Heller's eyes narrowed and he shook his head with a grunt. "Fuck"

Something ate its way out of Chris Morrison's chest. "You sure it were teeth marks?"

The doctor grimaced. "No idea what else it could be."

Harrison cleared his throat. "These weird eels chewing their way out of bird stomachs?"

Moore only shook her head. "No. First of, eels don't have teeth large enough to leave those marks. Second, the wound clearly indicates that whatever it was was inside his ribcage, not his stomach." She furrowed her brows briefly. "I only found a small ulcer on his esophagus. No tears, however. Strangulation marks and abrasions at the back of his skull- no idea what could have caused those." She glanced at them. "Restraint, maybe?"

The Evolved cocked his head. "Probably. At any rate, now I see why you wanted somebody with conduit experience on this case." If there were people capable of turning other people into bugs, then growing something that ate them from the inside out wasn't too far of a stretch to imagine. He frowned again. "But we can't just assume it's a conduit running wild here. Let the evidence speak for itself."

"Not making any assumptions before you got all clues, right?" McCain nodded. "Good man." He turned to the doctor. "Thank you for your time and insight. I'm sure you will be on stand-by should agent Heller have any more questions."

Doctor Moore swallowed nervously. "I- I will."

"Good" He motioned for the third man. "Captain, you will stay with him for the duration of his investigation. Any questions and demands regarding this murder need to be met."

"Sir"

"Good, then get to it", the major ordered, and marched right outside. The woman covered the body up and shoved it back into the locker before leaving the basement too. Heller and Harrison walked after her for a moment before they split off too and went outside. The captain inhaled the cold air. "Now?"

"Now I'd like to see the crime scene", Heller pointed out. "If Morrison had been restrained for an extended period of time, then we should be finding traces. Same goes for if there'd been a fight."

Frosty made a face. Heller arched an eyebrow. "What? No signs of restriction?"

"No signs of anything, Sarge" Was the honest answer. "Just...lots and lots of blood."

The Evolved sighed. "I can guess" Was to be expected, with a ribcage ruptured and everything. "You touch anything?"

"Asides from getting Chris out of there?" Harrison shook his head. "No. We only locked that room down and put a guard in front."

"Guard?" Heller asked as they're walking across the compound.

"Don't want anybody wander in there, after all. Lock's piece of shit, too. So there's that." He huffed out an amused snort. "Was also the reason we wanted to have somebody figure shit out as soon as possible- we can't let our guys guard an empty hallway for God knows how long."

Heller nodded. "Yeah. Got to do other stuff, I know. I'll make it as fast as I can, promise."

Frosty grinned. "Thanks. Guys will appreciate it."

Another few minutes later and they arrived at what Heller assumed was the supply storage. Without much preamble, Harrison led the way around the back of the building and down a few steps to a basement entrance that opened into a nondescript cellar hallway. There were a few boxes, and some cleaning utensils. Everything was soaked through with the diluted scent of blood.

Harrison called out, and the Evolved forced his attention back towards his companion, who was in the process of waving at one Marine standing in front of a door. Heller recognized the man as Duke, one of the old squad.

The moment he noticed Heller, he too stared with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Harrison snorted amused. "Duke, close your mouth, or else flies will get in there."

The Lieutenant snapped his jaw shut and swallowed. "Shit, Sarge?!"

"Last I checked", Heller replied.

"Guess what, he's the one Crime Labs sent over", Harrison declared.

"No way!"

"Yes way. Now I need to see where you've found Morrison", Heller pointed out.

Duke blinked again, then snapped to attention. "Right. Sorry, sir." He stepped to the side, and Harrison went on to unlock the door.

"You the only one with a key?"

"Yeah. There used to be more, outside on a key board, but those are all locked up now. I'm the only one who has a key at the moment. Brass thought it might be better to not let just everybody into the crime scene. " He grimaced the moment he swung the door open. "Not that anybody would want to be here without a very good reason."

Heller didn't need to imagine that one. The stench of blood and decay hit his sensitive nose fully, and he had to stop and breathe a few times deeply through his mouth to manage the scent. He was lucky he didn't have to work too many crime scenes that included days-old blood or bodies, because his senses were much too fine-tuned to actually ignore smells like those.

And unlike Mercer, he couldn't just casually deconstruct his olfactory organs.

