So, I seemed to have uploaded the wrong chapter… my bad. Also, if you don't know Mad Dawg, this chapter should help.

The wind rushed by his face as Mad Dawg traversed the town's rooftops. Every time his feet hit the rooftop, he picked up speed again, before launching himself off of the edge of the roof and onto the next building. He felt… Alive! Okay, sure. Dawg was pretty sure he hadn't died in the explosion, but there was something liberating about his rooftop run.

"Woo!" He yelled as he jumped headfirst off of a rooftop, doing a front flip before rolling onto the next roof. Jumping up, he skidded to a stop and began to catch his breath.

About three days had passed since Mad Dawg had found himself in this new world, and he had picked up on a few things; first of all, he was in a town called Royal Woods, and…

"I have no idea who I'm gonna get home…" Mad Dawg blinked, sighing deeply and sitting on the rooftop and letting his legs hang over the edge.

On the one hand, Royal Woods was a nice place, it was calm, peaceful, there wasn't a terrorist attack every few days he had to deal with… But on the other hand, it had none of the technology he was used to. Which meant he had no way to build some of the devices he kept on him in case of an emergency, as well as having no way of contacting anyone he knew. Then again, he doubted he would've been able to contact them but whatever. Watching the people below go about their day, Mad Dawg began to question his plan of attack from here on out. It didn't seem like he needed to fight to save the world again, so did that mean he could live a normal life? Buy a home, get a job, get invested in medical dramas, and live out his life?

"Do I even deserve that?" Mad Dawg thought, a slight frown forming on his face. "After all I've said and done… Can I really just- No. Y'know what? Forget it. Keep moving, just keep moving."

Standing up, Mad Dawg bounced on the spot before continuing his traversal of the skyline. He noticed every now and then someone would be watching in shock or surprise, and he'd flash them a smile and keep on going. Running alongside a billboard, Dawg launched himself off of the giant advertisement and soared a bit longer than he intended. The world slowed around him, and he could hear his heartbeat, until he landed on the next rooftop. Eventually he came to the end of the buildings, and Mad Dawg stopped again.

Then jumped off of the side.

Landing with a resounding Crack! On the sidewalk, feeling the shake of his bones and electrical jolt shoot through his muscles. He took a sharp breath inwards, then stood up, feeling his body healing itself.

"Excuse me! Are you okay!?" Someone asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I'm good." Mad dawg said, giving them a thumbs-up. That was something else he had learned; random adrenaline-fueled stunts weren't seen as 'normal' but 'suicidal' and 'illegal'. But was that going to stop Mad Dawg? No.

Shaking his leg to get feeling in it again, Mad Dawg walked through the large doors welcoming him to the Royal Woods mall. Something Mad Dawg had quickly picked up on was that he needed more than the clothes he had stolen form some random clothesline, and was here to do that.

But then he noticed a smoothie bar and decided that was more important.

Also, in the food court was Lincoln and his best friend Clyde, the two had been there to talk comics and other things, but something Lincoln brought up had taken precedence.

"So… this Angry Dog is some sort of mutant creature?" Clyde asked again, not believing his friend's story.

"It's 'Mad Dawg' and yeah. I believe so." Lincoln corrected. "I was reading this folder he left behind-"

"Whoa. That's a massive breach of someone's privacy." Clyde said, matter-of-factly.

"I know, I know. He was just acting so weird, I wanted to know what his deal was… and I think he's some sort of lab experiment gone horribly wrong. And then he joined a team of heroes and saved the world-"

"Stop. Just stop." Clyde shook his head. "This sounds like some sort of weird Ace Savvy fanfic! Are you okay? Did Lynn Jr. tackle you and smack your heard off the ground really hard again?"

"Clyde, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm not making this up!"

"Sure, sounds like you are." Clyde replied flatly. "I mean, you said this guy hung around your house for a night then jetted, how do you know he wasn't lying? And that folder you found was some sort of super-complex roleplaying book? I mean, the idea of him being able to heal is awesome, but there's no way that someone could actually have that power. He can't exist!" Lincoln wasn't paying attention and was now looking at something over Clyde's shoulder. "Linc? Linc?"

"Wanna meet someone who doesn't exist?" Lincoln replied in a smug tone.

"What are you talking ab-"

"Yo! Dawg!" Lincoln called, waving to someone. Mad Dawg looked around confused, then his eyes widened when he saw Lincoln.

"Hey, Loud-Dude!" He laughed, walking over and sitting on a chair on the table over from where the two were. "What's going on?"

