(I don't own Bittersweet Candy Bowl or the story that inspired this storyline, the Silver Sentinel also belongs to Blade100, and that character is just an alternate version of Mike, but unlike the version Blade100 uses, the events of December happened on this Earth.)
Lucy grit her teeth as she used her motorbike to speed through the darkened, panicking streets of Roseville.
Reports of Alejandro's monsters had been heard all over the radio, the rampaging beasts were enough of a menace to cause the police, Bronze Titan and the Silver Sentinel (plus the new hero known as the Gold Guardian, who seemed to be rather fond of the Sentinel) to just be fighting them.
Which left the banks with very little protection from Alejandro's thugs, but Lucy was willing to provide it.
Currently she was zooming towards the 1st national bank, thanks to some of the instruments Longcoat gave her (a device that scans for silent alarms) she found the silent alarm going off there and figured that was where the gangsters were.
Lucy was zooming through the streets with plans to stop Alejandro before he finally got away with his evil plan, however she didn't realize another element that was about to foul up her plans…
Mike shook his head as he lay in what used to be a gym, though getting thrown into it by a giant, mutant cat had a…interesting effect on the building's architecture.
Mike didn't know what to make of this situation, earlier in the day a monsterous cat tried to destroy the mall but despite the efforts of himself and the police they couldn't figure out why it was there or who made it.
It was about a half hour ago that reports of three more monsters were sighted throughout the city, they were smashing up everything in sight and he had to stop them.
While his new partner and Bronze Titan were handling two monsters he himself was struggling to stop the feral rage of the poor beast he had to stop.
Rising from the rubble he glaring back at the mutant, said beast now charging right at him, murder in its rage filled eyes.
'Michael the anomaly is back'
The Korat's eyes blinked beneath his helmet, barely managing to dodge the beast as it charged Mike.
'What anomaly?' Mike questioned internally as he punched the beast hard enough to throw it back into the street.
'The woman who attacked us earlier, I can feel her presence, and she's coming in fast.'
Mike had been fairly upset when the mysterious woman who fought the earlier monster ran away from him, not because she ran from him but rather because of how she left a lot of questions.
As Mike began to try and think up a response to LEGACY, the monster (who was attempting another charge, not realizing that his repeated attempts to charge Mike didn't work out so well) got hit with some kind of gas bomb and fell unconscious.
Mike didn't need LEGACY's analysis to tell him that it was knockout gas, the same kind of gas used on the other monster earlier.
'Now I might get some answers' Mike thought (and conversing to LEGACY by extension) as he saw the girl from before riding by on an armored motorcycle.
Flying off into the air Mike began to trail the girl closely, however despite efforts to sneak up on her she realized she was being followed and turned her head to see Mike nearing her.
Sensors in the LEGACY created suit could clearly hear her swearing "Goddammit, I thought I lost him earlier."
The girl proceeded to increase her speed and run off from Mike, she was fast he'd admit that.
Fortunately for Mike, he was faster.
Moving faster than the bike could, Mike moved a good deal away from the girl and stood directly in front of her.
However what he didn't expect to happen was that the girl (whoever she was) didn't swerve or try to ram him, instead stopping quickly and pulling a bazooka out from behind her back.
"Get out of my way" she growled "I have an appointment."
Something was familiar about this girl, the voice seemed to remind him of someone he knew, the costume she wore covered up all her fur except for her chin and her ears, showing that her fur color was a shade of white that he was sure he'd seen before.
Despite how her very appearance was vexing he still just stood his ground and told her "No, I might not know who you are but if you're trying to run from me-"
"Are all superheroes as dense as you are?" The girl growled again "I don't have the time for this, do you have any idea why monsters are tearing up this city?"
Michael was about to give his own answer when he realized that neither he nor LEGACY knew who caused that whole 'monster rampage' to happen.
Fact is, despite LEGACY being a highly advanced computer with sensor equipment that no manmade machine could match, all Mike knew about the monsters was that they were heavily mutated, that and the fact that they couldn't have naturally occurred due to the heavy amount of mutagens and chemicals found in their blood.
"These monsters" the girl said, not waiting for a response "Were made by a gangster named Alejandro Morgan, the three currently attacking the city are purely a distraction for a plan to rob the banks in the confusion.
"This man must be stopped, he needs to be stopped before he manages to escape and make more of these…beasts and he's currently still looting the first national bank, there's only a small window of opportunity to find him."