"Sarge, you alright?"

Heller waved him off. "Yeah. Just gimme a moment to get used to this. Sense of smell's too good. Gotta prepare myself to work with this."

He noticed Harrison glance at Duke, who seemed both confused and excited. Frosty's non-verbal answer to the unspoken question was plain obvious. Yeah. He's a conduit. I'll try and get some more info outta him. No, that doesn't mean we're gonna see comic physics at work here.

Heller snorted, and finally stepped across the threshold into the room. It was a normal storage room, with three rows of bolted-down metal racks full of boxes, one of those wired-glass cellar windows at the opposite side of the door, and a small air vent situated at the upper edge of the ceiling. The singular light bulb dangling from the ceiling only gave off weak light, though it was enough to see the massive blood pool near the hind right corner of the room. The blood was dry, but left behind the unpleasant scent of decay. Heller would never get used to it, but in the very least, Manhattan had toughened him up.

He glanced at the stains, taking note of the areas where a body had been and prevented further stains. Smudges, likely from slumping limbs. He snorted and glanced at Harrison. "You took pictures before removing the body?"

The captain was already pulling an envelope full of photographs from his coat. "Of course. We're not complete morons."

"Wasn't implying anything." Heller took them. "But I know that even the best guys will forget about procedure if they are in shock."

Duke scoffed. "You got a point there, Sarge, but ah, we could already see that Chris was dead when we got in there."

"Then tell me how you found him, please." Heller held up one of the pictures, squinting to make out the differences between then and now.

"Well", Duke was the one to start, "All I know is that I have seen Chris during the morning last. Nothing to worry about, he got a different schedule, so I didn't think much about it when I didn't see him for lunch."

"I wasn't thinking anything was off either", Harrison added. "He was one of those guys to disappear randomly and finish some report, or take a walk and nobody knew where he was."

"However", Duke continued, "You could be damn sure he'd pop up whenever he's gotten an invitation."

"Invitation?" Heller frowned at the two men.

"We went down to Maggie's", Harrison explained. "It's the bar closest to the compound. Told him to come along, and as long there's somebody to pay his booze, Chris was bound to be there."

"He didn't, and that was when we started calling him, texting him. He didn't reply, and we started getting worried. So at around ten in the evening, we started looking."

"Found him hours later", Heller finished. He eyed the pictures again, furrowing his brows in concentration. Yeah, down there? Smudges.

He glances at the smudged trail, going away from where the body had been. "Huh"

"Huh? Huh's good, no?" Frosty cocked his head curiously.

"Huh, as in I think I got something", the Evolved replied. He put his kit down, opened it, and pulled out the Luminol, or whatever they used instead of Luminol, and a small flashlight. "Okay, guys, you'll get to see real crime scene shit now. If I ask you to, please switch off the light."

Duke seemed excited. "Yes, Sarge."

The Evolved got to work, quickly spraying the chemicals along the blood stain. Like he figured then, he realized once the light was off and the small lamp in his hand on, there was a track leading away from the body. Something had trailed blood as it moved away from the victim. Not much, and halfway down the room the path vanished, but he didn't need to be a genius to figure out where it went. He had the light switched back on and glared at a collection of boxes stacked over each other just below the small air vent in the wall. He took a picture of it, of the trail, and of the boxes, and eyed the wall. Load-baring wall, two and a half meter. No ladder nearby. He snorted, and his arms rippled.

Frosty and Duke both bit out sharp expletives as bony claws broke through scaly skin that covered the Evolved's arms. Heller paid them no attention, just used his new found talons to slam them into the wall and anchor him there once he hopped up, so he could squint into the small air vent. Too small for him to squeeze even his arm in, but he could see the disturbed dust and grime on the inside. He snapped another picture (just didn't question how he could operate his camera at the moment with claws the length of machetes), then let go and dropped back to the floor. "Okay, that confirms it. Whatever ate its way out of Morrison escaped through here", he declared.

Frosty and Duke weren't saying anything, and he turned, somewhat suspicious, to witness them staring slack-jawed at him. He grimaced. Riiiiight. He'd been so immersed in his newly-found freedom that he no longer needed to hide what he was since New Marais, that he kept forgetting how people usually reacted to the sudden transformation of body parts.

He snapped his fingers (well, more like clacking his claws together) to get the pair's attention. "Yo, you okay?"