"Oh, well, my fiend Clyde doesn't believe you exist." Lincoln said with a smirk, as Clyde blinked in disbelief. He wanted to say something, but Mad Dawg suddenly got directly in his face, his yellow eyes boring into Clyde's, making the boy rather nervous.

"Hi." Mad Dawg finally said. "I'm Mad Dawg."

"Uh… I… I'm Clyde… C..Clyde McBride…" Clyde stammered out. There was silence for a few moments until Mad Dawg asked:

"Should I back up?"

"Please do."

"Okay." Mad Dawg nodded, sitting back in his seat, and grinning at Lincoln who was trying to supress laughter.

"Still think he isn't real?" Lincoln asked.

"Uh… no… he's real…" Clyde blinked.

"Hey, sorry about that Clyde." Mad Dawg laughed. "Let me start over. I'm Mad Dawg, an asshole."

That did get a laugh from Clyde, who extended his hand out, and Mad Dawg shook it.

"Hey, where have you been?" Lincoln asked. "You just took off after we had pizza, and no one's seen you since."

"Dude, I fixed your sister's car. We're not like, best friends or anything." Mad Dawg answered, his tone and face a mixture of confusion and bewilderment. "I've been… hanging around, y'know. Living life."

"I haven't seen you at school though." Lincoln mused.

"I take online courses."

"Ah, that answers that." Lincoln conceded. He paused for a minute, unsure of how to bring up the file, so he decided not to. At least, not right now.

"Ugh… this smoothie ain't that good." Mad Dawg muttered, taking another sip form the drink. He looked around, then opened his bag and pulled out a flask, he poured some of the liquid into the smoothie, then hid his flask again.

"That's better." He sighed, taking another sip.

"…uh… this may seem weird, but… how old are you?" Clyde finally asked as he and Lincoln watched in shock.

"Huh? Oh, I'm like, somewhere like fifteen to seventeen." Mad dawg shrugged.

"First of all, that's illegal." Clyde said, pointing to the alcoholic smoothie. "Second of all, how do you not know your age?!"

"It's a long, long, long story." Mad Dawg sighed, rubbing his face before suddenly turning and looking at… someone. "And kids, don't do this at home."

Lincoln blinked and looked to where Mad Dawg was looking, knowing who Dawg was taking to, and was shocked that he wasn't the only one who could do that.

"Hey, Mad Dawg?" Lincoln spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Listen… that thing you can do…" Lincoln began, and noticed Mad Dawg's eyes shoot open when he said 'thing', realizing what he was getting at. "Can you show Clyde? He doesn't believe me."

"…So, you're just telling everyone you mean about me?" Mad Dawg asked, his eyes narrowing somewhat.

"What? No! Just Clyde. He asked what happened to the van, and…" Lincoln trailed off, fearing what the vagabond teen may be capable of. After all, his sister had hit him with a van, and he got back up in a matter of moments. That was kind of a good indication that Mad Dawg could probably hurt them if he wanted to.

"Come with me." Mad Dawg finally said, his voice emotionless. Without waiting for a response, Mad Dawg got up and headed in a seemingly random direction.

"He's going to mug us." Clyde said, fear creeping into his voice.

"No, he won't." Lincoln rolled his eyes, knowing his friend's paranoia could get the better of him.

"He's going to kill us."

"Clyde, calm down."

"He's gonna knock us out, then we're gonna wake up in tubs of ice with our organs gone."

"Dude, I haven't done that to someone in a few years." Mad Dawg said, rolling his eyes. "You coming or not?"

"C'mon McBride." Lincoln smirked, pulling his friend out of the chair. "You said you didn't believe he existed."

"And you've proven me wrong! Lincoln, this is a bad idea!" Clyde protested. This persisted until the three were outside in the back corner of the parking lot. There weren't any cars and it was clear that it hadn't been maintained too well. Mad Dawg turned around and rolled up his hoodie sleeve.

"This is gonna end badly…"

"Geez, he still whimperin'?" Mad Dawg asked.

"Hey, take it easy on him." Lincoln said defensively.

"A'right, my bad." Mad Dawg said, holding his hands up. "So, Clyde? Was it?"

"Yeah." Clyde nodded, managing to steady his nerves somewhat.

"I'm only going to say this once, and I'm not joking when I say this. This stays between us three. I don't care who you think you can trust, this is for our eyes only, at least for now. Can I trust you on that?"

"Why are you trusting me?" Clyde asked skeptically. "We met like, five minutes ago."