"Then let me go and-"
"No!" she hissed, the voice displayed not only hatred towards Alejandro, but he had a feeling that it was directed towards him as well "This is MY hunt, that monster turned somebody in front of my eyes and I couldn't stop him, I have to stop this man myself."
Mike could tell that this girl truly hated the man, but not just because of his 'mutating tendencies', he could tell she hated him for another reason (Author's Note: Most people who've read Bittersweet Candy Bowl can probably guess why she hates him…damn rapists.)
"Head to the other monsters, the police and other heroes won't be able to stop them easily and most likely need your help."
'She's right Michael, it'd probably end this whole problem quicker if the others helped, except for one thing'
'And what is that?" Mike's thoughts asked LEGACY.
'I don't know why, but the tone of voice she's using suggests that she seems to be slightly nervous for some reason, regardless though this will have to be looked into later, for now there's a clear and present danger elsewhere and we're needed elsewhere.'
"Alright" Mike said aloud, "I see your point, I'll head off to fight the other monsters and you'll take out the gangster, miss…"
"Ice Queen" the girl hurriedly said "Now go, I have to get to work."
Not speaking another word Mike flew off to his job and the Ice Queen zipped off towards the bank.
As Mike flew away through the air he soon grew out of out of the Ice Queen's range, and thus out of LEGACY's sensor range.
If they'd been a bit slower they might have heard the Ice Queen's sigh of relief and her muttering of "Finally, I thought he'd never leave."
After encountering Mike it took about ten minutes for Lucy to reach the bank, as she expected she could see a large bus (which she presumed was stolen) was in front of the bank and saw a pair of cats (one a black cat and the other a brown cat with black spots) hauling cash out of the building.
The street was completely empty which was no surprise due to the panic that swept the city, the people around the banks had chosen to get out of town until the creatures were gone and like a good deal of the city were likely in a massive traffic jam at the borders of the city.
Lucy had stopped just a little bit ahead and waited for the cats to reenter the bank, then quickly and quietly she brought her bike into an ally next to the bank and slipped inside.
The cats she'd seen had just exited the plaza (or whatever the hell you call the beginning part of a bank) and Lucy saw them go into the vault, without either of them realizing it she followed them along and pulled out a small mirror so she could see what was going on.
Inside she could see Alejandro was directing the cats and dogs Lucy had seen earlier that day, and they were in the middle of stuffing cash into duffel bags, Alejandro still had the hoodie he was wearing on and Lucy felt uneasy about it for some reason.
"Hurry it up!" Alejandro said, his voice showing that he was rather impatient "We gotta get all this cash before the Ice Queen shows up."
"Too late" Lucy growled as she stepped into their view "It's over Alejandro; it's time you finally paid the piper for the lives you've ruined."
"Ah, so the superchica finally decides to show up" Alejandro purred, turning around and leering at the female crimefighter "Shoot her in the tits boys."
The brown and black cats hurriedly left the piles of cash they were trying to stuff into bags and tried to grab the shotguns they had on the floor.
However, they were fairly close to the door and Lucy chose to not give them the chance to grab their weapons, hurriedly she proceeded to rush in and slug the black cat square in the face, and just as quickly she proceeded to sweep her right leg through the air and kick the other cat right in the head.
Another cat then proceeded to charge at her with a crowbar, this guy was pretty large and Lucy remembered kicking him around back when she was trying to take out the Cryptic, thinking fairly quickly she hurriedly uppercutted him and proceeded to use a kick to his groin that was strong enough to knock the thug over.
One of the dogs (a grey furred one) proceeded to rush at her as the large thug was falling to the ground, his attempt to attack her though failed fairly miserably as she simply grabbed him by his face and bashed him into one of the nearby walls of the vault.
All that remained were two dogs at the end of the vault and two dogs that were cowering at the end.
"Is that what passes for help these days" Alejandro groaned "Leave it to the boss to get shit done right."
Lucy attempted to lunge right at Alejandro and then tackle him and the other two down at the same time when something unexpected happened.
With speed that surprised Lucy, Alejandro proceeded to quickly just punch Lucy in the face, the force being hard enough to send her back to the opening of the vault.
"Waste her!" yelled the gangster, Lucy didn't waste any time in getting out of the entrance as the two dogs opened fire with a pair of uzis.
As the gunfire roared through Lucy could hear the gangsters rushing out to fight her.
One of the dogs ran right out first and got a fist to his face, and while he got knocked down, his partner also ran out but one sweeping kick from Lucy and he got knocked down as well.