Duke actually jumped. Harrison only blinked. That was why he was 'Frosty', he barely reacted to shock or surprise. "Uh, sorry Sarge. Didn't think you'd break out the X-Men stuff for real."

Heller shrugged. "Used to keep it hidden until New Marais. Decided to just fuck it once the News pasted my face all over everything." Kind of liberating, really. "Don't worry. I'm gonna put it back if it makes you uncomfortable."

Duke made a noise that sounded a lot like a dying animal, which both Heller and Frosty decided to ignore. Just as the sergeant was about to place his camera back into his kit, he paused. The angle at which he was currently allowed him to look at the gap between the wall-mounted shelf and the wall in itself- where he noticed something pale.

"Hold up"

He crouched down, then placed himself flat on his stomach to peek under the shelf. Instantly, his brows came down, and he grabbed his camera to take another picture. Then he slid his claw beneath the shelf, silently thankful for the extra reach he currently had, and grasped the cold limp body.

He pulled it into the open, dangling it by its tail and watching its spider-legs rock slightly from the momentum, while hearing his companions hiss out a curse. He himself had seen some seriously fucked-up stuff already, so his reaction was a simple cocked eyebrow and a muttered "The Fuck?"

The doctor jumped when Heller more or less threw the door open. "What-"

Again, he wondered why she was that twitchy, though didn't get the chance to ask when Frosty pushed to the front and called out "Yo, doc. We'll need an autopsy real quick."

Her expression turned alarmed. "What? Another-" She cut herself off when she noticed the dead animal in Heller's grasp. She blinked. "What-is that?"

"No idea", the Evolved admitted. "I am pretty sure it has something to do with Morrison's death." After all, if there were two dead bodies in the same room, chances were high there was something in common with both. He shook the dead animal gently, and inclined his head. "We'll need your morgue. And some tools."

Doctor Moore sighed and gestured for her nurse to finish her paperwork. "I cannot, under any circumstances, leave you alone with my equipment."

Harrison looked offended. "That was one time-"

"I had to order a completely new examination table, Captain", she hissed. Heller grinned at the startled face of his companion- there wasn't much that could get him to look anything other than 'blank'. He really started liking the doc, especially now that she seemed to be over her fear (at least for the moment). The woman huffed out and walked back down the stairs, closely followed by the two men and their cargo.

Once she had cleared the examination table and prepared a clipboard, Heller dropped the dead thing. She wrinkled her nose. He snorted. "Ugly thing, I know." He'd never seen anything quite like it before. Its flesh was pale, its body was flat, maybe a bit pancake-shaped? Or maybe like a very fat butterfly. There wasn't a definable head region, nor could he make out any sensory organs- at least not in the sense that he would recognize them.
Its spinal column was clearly visible on its dorsal side, though, and terminated in a four-foot-long prehensile tail. It had eight legs, like spider legs, but with bones inside. So, more like fingers, maybe? Each ended in a long nail, so yeah, spidery fingers was actually the better description. Its whole diameter with outstretched legs was somewhere around two to three feet, maybe.

The room was silent for a moment, safe for the sound of the doctor scribbling notes on her clipboard. Frosty cleared his throat. "So?"

Heller cocked an eyebrow. "You know, when I first noticed this thing, I was just confused. But...you remember what doctor Moore told us about Chris?"

"Death by trauma through blood loss-" He cut himself off, grabbing the animal's tail and lifting it upwards a little. "Strangulation marks around the neck. The tail fits."

"Exactly what I thought, too", Heller agreed. "And the abrasions at the back of his head?" He poked the legs. "Could've been caused by this." He hummed for a moment, then flipped the thing belly-up, pressing his flat hand against its stomach. Almost automatically, its legs curled up. Some form of tendon system then? Keeps the thing firmly holding on without needing so much energy. Tail could be to choke the victim into unconsciousness.

So Chris wouldn't fight back? But what for?

Heller glanced down at the thing, slowly lifting his hand in the process. Beneath his palm was a cut. An opening close to its front in the clammy flesh, too even, too symmetric to be damage.

A mouth, of sorts?

He didn't see any sort of teeth, or jaws. "Doc? If you would?"