"Because Lincoln's seen what I'm going to show you. I trust Lincoln, and if Lincoln vouches for you, then I'll trust you." Mad Dawg explained.

"Alright…" Clyde said, steadying his nerves. "Okay, yeah. Between us three."

"Okay. Let me begin by saying, I'm what some may call a 'mutant'." Mad Dawg slowly explained. "I have a genetic ability to heal extremely fast."

Mad Dawg paused, making sure Clyde was following, and he was, albeit skeptically.

"How do you wanna see this? Slice or stab?" Mad Dawg asked the two.

"…what?" Was collective said aloud.

"Slice. Or. Stab." Mad Dawg said, emphasizing each word. "How do you want to do this?"

"I told you he was gonna kill us…" Clyde whispered, fear clearly taking over now.

"Uh, stab?" Lincoln finally said after thinking it over.

"Okay."

Without warning, Mad Dawg pulled a knife out from a sheath hidden under his pantleg, and drove the blade clean through his hand. There was a sickening crunching sound, and Mad Dawg held his hand up, now with a knife going clean through it. Clyde wanted to scream, but he couldn't find the breath to do so, and Lincoln felt like he needed to run, but either morbid curiosity or his body being frozen in fear, he remained where he was.

"Wow. Yeah, that hurts. That hurts like hell." Mad Dawg said, wincing in pain. He then ripped the blade out of his hand, showing the hole that went clean through his hand, bits of muscle and bone visible, all coated in blood. Then, to both boys' shock (although Lincoln had seen this before but was still amazed.) his hand began to heal, it seemed like tendon and bone was self-repairing, reconnecting the bits that were destroyed, before the skin on his hand grew over the wound, making it seem as if it had never happened.

"There ya go." Mad Dawg shrugged.

"H..h…h…how..?" Clyde stammered out.

"Like I said, long story, but technically, I'm a mutant." Mad Dawg replied. He held his hand out and the two inspected it, not seeing any wound or scar where the gaping hole had been a few moments ago.

"Wow." Clyde said quietly. All fear gone, now replaced with awe and curiosity. "Do your sisters know about this?"

"Just Luna, Leni and Lori." Lincoln answered, finding his voice again. "They saw it happen after we hit him with our van."

"Wait. You what?!" Clyde exclaimed in surprise. "You did NOT mention that!"

"Well, it was more like I fell on their van then they hit me… But both parties agreed it was mutually beneficial to shut up about it." Mad Dawg replied, filling in the gaps.

Clyde was honestly fascinated by what he had just seen. Heck, if he was honest, he was really curious about Mad Dawg himself, then without thinking about what he was saying, aksed; "Hey, Linc. What else did that folder say about him?"

"Folder?" Mad Dawg said, his face draining of all colour, and an icy chill began paralyzing his spine. Lincoln's face seemed to drain of colour as well. "What. Folder?"

"You said you found…" Clyde began, but realized he probably shouldn't be talking. Before either boy could react, Mad Dawg had grabbed Lincoln and slammed him into the wall. His body language now one of absolute rage.

"WHAT FOLDER!?" Mad Dawg demanded, his eyes turning blood-red.

"You left behind a folder when you fixed our car!" Lincoln managed to get out. "I was trying to find you to bring it back!"

"Did you read it?" Mad Dawg seethed, the anger clearly rising.

"A..a little… something about the project waking up… growing a body… but that's all! I swear! I shouldn't have read it! I'm sorry!"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

Mad Dawg let go of Lincoln and fell to his knees while the white-haired boy gasping for breath. When he looked back at Mad Dawg, he didn't see anger. He saw absolute, complete fear. His eyes conveyed terror, his body was shaking uncontrollably, it seemed like the fear of someone who had seen a thousand wars.

"NeVEr FoRGEt… NEvEr fORgIVE…" A voice echoed through his head.

"Dawg? Dawg, you okay?" Lincoln asked, waving his hand in front of the teen's face.

"Linc, what did you do to him?" Clyde asked nervously.

Before Lincoln could reply, he heard Mad Dawg's stilted breathing. Looking at him, Mad Dawg's hands were shaking, and tears were filling his eyes.

"I'm so sorry man… I didn't mean to…" He whispered.

"Hey, Dawg… it's okay." Lincoln finally said. "I made a mistake, I shouldn't've read it. But you were gone, and I didn't know how to contact you, I guess maybe I thought it would have your number or something… but, look. I'm really sorry."

Mad Dawg took a few moments to steady his breathing. He picked himself back up and cracked his neck.

