ran off, letting the sound of wind rush past the phone.

"How's your wound?" Grant asked.

"It ain't gonna kill me. Nero didn't answer, I think he ran off after Don."

The place around Fetter and Grant was a deserted railyard, one of the service points for the ancient subway systems, before they had been moved to the familiar rails in the sky. Gravel and dirt spread around him in a flat field, with old cargo containers sitting around. One of them had what looked like giant claw marks gouged into it, and dark red stains around the place hadn't yet faded in the light rain.

Fetter clicked the button on the phone again and held it up to his ear, only hearing the noise of it ringing.

"Are you going to ask?" Grant asked.

"Ask what?"

"Why I was here already." Grant moved toward Fetter, taking of his suit jacket.

"To have a smoke? I don't fucking know." Fetter coughed horribly, gripping onto his side with his hand.

"That's a lie." Grant smiled for a moment. He tied the jacket around Fetter's waist, pulling it tight across the wound.

"Fine. Why were you already here?"

"Someone told me you were going to be here. Sounded really fussed too. Really upset. I hope you didn't happen to cause that by doing anything unnecessary."

Grant picked him up, slinging him over his shoulder.

"How was I supposed to know if it was necessary? It could have been! By the time I'd find out, it'd be too late."

"Sure. Sure. I'm sure it wasn't anything as simple as having someone relying on you."

"Hey!" Fetter slapped Grants arm a few times with the back of his hand.

"I didnt mean to upset-"

"No. Stop. Look." Fetter pointed in front of them. A strange creature was walking in front of them. Some sort of humanoid, with spines coming from it's back, sprouting through what looks to have once been a white dress shirt.

The phone up to Fetter's ear finally connected.

"Hey Fetter. I can't find him. Are you going to be okay?"

"Not now Nero." Fetter said, hanging up.

With it's huge and distended arm, the creature pulled along a sling of bodies, not yet rotting though certainly not fresh. The smell came quickly to Fetter's nose. His eyes picked details from the cluster of corpses.

"Let me down." he said, lightly slapping his hand on Grant's shoulder.

Grant kneeled over, letting Fetter jump down, his shoes lightly thumping against the dirt and gravel. He swayed, nearly falling over, but caught himself.

"Don't do anything stupid-"

"Hey fucker! You ain't got any respect for the dead?!" Fetter shouted at the creature.

"Oh come on." Grant said, rolling his eyes.

The creature turned it's head. The first half was green, with an insect's eye like a swollen tumor bulging from it's face, tendrils of flesh hung from the eye at weird angles back to its shoulders. The other side was notably human, though with a crazed look in his eye and a smirk across his lips.

Fetter mustered up some strength with a few choice swears before dashing forward, already drawing his knife midair. As he darted past, he slashed the plastic sheet that was holding the bodies, letting them fall to the ground. Fetter landed, spinning around as he slid across the gravel. The man's smirk was gone, his face reforming into a plainly human one.

"You must be Fetter Young."

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" Fetter said, his eyes focused on the corpses.

"Gathering specimens for my research."

"Leave them here and I'll let you off the hook, this time."

"You're either merely ignorant, or truly a fool."

Grant jogged over, forming a triangle between the three of them. "Fetter what the hell! You're injured!"

"And he's fucking with the bodies of my men!"

"I'm not fucking with anything. God, you are just as impudent as the rumors say."

"The hell do you know about me? You think you are some big shot? Fuck you."

Grant looked between the other two, unsure of how to settle this situation. He started moving to join up with Fetter.

"I guess you are both ignorant and a fool, Fetter Young. Much worse than your brother was." The man laughed, looking down his nose at Fetter.

"What the hell do you mean?!"

The man didn't answer. Instead, he just leaned over, touching a hand against the pile of corpses. The familiar faces that Fetter once knew melted away, their flesh wriggling around as though made up of worms, reforming in a terrifying way. The bones reformed, twisting around each other. The wriggling flesh wound its way around the twisted bones, coming to form a large body, much larger than even Grant, with four heads and titanic limbs.

"What the fuck..."

"It's simple really, reorganizing tissues into a functional superstructure, replicating cells, making faux paths through the new nervous system. Of course, there's only so far I can go in that regard. I can't envision down to the molecular level. I have to thank you for your earlier gift though. It was really helpful."

Fetter stared at the golem of flesh standing in front of him, easily twice his height. He readied his knife, planning his assault. "What gift?"

"Your brother. Of course."

Fetter dashed forward, having thrown his plan out of the window. He went hand first, straight for the throat, grabbing on to the man and lifting him into the air with a green glow. The man cackled, his laughter barely coming out.