She didn't jump so much anymore when he addressed her, only turned to gather her tools. "I'm...not sure what kind of animal this is", she admitted as she put on her gloves. "But I think it should be possible to cut its skin free without cutting into the organs beneath."

The moment she sank her scalpel into the clammy flesh, however, the cut started hissing. Without thinking Heller yanked her and Harrison back, spinning around to bring his back between them and the possible hazard- only to realize several moments later that no explosion followed.

He awkwardly let them go, clamping down on the urge to shift to his claws, and turned around to figure out what set him off. He was well-aware that the hiss had nothing to do with air leaving lungs- too sharp. Plus there was something at the edge of his senses, something that made his hair stand on end and obviously was the cause for his over-reaction.

He paused, eyes narrowing. The scalpel, dropped when he grabbed the doctor, lay besides the dead thing and was gently bubbling. Half of its blade had been eaten away already, and the rest looked a lot more like porous pig iron than stainless steel.

"The Hell?" Harrison asked out loud, voicing the thoughts the other two already had. Doctor Moore was frowning at her damaged tool, then pulled her brows together some more before she went to rummage through a drawer at the side for a while until she returned with a beaker and a bottle of clear liquid.

Indicator, Heller noticed, and watched when she dropped the scalpel into the beaker and dripped some of the liquid over it-

It turned deep red almost instantly.

"Acid", Frosty supplied helpfully.

"A really strong one", Moore confirmed. She pointed at the stainless steel table that had a small hole in it from the little transfer of the acid during the few moments the blade had sat there. Besides, anything that could eat through stainless steel that fast was something one shouldn't play around with.

Heller experimentally tapped the hole in the table, though asides from a little tingle in the tip of his fingers, there was no further reaction. "Loses its acidity fast", he pointed out.
Then, on a whim, he shifted back to his claws. Doctor Moore jumped, though the Evolved ignored it and carefully sank one into the dead animal to continue trying to cut it open.

His talons didn't contain nervous cells, but it still hurt when he ripped through the skin, so he tried to keep it as short as possible. Only, once he was finished, the claw was notably damaged- and the acid kept eating through it.

He grimaced and broke it off in the end, dropping it on the table and stepping back.
Now, he always prided himself on being pretty tough, but that stuff was something else entirely. And while it lost its effectiveness within one minute or so, it was still strong enough to dissolve Blacklight-infused flesh and bone within moments.

Harrison cleared his throat. "Sarge, you alright? That...uhm. That looked like it hurt. A lot."

Heller snorted. "I took monster claws to the face. This was nothing." Well, now he had to regrow a whole finger, but that wasn't a problem. "The more interesting thing- look at that shit"

Acid was still bubbling out of the cut, though most seemed to remain inside the animal's body, gently steaming. There wasn't any sort of reaction with the critter's tissues, and there weren't any further reaction when the Evolved hooked one of his other claws under the skin flaps and just spread the thing open.

There was a curled tube connecting to the thing's mouth, terminating in a blind end. Additionally, there weren't any other recognizable organs inside, though there were several different pale colored tissues running along on the underside of its ribs. Heller furrowed his brows and tugged at the tube, surprising himself when he could dislocate it and pull it outwards of the orifice by nearly another foot.

From the possible location of the animal clinging to a victim's face and the position of this thing he quickly figured that this tube probably went down Chris's throat- which was why it needed him immobile. Then he fought back a shiver when he imagined it.

"Wait", Moore piped up, looking positively green. "You're meaning to say that this animal attacked Chris and...what? Laid an egg into his stomach before dying?"

"And the egg hatched into some animal that killed him", Harrison finished, looking pale himself. Then his brows furrowed. "Can conduits do that?"

Heller shrugged. "No idea, though I wouldn't put it past any of them." He crossed his arms, staring down at the dead animal. "If there is somebody controlling these things, then the larva will have returned to them, right?" Had been that way in New Marais, after all.

Harrison's expression lit up. "Is that why you sent Duke off to get you the building blueprints?"

"Yup. Gonna try and find out where that animal escaped to. Maybe I'll get lucky. If not, I'll get at least some insight as to what to do next."

"Sarge-" Harrison cleared his throat. "What about backup?"

The Evolved just lifted his talons. "Best backup there is." He snorted at the Captain's incredulous expression. "No, seriously. I survived shit that would have killed you a few times over. I'll be okay."

