The Rage
Ray slipped the offered radio receiver beneath the bandages over his ear, pulled his hood back in place and started walking to the restaurant, "Thanks, lady. Officer. Officer lady?"
"Innocenti, and don't go thanking me yet. The restaurant was a temp city shelter. It got rousted by a group of Merchants and then we got a call from one of the gang members whispering that something was killing and eating everyone who hadn't cleared out when they took over. So - when strung out thugs are admitting to be invading PRT space it's gotta be bad - or a trap."
Ray cleared his throat and puffed out his chest, back straight, trying to convey he was the hero she took him for, "Right, I got it. Call me on - the thing when you want me to lure it in to position or whatever. I'm going in."
Ray diffused into a gray, white, and brown streak of dust and zipped the rest of the way across the street and through the double doors. He made several circuits of the restaurant, the dining space was laid out with large booths affixed to the walls and smaller white tablecloth settings for two or four diners, most of the tables stacked and shoved into corners and spaces between booths. The light fixtures were broken by either nightmare mouth or the gang, either way it was dark enough every pass through the restaurant revealed more destruction and carnage as Ray's sight adjusted. Most of the bodies littering the floor looked alot less like an organized gang from his old neighborhood but rather homeless people. The bodies strewn across the floor had their flesh shredded, bitten with visible chunks missing, partially dismembered, or more often all of the above.
On what he hoped was his last circuit he found a door hiding stairs to a smaller second floor. Here it was mostly storage and a small desk and filing cabinets for probably for supply orders and employee paperwork. Amongst the stored goods Ray solidified from his dust form to check one of the more intact bodies, right when he was about to flip the body over pots and pans rattled in the kitchen below.
'Oh hell no', he thought to himself.
"What was that noise, Dogfight?", The voice of Officer Innocenti blared in his ear.
"I don't really want to find out, but probably that trap you mentioned."
The familiar tap-tap-tap of a pilot light turning on came up from the kitchen.
"Hey, Officer, the power shut off in this place or should I be worried about gas leaks?" he asked with worry.
Not for himself, no but rather any survivors or even anyone stuck in the nearby buildings holing up for a bit of common decency to return. A fire ravaging a chunk of downtown would setback what little progress people like Danny made in this place.
His ear piece blared to life in his ear, "Power should still be on, but check on the noise, hero. If you smell gas - get yourself out and anyone still breathing if you can."
"Am I checking for the nightmare guy or survivors or a gas leak?"
"All of the above, Dogfight."
A throaty snicker tickled the hairs on back of Ray's head as the sick odor of gore and dish water washed over him.
"And what kind of predator are you, morsel?" the villain's voice strained from either the noisome roars or the mechanics of it's unhinging jaw.
Blood stained teeth passed through Ray with a wet snap, changing forms was automatic which would have scared him as to what the hell made him do it but he almost lost his damn head to this freak. With the smell gone as Ray passed through the rest of Negalodon, he remembered his two fights during his testing. Time to observe his opponent and figure out what it can do without getting hurt.
Appearing behind the towering, lithe beastial figure. Negalodon had a small hunchback and was naked as a bluejay as his grandfather would say. The flesh he bore was a gray-brown like silt from the brackish river mouth Ray's grandfather would take him fishing that dumps into the far edge of the city's bay.
Negalodon turned on their heel to attack again but Ray was already downstairs in the kitchen.
"C'mon, where's that dial?", Ray muttered to no one on particular.
The red battery powered light of the emergency exit illuminated the big fryers that boiled with oil, occasionally a spatter of oil triggered a quick form change letting the oil drops pass through Ray and sizzled om with the blood dappled floor. A large wire basket of soggy fries hung above the restarted fryers, it's handle coated with a cracked rubber grip. Next to the fryers was the stove top, two burners in the front of the stove held small crowns of blue flames ready for a skillet or pot. He looked around the stove and fryers for shut off controls and couldn't find any where they usually sit on the appliances.
"You should look up more often, morsel", the strained voice taunted.
Above the silver smoke hood that vented the greasy and oily air of the fryers and stove top hovered the villain. His body undulated as if resisting the pull of an unseen current of water to stay in that one place. The sight was unsettling yet hypnotic. Negalodon blinked as black eyes rolled up white, his jaw unhinged and his body dropped down on Ray.
It was a struggle to resist changing forms, his job was to distract this nightmare. Keep it busy while the officers got their shit together and not a single other damn cape bothered showing up to help.
Negalodon thrashed and snapped on top of Ray. He was finding Innocenti's description of the freak to be true as the long seconds of this struggle stretched on. this tall freak could fly, stealthy, but it wasn't much stronger in close quarters. Every bite attempt Ray shifted his head away, occasionally teeth found purchase and tore at his bandages.
Blood or sweat stung Ray's right eye and enough was enough. "Where's that foam, lady?!" he yelled into Negalodon's big stupid face.
"Drones are deployed. I repeat, drones have been deployed. Location?!"
"KITCHEN! KITCHEN!", he yelled to the nearby mechanical balls of shoe ruining.
Ray slipped into his intangible form as two drones lobbed soccer ball sized foam globules onto the shark guy. Negalodon rose from the bloody, cooking boil slick floor and attempted to fly away from the drones. Instead the freak got a hot basket of fries to the face.
Negalodon reared back from the sudden attack, slipping on the oily floor in panic, an arm sliding into an oil vat. The man's roar choked out into a strangled cry of pain as he wrenched his arm from the fryer. Wads of containment foam peppered his body.
"There is a small digital keypad above you" A strange woman's voice came from both drones. "Press the large red key to shut off the cooking equipment."
Ray looked at the drones with even more unease, looked up and found the keypad, punching the button shutting off the equipment.
One of the drones hovered over the still struggling Negalodon while the second hovered closer to Ray.
"Hello, Ray Alcaraz."
"Whoa whoa, let's not use uhh ay-lee-uhh ay-lee, other names I'm known as but are clearly not."
"Negalodon cannot hear you through the containment foam and even with his temporary increases in pain tolerance the foam will also be making his burns even more of a focus as they irritate his flesh. I am Dragon, PRT representatives have been monitoring you since shortly after your discovery in Boston and The Protectorate need to spe- rrk"
The sound of ice cracking and the whine of twisting metal simultaneously filled Ray's ears as despite his proximity to the recently shutdown kitchen equipment the temperature in the room dropped to winter levels in less than a second.
Ray shivered as an albino woman tore her hands through the drone over Negalodon. A bubble of containment foam started slowly expanding and halted as it froze when a small part of it touched her hand stuck in it's metal guts.
Dragon's second drone reared back rising higher in the air beside Ray and discharged a volley of foam. The woman shielded her face from a wad with the drone chunks in her hands and returned fire by hurling an icy chunk at her attacker.
"Bandage boy, I'm taking Negs here and leaving. You'll notice you're already shivering, that stage one of hypothermia. That means Team Kevlar outside have stopped shivering and are well into stage two moving onto three in the next few minutes. Fight me and they'll die. Turn the stoves, ovens on and drag them inside the building and you could save them. Choice is yours", she spoke matter of factory as she rested her hands on the foam around Negalodon which cracked apart as he flexed arms and moved his shoulders.
Dragon's remaining drone didn't hesitate to deploy a small metal probe from it's chassis and jabbed at the large green key on the digital keypad.
"Go, Dogfight, start bringing the officers in".
With a sigh Ray changed forms and raced out to the nearest PRT officer.
~~x