"So am I." He replied. "I shouldn't've done that." He turned to Clyde and added: "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"But I think you need to come with us, I think we need to talk…"

Clyde nodded wordlessly, realizing there was a lot more going on than he had initially expected. The trio got up and headed towards the Loud House. Before they go there though, Mad Dawg diverted them towards a park, then towards a tree. Effortlessly, he climbed up before helping Clyde and Lincoln up.

"Welcome to my home." Mad Dawg said with a sarcastic shrug.

"Wait, you said-" Clyde began.

"I lied." Mad Dawg cut him off. "Get comfortable boys, this story is gonna take a bit. Opening his bag, he took out three cans of Phoenix energy and handed them around.

"So… Here's the truth." Mad Dawg began with a sigh. "I'm a mutant."

"That much is clear." Lincoln nodded.

"Also, full disclosure, everything I'm about to say is true. I barely know you guys, but I'm telling you this because, well, we gotta get the story rolling. That and I'm pretty sure there won't be any negative repercussions." Mad Dawg said very seriously. "The truth is, I shouldn't exist. Originally, I was designed to be a living cure, a pharmaceutical super cure that would allow dead and dying cells to rejuvenate their host."

"It was like a man-made fountain of youth?" Clyde asked.

"Eh… kind of? But not really." Mad Dawg shrugged. "Regardless, things didn't go as planned. It turned out that the cure was so successful that it kept making new cells, and that formed my body."

"The journal entry said something like 'the subject's body was forming unnaturally fast'. But I have no idea what that means." Lincoln remarked.

"Well, the people making me were approached by a group called Talon. They're a terrorist organization whose whole deal is to control the world through fear, believing the strong lead and live, the weak serve and die. Effectively, they offered them a crap ton of money if they took me, and turned me into a damn weapon."

The two boys blinked, and looked to one another in shock, unsure if they should say this story was false or not. After all, they had seen Mad Dawg stab himself then heal.

"They did." Mad Dawg scowled. "They gutted me, then put me back together… it was a nightmare. The original plan was to wire my brain to respond to their demands and orders, but before that happened, I escaped. Don't ask how. I don't remember. Anyhow, I got a spike of metal through my skull and it shredded my brain, but also destroyed the control devices they had installed. For about eleven years, I lived on the streets. I had no memories, no identity, and a healing factor that kept me ticking. I was taken in by a hacktivist group, and they were the closest thing to family I had for a while."

"Okay, what happened to them?" Clyde slowly asked.

"That's personal, I don't wanna go into that." Mad Dawg answered.

"That's fair."

"Anyhow, we ended up going own ways after a bit, and I returned to my drifter lifestyle." Mad Dawg continued, casting a glance up at the calm sky. It was still, it seemed like nature itself wanted to hear his story. "So, blah, blah, blah, bunch of my own adventures, and eventually, my past catches up with me. Only I didn't know it was my past."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I should've worded that better." Mad Dawg admitted. "So, I'm at a party, having a great time, and eventually I pass out. Or was knocked out, I don't remember. I end up waking up in one of Talon's bases."

"Were they tracking you all those years? Why didn't they act sooner?" Lincoln asked with a raised brow. Mad Dawg took a sip of his drink then answered.

"They thought I was dead. They didn't know if I was the escaped test subject. Regardless, I had to get the heck outta dodge, thankfully, I get sprung by this group called Overwatch."

"Overwatch?" The boys said in confusion.

"They're a world-wide peacekeeping organization." Mad Dawg replied. "They and Talon had been fighting for ages. So… I get sprung, then I decide to throw my towel in with Overwatch. Things are fun, there's some good, some bad… then I find out about my past."

Mad Dawg frowned darkly as he remembered something.

"You said you had no memories; did you not know where you had come from?" Clyde asked.

"My brain was impaled and shredded on rusted steel." Mad Dawg said, his eye twitching. "I should've died. But I didn't."

"Geez… sorry…"

"For what? It's a fair question." Mad Dawg replied with a slight shrug. "But… yeah. I found out the people I had been fighting against for so long, we actually the ones who made me. This crazy bitch named Moira O'Deorain was… for lack of a better term, my mom. She had been the leader of the project, and I was created in part with some of her blood. So, yeah. Things got awkward."

"I bet thanksgiving got weird." Lincoln joked, trying to make light of what was happening.

"You have NO idea!" Mad Dawg laughed. "But, eventually I decided things had to end. We had one final showdown, and I decided that the head of Talon, this giant of a man named Akande, had to go."