"I don't think it would be wise just storming off like that", Doctor Moore threw in. "You won't know what you will find."

"I gotta try, however", Heller gave back. "Look, whatever that critter was that killed Chris, it left a trail. I can follow it, but it gets colder each passing hour." He rolled one wrist, glancing at the stump his claw left behind. "I'm not going to engage or anything. Just figure out where it went, or where it could be hiding. I'll keep my radio on me the entire time."

"We're scrambling", Harrison realized. "If it had been murder, or an accidental death, we would have had more possibilities. But with this conduit angle now..." He grimaced. "Don't like it, but I don't see any other ways."

Heller snorted. "Like I said, I'll just do a quick survey, and then I'll be back. And then we can figure out how to nail this sorry son of a bitch. Deal?"

"Deal"

Once Duke delivered the blueprints, Heller set out. His first way led him back towards the crime scene, and towards the small ventilation shaft he'd discovered earlier.
Whatever had hatched from Morrison had escaped through there- the disturbed grime inside was a fresh trail, after all. Plus, he could pick up the faint scent of the late agent anyways- but not the animal. So whatever it was, it didn't have an own smell.

Well, he could still track Chris's blood, and try to work from there.

The blueprints stated that the ventilation shaft went into two directions: One straight up, the other through the wall and outside. Heller figured that whatever that animal larva was, would have gone outside as fast as possible. Plus, since it apparently got into the shaft with boxes as steps, he could guess that the larva couldn't exactly climb.
So, outside then.

The ventilation shaft ended near the vehicle pool, and the diluted smell of blood told Heller that he'd been right on the money.
Following the trail, however, proved to be a lot tougher now, mostly it were all those other scents mingling with the one he tried to track, but it was also because it was getting fainter- and because the larva must have followed the route with the most hiding places.

But he'd hunted Mercer across all of Manhattan. Following some animal just by the scent of its victim across one small military compound was nothing.

This was how he found himself in front of an open drain, just next to the vehicle pool. The critter had slithered through gasoline at one point, and the smudging pointed directly towards the hatch.
His claw shot out, and he snatched one of the guys trailing after him. Was to be expected, he hadn't exactly shifted back since he's lost a finger, and free-roaming superhumans tended to attract attention. He'd tried ignoring his tag-along, but hadn't really succeeded and had been irritated more than once. Now, he figured, they could be helpful.

"Yo", he ground out, and the guy he'd snatched nearly fainted. "Where does this drain go to?"

His informant was staring at him through teary eyes. Heller sighed and put him back down. "I repeat my question. Where does this drain go?"

The guy was still out of it, so the Evolved turned around and casually leaned against one of the Humvees stationed there to eye the rest of the crowd. "Same question. And make it snappy, I don't have all day and it is really friggin' cold out here."

That got the attention he wanted, and one of them, rookie by the appearance, just snapped his heels together and started babbling. "S-sewers, Sir! It's a blind end here, but goes deeper and connects to the municipal sewers."

Heller nodded. "Thank you very much for your cooperation, Private-" He glanced at the name tag on his uniform. "Edwards." He glanced at the others. "See? That was what I was talking about. Dismissed."

The others scrambled away, dragging their still catatonic man with them. Heller snorted amused, and turned to follow the drain. Further down the compound was a sewer manhole, which he easily pried open. He tapped his radio.

"Okay, I found where that critter likely went to. I'm heading down the sewers now. I'll let you know what I'll find."

"Good luck Sarge"

Heller dropped down, landing on the walkway besides the gutter with a heavy thud. He didn't need a flashlight, not with his eyes, but he still switched on the one he brought along. No need for thermal senses down here, would be all blurred anyways once he got into the municipal sewers and the immense heat they gave off through decay.

He could still pick up the faint scent of blood and gasoline, nearly impossible to track once he got to the first few buildings off-base. Why is it always sewers? He wondered with a frown.

Right. Because life hated him.

With a sigh, he continued his way, finding some animal remains, likely rat. They smelled like blood and gasoline, and, when he knelt down to check them, he found tooth marks on the bones.

The same tooth marks as had been on Chris's ribs.

He took a picture and tapped his radio. "Okay, Frosty, I think I found something"

"Yeah?"

"Dead animals. Likely rats."

"Well, that's hardly strange in the sewers."

