All activity came to a grinding halt as everyone turned to see Nathan's vicious counter-attack. Victoria's heart stopped for just a moment, but Max seemed to at least still be conscious. With a groan, she moved away from the wall and scrambled out of the way from his next strike. It wasn't particularly graceful, but at least she avoided it. Even if all the other officers were quickly losing their fire – did they not know about his 'upgrades'? - Victoria wasn't content to let the two of them duke it out alone. She hefted up her rifle and fired off a few shots at her former friend. "Hey asshole. Fight someone who actually knows a few moves."

Of course, the bullets didn't seem to make much of a dent in him, and Prescott was still more focused on taking down Max.

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Hayden tackled into Nathan, blindsiding him and dropping him to the ground with a loud thud. The series of punches from the android appeared to do a lot more damage, even if it wasn't enough to take him down outright. It had at least provided enough time for Max to get back to where the rest of the group was waiting.

"Boss, what the hell is going on?" cried out one of the other officers.

Prescott just shoved Hayden away, climbing unsteadily to his feet. "That's none of your fucking business, soldier. Now help me destroy this cluster of idiots."

"Fuck that. This is so far outside my paygrade it's not even funny. I'm out." One officer dropped his gun and started for the door, quickly followed by the rest of them. That should have felt like a victory, but Prescott looked like he was just getting more and more pissed. Even from before all this insanity, Victoria remembered that he had a rather nasty temper.

"Fine. I'll kill all of you and dismantle her myself!"

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Surprisingly, it was Alyssa that was stepping forward to challenge him this time. Like Hayden, she went in for a charging attack as her electrified gloves fired up in an impressive display. Prescott caught her, but Alyssa wasn't allowing herself to be thrown. Instead, she wrapped her gloved hands around his head, holding on tight. "Hey, wanna see a cool magic trick, motherfucker?" Rather than sending millions of volts through him, the two gloves produced a pair of loud booms that even caused a few nearby lights to start flickering. Prescott dropped to the ground like a sack of hammers, Alyssa stumbling back with a grunt. "Yeah, EMP. Hard to do anything when all your little servos and gyros aren't working, huh."

Hayden was quick to deliver an extra kick to Nathan's face, knocking him properly unconscious.

Victoria looked down and realized that at some point she had grabbed Max's hand, and squeezed it gently. "Well... that's one barrier out of the way. But I'm willing to bet it's not the end..."

Daniel strolled over to the body on the floor and looked him over cautiously. "The last thing we need is for him to come back at an inopportune time. Alyssa, Stella, I want you two to keep an eye on him. Juliet and Courtney, things are getting hairy and we need all the info we have in the hands of anyone we can reach. Use every contact you've got. Dana, I want you recording everything from here on out, stream it to them live."

Nodding and tapping her temple, she scanned her eyes around the room. "Glad I can finally put this damn aug to use."

"Brooke, Mina, we need you here too, see if you can hack this guy's systems like you did for Max. Anything you can do to shut down his systems more permanently would be greatly appreciated. Everyone else, you're on investigation detail. Look for stairs or an elevator, find the doctor, and let's get this done."


It didn't take long to find a way down into the lab. Not because any of them were particularly observant, but because a pair of hidden doors slid open without warning. A voice suddenly filtered into the warehouse through some worn-out speakers. "I think it's time we bring this entire farce to an end. Miss Caulfield, why don't you pop on down and we can have a little chat. Bring a few of your friends if it will make you feel better. Especially your little investigator friend. I want the world to see what I've cooked up."

Chloe groaned softly, holstering her shotgun. "So much for the element of surprise. Max, are you seriously gonna go down there? I mean, it sounds like a major fucking trap."

"I don't exactly have much of a choice. I need... I don't know, answers? Justice? Something, at any rate. And if it really is a trap, all the more reason to not go down alone. I can count on you, right?"

"You know it." She extended a fist and Max gently bumped it.

This led into yet another round of 'I'm going too' but Daniel was quick to step in this time. "The plan still stands. Max, take Chloe, Dana, Hayden, Kate, and Victoria. The rest of us will remain here and stick to our own missions. If you can, bring him in, but don't do anything risky, okay?"

They all nodded seriously and stepped on the elevator. Chloe looked around for a button or a panel, only for the doors to close and the box to start moving on its own yet again. "Fucking hell this is unsettling..." Kate's hand slipped into her own, tugging her in closer. "Lucky for us he didn't tell you to come alone."

