Steph opened the door to the almost pitch-black hallway, lit only by a few emergency lights at long intervals, and stepped out, coming face to face with Ken. Smirking the mutant grabbed her and pinned her to the wall roughly, his hand around her throat as he pushed her easily, ignoring her frantic kicks and punches and grabbing her hands, pressing them into her chest.
"Well now, the little tracker's got caught, hasn't she?" he said, chuckling.
"Leggo!" Steph growled. Ken made a mock-sad face.
"Really? I thought you'd be glad to see me," he said. "Stephanie Logan Munroe, is it? The little screamer? Scream now, show off that voice of yours, babe. Let's kill any of your little friends who might be coming to your rescue." Steph opened her mouth but then closed it, her jaw setting firmly.
"You won't then?" Ken said, laughing he threw her to the floor. "Come then, draw that nice-looking sword of yours, let's see how your father's taught you to use it." Steph tumbled but immediately sprang up, a fierce look in her brown eyes as she grabbed her sword hilt and drew her weapon, using both hands and lowering the blade in front of her.
"Bring it on," she said. Ken laughed and stepped forward and took out his mace. Steph quickly calculated the odds of her winning against this opponent, and realized that her sword wasn't going to help her very much. Nevertheless she leapt forward, bringing her sword above her head in a graceful arc and sweeping it down, the steel glinting in the faint light. But smaller streaks came up to greet it, and when the mace hit the sword the painful vibration was so sharp and strong that as the mace swept up it carried the sword with it, right out of Steph's grasp.
"Hey!" cried an outraged voice. Steph and Ken both turned and saw Remy step out of the shadows, Bo staff held out in front of him and black and red eyes gleaming in the dark.
"Rem!" Steph said, relieved that she hadn't screamed earlier.
"Huh, one of the other brats," Ken said, smiling. He looked back at Steph and laughed. "Well babe, looks like you'll have to go first, then your friend." Steph reached for her nunchuks, but it was too late.
"NO!" Remy screamed in horror as the mace swept up and hit Steph in the chest. Remy heard the sickening crunch of bones shattering mix with Steph's scream of pain as she flew backwards, her bright orange hair gleaming in the dim emergency light glow as she hit the ceiling before the loud thud of her body hitting the floor was heard and her yell died on her lips. Ken walked into the small pool of light and beyond.
"Mm..., yup, she's gone, can you see her?" Ken asked. Remy wasn't sure he wanted to, his breathing quickening as he suddenly became very light headed.
Suddenly the bright florescent lights snapped on, and Remy winced, realizing that the adults must have turned the power back on. When his eyes adjusted he saw Ken, standing over Steph's body with his mace in one hand, blood dripping off the metal spikes and on the already blood-covered floor.
"Look at her," he sneered, and Remy collapsed to his knees when he saw the large gaping hole in her chest, out of which unheard of amounts of blood poured. But worse yet was the frozen look of agony on her face, with her eyes open and jaw hanging loose, and Ken laughed, kicking her forward. "Look at her, the pretty little thing. You know it's too bad you brats had to come and bother us, otherwise she'd still be breathing." Remy could say nothing, leaning on his Bo staff for support as he gasped for breath, uable to process what it meant.
All he could see was the bloody body of his friend in front of him, all he could hear was Steph's last scream. Steph was gone... she was dead....
Suddenly his head jerked up, his eyes so full of hatred and fury that even Ken slightly nervous, though he hid it well.
"That's right," he growled. "Gather your anger, mutie, and every time it starts to leave you, look at you little friend here, look at the bitch I killed." Remy screamed in a rage and leapt up, bursting forward in the blink of an eye and hitting the startled Ken in the chest, sending the boy skidding backwards to the floor. Ken growled and got up just as Remy reared back to kick him, grabbing the younger teen's foot and swinging him, then releasing.
Remy hit the wall hard, but in a flash he was up again.
"I'll kill you!" he screamed. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Ken lunged at him, and Remy also leapt, both boys forgetting their weapons as the struck. Remy was smaller than Ken anyway, but the older boy also had one more advantage.
"Huh," Ken gloated, holding Remy above him and tightening his hand around his throat. "I could lift and strangle an elephant, and you try and take me on in hand-to-hand combat? Stupid little jerk." Remy growled and kicked him hard in the face, making the teen drop him. Had Remy been more alert about his own body he would have paid more attention to his face suddenly prickling and stretching forward slightly, giving him a muzzle, and his tongue getting cut on new, longer fangs that grew from his teeth. Had he been paying more attention he would have realized that purple fur was spreading across the tops of his arms and the sides of his face, and his back. He didn't even noticed his fingernails growing out into wickedly hooked claws. Remy was in such a rage he noticed none of this, only seeing his enemy in front of him.
Ken did notice.
"What the-?!" the teen cried as Remy pounced forward, hitting Ken in the chest and leaving four, long bloody sets of scrapes where his feet and claws hit.
"I'll kill you!" Remy snarled, his speech slurred by his longer face. For the first time a look of fear spread across Ken's face and he scrambled for his fallen mace, but Remy latched onto his arm with his fangs and scraped at Ken's face.
"Arg!" he cried. Remy only bit harder, tasting blood and leather and flesh, but not caring. Ken gabbed Remy's scrambling foot with one hand and flung him off into the wall, racing for his mace, but it didn't slow Remy at all, he hit was wall feet-first and propelled himself forward even faster, hitting Ken and reaching down, grabbing the mace first and in a fury unlike anything the Lab Protector had ever seen before raised it and smashed it forward into Ken's head with all the furious strength he could muster.
"Ah!" Ken screamed, toppling over and falling hard. Remy jumped off him and hit the floor, tumbling and rolling, coming to a stop at Steph's side. As he saw the friend's face all of the anger suddenly drained away, and he choked, crawling to his knees and bringing Steph's head up to his chest as he knelt there, furious tears pouring down his face as his body was wracked with sobs.
"Steph," he moaned, not hearing the silent "No," whisper behind him. Down the hall the elevator door's opened and Remy Sr. and Logan, the first to reach and slide down the stairs, jumped out, freezing when they saw the werewolf Remy sobbing and cradling Steph's head in his arms.
"Remy-" his father choked out.
"Steph!" Logan bellowed, seeing his daughter's chest and the blood surrounding the teens. But Remy was oblivious to all of it, rocking back and forth, unable to move even if he had wanted to. Suddenly a shadow fell on him, and he heard his father's terrified cry as Ken grabbed his mace, bloody face full of hatred. Remy didn't budge an inch, and even as his father and Logan raced forward there was no hope they'd reach him in time, even as Remy Sr. scrambled for a card to throw.
"Brat," Ken hissed, the mace already above his head.
"ROARRRRRR!!!" Ken spun around as Ellen sprang from behind the leader of the Lab Mutants, enveloping him with her fangs and claws. He was dead before the huge tiger body hit the floor with him underneath. A second later Ellen's human hand disgustedly wiped away Ken's blood while Logan and Remy Sr. reached their children.
"Remy," Remy Sr. said softly, gently prying his son away from Steph's body and looking at him. Remy looked up, his eyes empty looking, and his father did the only thing he could, he pulled Remy to him swiftly as tears formed in his own eyes and spilt down his cheeks, Logan's heart-breaking sobs behind them. Ellen just watched, her already pale face now resembling a ghost, her hollow eyes looking at Steph.
"Steph, no," Logan cried into the silent hall. He screamed in rage and pain, face white and shining from the tears pouring down.
"No!"