"Wait. You've killed someone!?" Clyde suddenly exclaimed, nearly falling out of the tree in shock until Mad Dawg grabbed him and re-balanced him.

"I've killed a lot." Mad Dawg thought.

"Look, he was a man who would slaughter entire cities just to prove a point, I believed as long as he and I were alive, people were in danger." Mad Dawg explained. "If I was alive, the genetic blocks to make another me still existed. So, in the final showdown, I decided to take us both out with one explosion."

"So, you tried to kill yourself?" Lincoln asked, genuinely taken aback by what Mad Dawg had just said.

"Eh, fifty-fifty." Mad Dawg mused. "I didn't care too much if I lived or died, if Akande wasn't stopped, thousands, if not millions, would die."

A quiet break followed, as the three sat up in the tree, drinking energy drinks and thinking it over. Mad Dawg was back to looking up at the sky, while the two boys were thinking it over.

"You don't believe me." Mad Dawg said, looking down flatly at the two boys.

"Well…" Clyde began, unsure of what to say. "I mean… You stabbed yourself, and you healed."

Mad Dawg wasn't paying attention, he was looking through his bag for something, he pulled a tablet out and slung his bag back over a branch. He tapped the screen a bit, then passed the tablet to Lincoln.

"Here." He remarked.

The two watched what seemed like security camera recordings. Mad Dawg was shown standing in an odd room. Next to him was the man with fiery hair, a giant gorilla a cyborg ninja, and a woman with what looked like a fire extinguisher on her back.

"Running Training Protocol 7-E2." A voice was heard.

"Ready Dawg?" The fire-haired man asked.

"Let's go!" Mad Dawg exclaimed as a number of robots came out from behind a door. The woman with the fire extinguisher fired a blast onto the ground in front of where Mad Dawg and the cyber ninja were running, and shockingly, the ground froze. Mad Dawg was currently skating across the floor before jumping and flipping over the first robot, grabbing it by its head, and throwing it into a wall. The gorilla seemed to be holding some sort of electrical gun, and was zapping robots with energy blasts.

"Whoa… what is this?" Lincoln finally got out.

"Like I said, they're Overwatch." Mad Dawg answered.

"So when you said you lived with like, thirty people a few days ago-"

"This is what I was talking about, yeah." Mad Dawg nodded. "Look, if you still don't believe me. I don't know what to say to you."

Swiping through a few images and videos, the boys watched a mixture of training videos, and Mad Dawg drinking with a group of his friends.

"I'll be honest Dawg, I don't like it, I don't understand it, but I'll accept it." Clyde finally said.

"Story of my life." Dawg remarked, before looking to Lincoln. "I need that folder back."

"Yeah, yeah. Of course." Lincoln nodded. "Is there a place I can drop it off or-"

"I'm going with you." Mad Dawg cut him off. "I need to make sure everything's there."

"Yeah. That makes sense." Lincoln admitted.

The three made their way back towards Lincoln's, the two younger boys occasionally asking questions, which Mad Dawg tried his best to answer. Both of them wouldn't say they didn't believe him, but there was something so bizarre about his adventures that he talked about. But, no matter what they wanted to believe, they had seen his healing ability, and Lincoln had read some of the folder describing his creation. There was just too much evidence to prove he was telling the truth.

As for Mad Dawg, normally he'd question why he was telling someone all this, heck. It took him way, way, WAY too long to open up to the people he considered 'family' about his past. But now? Maybe it's because he had presumably died, maybe it was because he was sick and tired of the red tape covering everything, or maybe he trusted Lincoln. It occurred to Mad Dawg he had no real reason to trust the Loud, but he had seemed relatively sane and willing to keep his past under wraps. Sure, he had kind of, totally, completely violated his privacy, but… hey, plot convivences. The story has to get going somehow, am I right?

It only took about two minutes to return home, and Mad Dawg felt honestly kind of awkward. But he didn't care at this point, he needed to get his folder, then head out.

"Hey Mom!" Lincoln waved as he, Clyde and Mad dawg walked past an older woman who was working in the kitchen.

"Oh, hi Lincoln, who's your friend?" She asked, turning and looking at Mad Dawg. In response, Mad Dawg's eyes darted around nervously.

"He's a friend of Luna." Lincoln answered. "He was… he was helping her write some new lyrics and forget them here the other day."

"Smooth." Mad Dawg muttered. Not noticing Lincoln and Clyde had kept walking, leaving Mad Dawg alone with the matriarch, who now gave him a concering look. It was clear from the noticeable scars on his arms and the one across his eye that she thought something was wrong.