As she turned around she got met with a fist to the face that got her knocked over, as she began to get up though Alejandro removed his hoodie and she was definitely surprised at what she saw.
Alejandro's hoodie had been covering up a tube of sorts, one end was connected to a large bracelet on his right wrist, on it she could see a bright red button and a small green knob, the other end appeared to be connected to the back of his head.
"Impressive isn't it" the murdering thug sneered "I had this installed earlier today, you see if a few key ingredients are removed from the serum used to mutate those cats the serum causes a temporary increase in strength, healing abilities and speed, for best effects it has to be directly inserted into the bloodstream, and what you only felt was a small dose."
His mouth turned into a slasher smile as he turned the knob up a good deal higher, and it was previously very low (as far as Lucy could tell anyway) "Imagine what a large dose will do to me."
Pressing the red button on the bracelet caused something disturbing to happen before Lucy's very eyes, the gangster cat's muscles began to grow and swell up to large sizes…quickly growing up to three times his size.
The clothes of Alejandro began to snap as he grew, his shirt burst off and his pants barely managed to remain on him, his shoes were completely shredded from the growing flesh and aside from his mostly ripped up pants all the clothes that remained were Alejandro's hat.
The gangster cat was almost able to hide the fact that he'd been in a good deal of pain throughout the transformation, but despite this he flashed an evil grin towards Lucy before uttering four words that signaled that a terrible fight was about to start.
"Come at me bitch!"
Lucy quickly lept up and got on her feet, Alejandro simply stood up and brushed a little dust off his hat.
Lucy, not wanting to waste another second in attacking this monster whipped out a pistol and shot Alejandro in the arm.
The giant brute shrugged this off, and merely began to menacingly advance on Lucy, the teenager was feeling slightly unnerved about the maniac approaching her but instead chose to whip out the rocket launcher.
However, Alejandro was no idiot and as soon as he saw even the smallest trace of that rocket launcher, he quickly rushed forward and grabbed Lucy up in one meaty fist.
Bringing her to eye level, he grinned evilly at her "Did you think I was an idiot like those other freaks, chica? The security cameras showed the beast getting hurt by your bazooka, so why do you think I'd give you a chance to get it out?"
With a roar Alejandro then threw her across the bank, Lucy could feel a whole lotta pain as she hit the wall, fortunately enough for her though she was near the door.
Unfortunately for her, so was Alejandro.
The villain had rounded up on her quicker than the vigilante could react, and Alejandro proceeded to deliver a chop to her right arm.
Lucy bit her tongue as she felt that her arm was dislocated (she was very glad that it was just dislocated, she was even surprised it wasn't broken) and glaring up at Alejandro.
"Any last words you lousy cunt?"
Reaching behind her back with her left hand (barely managing to escape Alejandro's sight) she pulled out a flashbomb and growled "You need more sunlight."
Closign her eyes and detonating the bomb, a bright light shone through the room and blinded Alejandro.
"Madre de dios! My eyes!" The villain yowled, allowing Lucy to zip right out of the building.
Stumbling out of the building she began to try and think of how she could beat the monster, she got down to the bottom of the steps before finally settling on a plan.
And not a moment too soon, for Alejandro's beastly form had just staggered out of the entrance.
Despite her escape he didn't seem to be very mad at her, in fact he seemed to be almost gleeful about her running.
"So you're running eh?" He bellowed "Good, I love it when they run."
Lucy knew too well what he meant and began to run off for the subway across the street, Alejandro followed but a tad slower in hopes of unnerving her before his intended rape.
Getting to the entrance Lucy hurriedly slid down the railing, barely managing to keep ahead of Alejandro.
No sooner had she reached the bottom then she roared past the ticket booths and kept running until she neared the tracks.
Just as she stopped she pulled a handgun out of hammerspace and cocked it, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do.
As she stood firm (just inches away from the edge), Alejandro finally roared into her line of sight, which wasn't very long in coming.
The monster charged right at her, a look of sadistic glee on his face as he neared what he thought was the end of a pain in his ass.
When he was about three feet away from her (smashing through everything in his way and leaving a large pile of debris in his wake) Lucy quickly whipped out her gun and shot the cord that delievered the venom to Alejandro's veins.
Alejandro screamed out in agony as the cord got cut, not stopping his charge at Lucy at all.