Dana looked toward her with eyes narrowing slightly. "Chloe, I love your quips as much as any of us, but now is probably not the time."

"It's a defense mechanism. Sue me."

That pretty much ended all conversation at that point, and while it did make Chloe antsy, it was also probably for the best. Things were tense enough already, she didn't need nasty old habits cropping up – making things worse and ending with people getting mad at her. They needed to focus on the real issue here. The doctor would pay, if she had anything to say about it.


After an uncomfortable ride, the doors finally opened again. Victoria ended up leading the crew into the hallway, so Kate opted to bring up the rear. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something, anything, terrible to happen – a trap or whatever. But the pattern continued no matter how much deeper they went – there was really nothing happening here. All silence and tension.

The door opened into a wide room. Like everything else, it was relatively nondescript. Well, aside from the massive beast standing between them and the next door. "Um... I thought we were supposed to just walk on in," Kate said, mostly to herself.

"Holy shit..." Dana muttered softly.

Hayden was quick to move around the rest of the group and get between them and the monster. At a glance, it looked to be some horrible combination of a wolf, a lion, a tiger, and a bear. Probably more too. As far as Kate knew about biology, that was more or less impossible. Yet there it was facing them down, managing to dwarf even a giant like the android.

The speakers crackled and that annoying voice returned. "I got a bit ahead of myself. I actually need just a bit more time to finish up in here. I didn't want to leave you bored and waiting, so why don't you play with my pet for a while? Ares, dear, have fun."

Just like that, the creature snapped and charged. Hayden quickly met it with his bare hands, trying to keep it from reaching any of the others. Without much else in the way of options, they all started unloading whatever weapons they had. Even if her own weapon was mostly for stunning, Kate took a few shots at it as well, just to try and help in overpowering it.

Suddenly, Max put herself between Hayden and the 'Ares' creature. "Wait!" Its paws came crashing down, and she threw up her hands to meet them, pushing Ares back a little. In spite of how terrifying it was, she didn't seem willing to back down. Kate could hardly believe what she was seeing. Everyone began to lower their weapons. For some time, she and Ares engaged in a test of strength against one another, it's growls and roars slowly dying down until she finally allowed it to drop back down on all fours. Her hand moved up and gently cupped its bizarre mane. "Easy there boy... You're just like me, huh?"

Dana cocked her hip and assumed a more neutral position. "Uh, sweetie, I appreciate that you're going all animal whisperer on us, but what in the world makes you feel like a big bear-wolf?"

"Not literally. But... just look at him. He shouldn't even be. I'm sure he doesn't want to do this. All those different genes fighting with each other. He wants to be alone and be in a pack at the same time. Does he eat meat or fish or...? He's only here because an insane person made him like this. But... you're here now, buddy, and you don't have to be angry or upset any more. I'll take care of you. Polaris will look after you." Max suddenly cast her glance back at Kate, puppy-dog eyes and all. "Right?"

"I-I mean... we don't exactly have a lot of room but... b-but..." A glance at Ares and now he was staring at her with wide eyes too, and Kate could feel her heart nearly snap in two. "...Hayden, why don't you take him back up top."

"He won't cause a fuss, will ya boy?" Max was suddenly laughing like she had probably never done since escaping this place. "Naw, he's a big softie!" She gave him some belly rubs and he began to pant like a giant dog. "Go on, Hayden and the others will treat you real good. We're just going to deal with that nasty old Jefferson and then we can figure out what to do with you, huh? Follow Hayden, Ares."

There may have been more than mere splicing going on here. Ares appeared to actually understand some of what Max was saying, and happily went lumbering off back down the hallway with the bewildered android.

Victoria huffed softly, holstering her huge rifle once more. "I'm officially ready for this to be over."

"You tamed the mighty beast." Everyone jumped as the speakers crackled once more. The sound was grating, the kind of noise you could only get from aged machinery. For such a genius, Kate would have imagined even the basic tech would be up-to-date, and yet... "I'll be honest, I didn't expect that. I'm going to miss that big idiot, but I don't really need him any longer. Not after what I have planned. I believe everything is ready, so why don't you pop on in and we can end this, since you're so eager."

The doors opened once again, the final confrontation just on the other side. With determination etched on her face, Max rose to meet it, heading for the door without another word. Everyone else silently followed after her.