"What did you say your name was?" She asked.

"Kace, Kace Horatio Teller." Mad Dawg replied. "Ma'm."

"Right, Kace." The woman began. "I haven't met you before, and I try not to judge people based on their looks, but… I don't want you getting Luna into anything that will hurt her, understand?"

Mad Dawg blinked in confusion, genuinely having no idea what she was getting at, before he noticed she was looking at the scars on his arm and something clicked in his mind.

"You think I'm some sort of gang-bangin' junkie?" He asked, ludicrously bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Rita blinked.

"You think I'm some meth-fueled gang scrapper?" Mad Dawg asked, still in a very agitated tone.

"I wouldn't say that, but-"

"I'm ex-military!" Mad Dawg spoke up suddenly. Okay, so that was kind of a lie, but… it was close enough to the truth. He didn't really feel like explaining his whole backstory again, at least not right now.

Rita Loud's eyes widened in shock, both at his accusational question, and in realization that she had this all wrong.

"These scars and crap? I got em being shot at with assault rifles. Not shooting up unicorn juice from a needle in some filthy stained alleyway. I look like this because I haven't slept properly in nearly three years."

"Kace, I… I'm sorry." She quickly apologized. "I…"

"Eh, don't blame yourself." Mad Dawg shook his head, trying to smooth things over, quickly putting a lid on his frustration. "I get it, I look like some sorta teenage stitchpunk freak. But I'm not a junkie. Full disclosure, I only met Luna for the first time in person like, five days ago. Until then, it was entirely though video chats."

"This may seem like an odd question, but how old are you?" Rita asked.

"Fifteen, sixteen-ish?" Mad Dawg replied. "And before you ask, yes, the military doesn't tend to bring people this young into service, but I was still in training when this all went down."

Again, that wasn't entirely true. A number of his wounds across his chest had come from guns… but they were shotguns being wielded by a supreme lord of the edge. As well as when he had his heart surgically removed, was stabbed, shot, impaled-

"How am I still alive?!" Mad Dawg mentally screamed.

But that was beside the point. Mad Dawg also realized it was no longer the two of them in the room, as a few of Lincoln's sisters had come to say hi to him, and judging from their expressions, had heard more than enough.

"Mutha-" Mad Dawg groaned but cut himself off. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough." One of the Loud's finally said.

Mad Dawg groaned, rubbing his face. This wasn't going as he planned, he wasn't sure he could improvise an entire story long enough to get him out of this one.

"Hey, Dawg? I got your-" Lincoln called, walking abck into the room, only to see the shocked looks he was getting. "Well this isn't good…"

"What's your plan Linc?" Clyde whispered.

"I don't have one." He whispered back. "You think I have a plan for any of this?!"

Mad Dawg however, had decided to do something, really, really stupid.

"SMOKEBOMB!" He yelled, pretending to throw something on the ground. He was prepared to run, but only about half the people present reacted the way he hoped. "Crap…"

As Mad Dawg was about to apologize, or cut and run, he heard a running in his ears. The high-pitched whine disoriented him and made him briefly gasp for breath. When he looked up, he could see a figure standing behind Lincoln and Clyde. The figure tilted its head and held up a hand, creepily waving to Mad Dawg. His vision began to blur, and the world seemed to tilt back and forth.

"Kace?" Rita asked concerned, seeing his body language shift almost violently.

"What the hell is happening to me?" Mad Dawg whispered, looking back up, only to see the figure gone, and a blackish form begin to take shape. Creepily, it seemed to be hanging from the ceiling.

"yA knOW WhAt ThE bEsT paRt oF dEAth iS, frEAk?" A voice suddenly sounded in his head. Mad Dawg looked around frantically, the world seeming to fade away. "YoU'Ll nEVeR bE rId oF mE!"

Mad Dawg blinked, his blood running cold as he saw the deformed face of Virus apparated in front of him. Part of his mask was still melted onto his face, and the rest was a twisted amalgamation of burns and well… lack of face.

"No." Mad Dawg whispered. "I'm done with you, Virus. I moved on, I'll never be clean of what I did, but I'm not afraid of you! Overwatch helped me, I'm different, I atoned for what I did-"

"FEaR hAs NoTHinG tO Do wiTH ThIs, DaWg." Virus spoke in his broken, digitally distorted and now somewhat raspy voice. "aNd hERe, YOu cAn lIE tO a WHolE nEW gRouP!"