Not wanting to go out like a sucker Lucy quickly sidestepped the madden charge and let Alejandro fall onto the subway rails.
And the third rail was active.
Electricity surged through all of Alejandro's cells as he hit the rail, letting out a scream of pure pain was Lucy's signal to end it.
Noticing an emergency turnoff switch for the power to the third rail in case of such an emergency, Lucy simply walked right over there and pulled it down before enough juice came in to kill Alejandro.
Zipping down to what she thought was Alejandro's unconscious body and pulled out some medical equipment to perform tests on it, turned out that he was still alive, barely alive but he was still breathing.
Lucy was surprised at how much electricity went through his veins in about twelve seconds and got out of the tracks, preparing to deliver an anonymous phone call to 911 about a "massive idiot" blocking the subway tracks.
However, just as she got out Alejandro cracked one eye open and realized just what kind of a situation he was in.
"Take me in will she…" he muttered, reaching his still hurting hand towards the venom tube, part of it had touched the third rail and he knew that some of the serum was left in it.
"That bitch will never take in Alejandro Morgan" growled the gangster before he closed his eyes, after he did that he closed his eyes and put the tube in his mouth to try and suck up more the serum to make him stronger.
And he got stronger alright, but not in the way he'd hoped, turns out the serum was mutated by the electricity in it…plus it was never meant to be drank.
Lucy's first tipoff to what had happened was the yowls and screams of pure pain coming from Alejandro.
And when she turned to look at him…she wished she hadn't…
"…And you say it's irreversible?" Chief Duncan said to the doctor watching over what used to be Alejandro.
"I'm afraid so" the doctor sadly said, the aging hyena looking down sadly at the monster before him.
Alejandro's swallowing the serum had an even worse effect than the cat anticipated, it did make him stronger, but at a terrible cost.
His fur had completely fallen out, his skin had reduced itself to hardened scales, he'd grown into a ten foot tall muscled beast as well, his nose reduced to a slit, his teeth rendered into something like large shark teeth, and lastly they could have sworn that he had grown a set of gills on his neck in addition to his lungs.
They weren't sure how the serum had mutated him, but they did figure out that the serum was unstable to begin with and the electricity didn't help things any, though they were still trying to figure out what he was using.
No time was wasted in getting him (like the other monsters) admitted to a hospital, and like the others Alejandro was currently restrained to the point where the only thing he could actually move was his head.
Duncan shook his head and began to walk out of the room "And to think, this wretch caused all this monster shit."
As he and the doctor stepped out of the room and began to argue over what should happen to Alejandro, neither of the two realized that the Ice Queen had been hiding out of the window the whole time.
As the khao manee stepped in Alejandro cracked his now reptile like eyes open and turned his head right towards her.
"Well, well, it seems you won after all, I'm now…this, and you're free as a bird."
"Stuff it you asshole, you're going to prison and-" Lucy said prior to being interrupted by a complete bastard
"I'll stay there the rest of my life, blah, blah blah, and you live happily ever after, but this ain't over you bitch.
"I'm gonna get outta this joint soon, and when I do I'm gonna find out who you are…and then I'm gonna rape the shit outta all your friends and family, and I'll end with you…you hear me you stupid cunt! I ain't scared of you and I will have my revenge, you see if I-"
He then noticed that his audience had left him and he lay back down, and closed his eyes.
In his mind he was thinking 'Augustus was right, threatening those close to her is just what we need to push her in the right direction…'
LUCY'S HOUSE, 5:00 PM THE NEXT DAY
"Daisy, we need to talk" Lucy said, a look of concern in her eyes "I told you not to follow me earlier today, and while you did I'd be dead if you didn't."
Lucy's house was empty at the time, her parents were at work and her pets went out to the movies.
Lucy had waited until they were gone before she called Daisy over, she remembered what Alejandro had said to her yesterday and she wasn't about to let him hurt her friends.
Daisy was listening intently to what Lucy was saying, the couch they were on being the same one Lucy sat upon when she first heard of the Cryptic, "Alejandro threatened to kill me and all my friends and family, I do not want this to happen" Lucy continued "I can't protect them all the time, and I can't keep the city safe without help."
Daisy's face drooped down a little as she heard this "So what are you thinking of doing?" She asked.
"I talked to Longcoat earlier, he was right when I said I couldn't wage a war on crime by myself, I offered him an idea and he agreed to try it.
"So" she said standing up from the couch they were sitting on and extending a hand to her "Would you want Longcoat to train you as well?"