"It was you?" Fetter asked, tightening his grip on the man's windpipe.

The man didn't even flinch. Instead, he reached up and grabbed onto Fetter's arm with his own. "I can't wait for his instincts to kick in. It will be such a beautiful sight, an apex predator." He squeezed down as his own arm swelled in size. Fetter screamed out as he let go, almost covering the sounds of his bones cracking and grinding.

The flesh golem let out a yell, before launching a fist into Fetter, sending him flying out of the man's iron grip. He slammed into the gravel, flipping through the air before coming to a skidding halt on his back. The gravel cut open his unprotected scalp and the force broke open his wound, leaving trails of blood on the ground.

"Fetter!" Grant ran over to him.

"I could have just killed you right then, I hope you know. Luckily for you I have to test my creations. This one appears too slow. That force would mean nothing if it can't hit you normally. I should slim it down a bit." The man touched the golem, instantly cutting it into tiny cubes, falling helplessly onto the floor.

Grant knelt down next to Fetter, instantly reaching out to feel for a pulse. Fetter batted his hand away, mumbling a long chain of swears. "Grant, who is this guy?"

"Joseph Mendele. He's notorious at the IMB. Every time we catch him, he just breaks out within the day. Somehow, an execution has never been approved."

Joseph molded the flesh on the ground around, watching it take a few forms in front of him before reducing them back to nothing.

"You can't fight him in this state Fetter. You're hurt. Even more so now. I can buy time, but I can't even hope to touch him."

Joseph dug his hand into the pile of flesh, watching it form around his fingers with glee. "Sorry boys, but I can't stay and have too much fun. These two should keep you company though, don't worry."

"Coward!" Fetter yelled, trying to bring himself to his feet.

"Toodle-oo!" Joseph's own form melded, a large shadow popped out of his forehead, springing away through the air. It was a crow, already lost in the night sky. The rest of his body dissolved into dozens of cockroaches, skittering out into the city under the faint glow of street lights.

Where the pile was, there were two beings. The first was tall and slim, hunched over, with jagged square teeth coming from a widened maw with four eyes looking about wildly. It was like a human, on the verge of starvation, had suddenly grown far taller. The other was much shorter, but with thick muscles bulging out, mainly from its thighs and calves. Both of them were slowly strafing away from each other, starting to circle around Fetter and Grant.

Fetter stood up, uneasy on his feet. "Which one do you want, Grant?"

"I think I'll take the midget. We're lucky he didn't probe to find out my power."

"Yeah, yeah. The tall one looks kind of brittle. I should be able to snap it."

The short one moved first, it's powerful muscles springing into motion, launching bits of gravel and mud behind it. Its mouth uncurled as it flew straight towards Grant, revealing three rows of sharp teeth, moving on separate jaws inside it's mouth. Its bottom lip spiraled outward, almost in the shape of a circular saw with sharp spines sticking out from it.

Grant didn't flinch. Rather, he stood strong, tightening his mind and muscles as he watched the creature slam into him. It felt like he was hit by a car, but he didn't move. The creatures razor sharp teeth dug into his shirt, the several rows of teeth mincing the fabric in moments. Just as soon as it had jumped to him, it jumped off of him, leaving a bare spot on his chest where it had tried to assault him.

The lanky one sprinted towards Fetter, it's black eyes locked on to him. As it neared him, it reared up onto it's hind legs, reaching forward with it's bony arms and gaping mouth. A harsh green light surrounded Fetter for a moment, as it's hand slapped against his good arm. He didn't budge as it flailed against him, letting out horrendous screams.

"Don't make me fucking laugh," Fetter said, his voice winding down to a low growl.

He dropped his knife, preferring instead to launch his fingers forward, digging into the sickly flesh of the being in front of him, right at the base of its ribcage. He stomped his foot forward, and with a blaze of green, launched the creature hurtling hundreds of yards into the air.

"Fetter," Grant said. "Deal with this one." His arm was locked around the other one as it squirmed around, trying to get its jagged teeth to pierce Grant's dark skin.

Fetter picked up his knife, walking over to deliver the finishing blow. His footing became unsteady, teetering back and forth for a moment.

"Fetter?"

He lurched forward, jabbing the knife in with blinding speed right into the creature's eye before falling to the ground.

"Fetter!"

There was a flash of purple light as Fetter was losing consciousness. He couldn't speak, but he could still hear.

"There you are. Why did you run off so far with that wound?"

"Rose?"

Blackness.