Shplort

Looking down, Mad Dawg saw the wound across his gut had re-opened, blood beginning to seep out. Knowing he had to get outta dodge, Mad Dawg tried to run forward. But… his body felt numb, and as he fell forward, everything went black.

It could've been a few hours or a few minutes, but Mad Dawg groaned as he woke up, looking around, seeing he was lying on a couch. He didn't care if anyone was watching, he lifted up his shirt, only to see no wound…

"…clearly suffering from some sort of psychotic break, or post-traumatic stress disorder." He could finality hear Lisa talking. "But there was no clear trigger for his attack…"

"What was Virus doing here?" Mad Dawg thought. "I moved on, I put that behind me, how did he… That… was that just a dream? I haven't had those kinda day-mares since I accidentally took those Blue Star plants."

"Kace, are you alright dear?" Rita asked, suddenly appearing next to him.

"What happened?" Mad Dawg muttered, still disoriented.

"You were standing there, then you looked around and then seemed to act as if you had been attacked, then passed out."

Mad Dawg looked at his hands, then swung his legs back over so they were on solid ground. He saw clearly most of the Louds were watching, equal parts concerned for both his safety, and their own.

"He's right though." Mad Dawg had to admit. "I can't tell them the truth, I have to-"

"What are you thinking you idiot?!" Mad Dawg suddenly mentally yelled at himself. "Do you not remember what happened LAST time you tried to protect your friends?! We pissed away half a story, and the authors mental state to try and make this lone-wolf edge-lord adventure! Didn't you learn ANYHTING?! If you keep hiding the past, it'll be found out one way or another. You can run from this, or you can man up and learn from it."

"I'm not human." Mad Dawg suddenly said, matter-of-factly. "And I'm not Luna's friend either."

"Eh, that's debatable." The punk-rocker remarked.

"Okay, I'm not her friend in the way I claimed I was." Mad Dawg corrected himself. "The truth is, I don't belong here."

There was a confused silence until Lynn Jr. finally broke it.

"What the heck are you talking about? Are you form like, Russia or something?"

"Long story short, I'm from either the future or another dimension." Mad Dawg decided to answer bluntly. "And in that time line, I'm a mutant, the only one in existence."

Upon hearing the stifled laughs of disbelief, Mad Dawg turned to Rita.

"Sorry about the rug." He remarked.

"What?"

Without warning, Mad Dawg pulled the knife he had used earlier out and slashed a long cut down his arm, ripping the knife out and leaving a deep potentially lethal wound on his arm. There were horrified cries of shock and disgust, and Lola passed out.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?" Lisa shouted in disbelief.

"No." Mad Dawg calmly answered, and just like before, the long cut slowly closed up, not even leaving a scar behind.

"That… that's not…" Lisa then stammered, for once not being able to think of any reason behind what had happened. "That's not scientifically… but… I…"

"Like I said. Mutant." Mad Dawg replied, turning his arm over and showing that it was completely fine. "Now… I know you all have questions, so I'm gonna answer them one at a time, who wants to go-"

Immediately, all the hands in the room shot up.

"Aw, damn it." Mad Dawg muttered.

For the next hour or so, Mad Dawg did what he could to give answers to questions asked about him. He steered clear from anything about his creation, and was kind of hoping he could avoid talking about his blackout, but then Luna finally asked the one question he was dreading:

"Who's Virus?"

"Huh?" Mad dawg blinked, taken out of his thoughts at the question.

"Before you passed out, you said something like… 'I'm done with you, Virus. I've moved on.' Then you seemed to have a spaz attack and passed out."

Mad Dawg took a deep breath, then finally answered.

"Those of you who don't like disturbing stories may wanna leave the room for a few minutes."

Everyone looked to one another, but no one (not even Lola, who had finally been revived) made a move to leave. Their curiosity now keeping them where they were

"Virus was someone I knew, and he… he hated me." Mad Dawg began, frowning. "He was this… I think he was a Dj, I don't know. I had no real idea who he was until he started coming after me. The truth is, I did something really, really bad." Mad Dawg said aloud, not caring who heard him. "I was trying to help people… and it caused a whole lotta damage. A lot of innocents died, because I tried to be the good guy."

The shocked gasps and steps taken back didn't concern Mad Dawg. Heck, he would've been concerned if they weren't freaked out.

"What happened?" Luan asked, absentmindedly, it occurring right after she probably shouldn't've.

"Luan!" Rite snapped, shocked and clearly angered by the question. If that wasn't enough, the look of pure loathing Mad Dawg shot her was enough to get the message across clear. "Uh, sorry."

"Virus' sister died, or she offed herself. I don't know." Mad Dawg continued solemnly, shaking this head. "There were nearly seventy people who died because of what I did… and Virus blamed it entirely on me. Years later, he finally found me."

Mad Dawg paused, catching his breath for a second, his hand shaking uncharacteristically.

"I was trying to figure out something, and it led me to where he was. He had set up this entire apartment building to be a giant torture room. He left reminders, mannequins being torn apart, video and audio of the victims… he wanted me to feel the pain I had caused him, and so many others."

"Oh my…" Lucy blinked form behind her hair. This seeming more metal and darker than any of the stories she could ever conceive. She looked to Lana, Lola and Lisa, and despite them not wanting to, all nodded and silently left, deciding this was something they weren't ready to hear.

"He wanted to hurt me, and he did that. He sent mercenaries to kill me, had traps hidden to wound me…" Dawg continued, turning his arm over and looking at the few more noticeable scars. "I was just a kid, I was nine or ten when I did it, and it brought everything screaming back to the surface."

"What happened to Virus?" Lori finally asked. "If you're from another dimension or year, is he still around?"

"I killed him." Mad Dawg said, looking directly at her. The gasps of shock and disbelief were louder this time. "I wanted to get away from it all, and he wouldn't let me. Finally, he trapped me in a room, made me face the families I had destroyed, the parents I had made lose their kids, the relationships I had destroyed… He made them choose, either I could walk away, and all would be forgiven, or keep watching and see me die."

"Did they-"

"They wanted to watch me die." Mad Dawg cut her off. "But I don't blame them. Hell, maybe they didn't want to, I don't know. Virus pumped the room full of poison and left me to die. If it wasn't for me healing ability, I probably would've. He thought I had died and was going to make sure, and I attacked."

Mad Dawg paused, considering if he should tell them the whole truth or distort some of it to make him seem like less of a monster.

"We got into a fight, and he tried to shoot me. I turned the gun on him and he fired." Mad Dawg finally said. "He died. Ever since then, I've been seeing him, or hearing him… and nothing seems to cause it."

"Geez…" Lincoln said aloud, slightly sickened by what he had heard. From the videos he had seen, he knew that Dawg was most likely telling the truth.

"I know you all think I'm some sort of monster." Mad Dawg sighed. "And frankly I don't completely disagree with you. There'll be a day when I have to answer for all the horrible things I've done, the lives I've ruined, the-"

"Kace, stop." Luna suddenly spoke up, stopping Mad Dawg's self-loathing. "Just… stop."

"Uh… what?" Mad Dawg blinked, looking up.

"Okay, so you've done some bad things, you inadvertently killed people, but the important part of that is 'inadvertently'. From what I've heard, you never intended to hurt anyone, it was just a mistake that had terrible consequences."

"That's an understatement." Mad Dawg rolled his eyes.

"That may be true, but you're not there anymore. That you that this Virus asshole wanted to kill isn't you. From what you've told us, you fought to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, you risked life and limb time and time again to help your friends." Luna explained.

"You can't be just brushing past that so easily." Mad Dawg muttered.

"No, I'm not." She shook her head in response. "But you're obviously remorseful. That counts for something, whether you want to see it or not."

"Luna's right." Rita slowly nodded. "If what you're saying is true, and frankly I'm inclined to believe you, it was a mistake."

"People died. Because of that mistake." Mad Dawg seethed, quietly.

"And it hurts, I get that. But now, you have a new life. Who do you want to be?" Rita added.

Mad Dawg thought it over, a small smiled forming on his face.

"Thank you." He finally said. "All of you. You're right, I can't keep letting my past define who I am. I need to stop running form the past, or I'm gonna miss what I have now… I did that once, and I don't wanna do that again and- what's burning?"

Before anyone could say anything, the smoke alarm went off.

"Agh! The lasagna!" Rita exclaimed, realizing she had left dinner in the oven. She (and Mad Dawg) ran back to the kitchen, and without thinking, Mad Dawg grabbed the flaming pasta and dropped it onto the counter, yelling in pain as he looked down at his now crispy hands.

"AGH! WHY DID I DO THAT!?" He shouted.

"Oh, my goodness! I'll call an ambule-" Rita began but stopped when she saw the skin on his hands was re-forming, healing him. "Oh, right…"

"Agh…" Mad Dawg breathed. "I'm good… I'm good."

The two looked at the scorched remains of the food before Mad Dawg spoke up.

"I can help make something if you want." He offered.

"Sure." Rita sighed with a slight smile.