"Yeah, but get this: The tooth marks I found on the remains look a lot like those Doc Moore found on Chris."

There was silence from the other end, only occasionally disturbed by static. "Oh. So...this animal ate something else?"

"Looks like, and I don't like it." Because there was something else a few yards further down the tunnel.

In the shine of his flashlight was something pale. He closed in on it, eyebrows furrowing. "Ah. Fuck."

"Sarge?"

He snapped another picture, and picked the thing up. It was a skin, serpentine, with a tear in its back. "Fucking thing moulted."

"Moulted-?"

"Like a bug. You know, to grow bigger?"

"Oh, shit"

Yeah, that was true. The skin wasn't that old, but still- That thing grew from an egg that had been likely traumatizing shoved down a man's throat and killed its host by chewing its way out of him. Then it escaped, kept eating- and grew even larger, all over the course of just a few hours. Fucking wonderful.

He grit his teeth as he went to answer. "Shit reminds me of New Marais, a bit too much."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, trail's gone. Pretty sure I'd get lost trying to navigate the tunnels down here by myself. But it's gotta be around here somewhere." He tapped his foot once. "I'll go a little further, and then return to base."

"Understood, Sarge."

The radio clicked off, and Heller slowly continued walking. He already passed several pipes jutting in from the buildings above, but there weren't any tunnels connecting to his current tube. If that thing hadn't escaped into the houses above, then it probably continued deeper into the sewers.

With a sigh, he too continued walking on, needing to hop across several questionable puddles on the way. He also eyed the skin in his hand, frowning. The surface was nearly see-through, felt more like silk paper, was cold and clammy- but it still showed enough details to make assumptions. He could see small buds along the thing's belly, likely limbs on the mature animal, and a small mouth opening sitting at the blunt end of what seemed to be an elongated armored skull. Its tail was clearly set off from its thick stubby body.
He didn't see any traces of eyes, or other sensory organs, however.

Much like the spider-thing, huh?

Well, Hydras never had eyes either. He figured that this thing probably perceived the world in the same way.

Then his movement stopped. He finally reached the crossing with the other sewers, and found himself in a slightly larger tunnel now, where at least five more joined with the one he was in. He sighed and contacted Harrison again. "Okay, that's it. I have no idea where it could have gone to."

"Now what?"

"Guess I'll check up on the municipal blueprints. Maybe I'll find some place that could serve as a hideout of sorts."

"Copy that, Sarge. Anything else?"

"Prepare a hot shower and ready the laundry-" He cut himself off, eyes narrowing. In the shine of his flashlight, he noticed something glinting, and his ears picked up the near soundless noise of claws on concrete. "Hold that thought" He switched to thermal vision, but didn't pick up anything.

He wasn't alone, though.

There it was again, silent steps, along the ceiling? His flashlight flicked upwards, beam of light glancing off chitinous armor-

It hissed. And lunged at him.

Heller instantly brought his talons up, catching the blow- and claws bit into his scales, ripping into the soft flesh beneath with shocking ease. His lips curled away from his teeth and he shifted his stance slightly, aiming to kick the thing off him- when it suddenly pounced backwards on its own, overbalancing him. Heller grunted under his breath and caught himself easily.

"Sarge? Sarge? What's going on there?!"

"I think I found the animal", the Evolved replied with a grin. His eyes fixed on the thing. "You can put up a fight, can you? Then let's see what else you can do."

"Sarge? You promised you wouldn't engage-"

"Yeah, I said that", He lunged at the thing, and the thing leapt to the side, screeching. "But sadly, it engaged me. Nothing I can do about that."

The thing hissed, whipped its tail from side to side, but didn't attack yet. Was better maybe, so he could study it for a bit and figure out what it might do if it were to jump at him.
It was sleek, colored in dark browns. Its body was covered armor that reminded him a little bit of Mercer's shell, though shaped more like bones than plates. It had a four-legged stance, a little like a dog or cat, and a long tail that terminated in a simple blade. It skull was elongated, pulled back far over its shoulders. Its teeth were small for an animal its size, but gleamed metallic in its jaws.

Its head cocked to the side, and suddenly it moved- lunging across the distance separating them in one bound. Heller would have been surprised if he hadn't spent weeks fighting Hunters and Corrupted, so he just went to seize the thing's wrists and fling it to the side to crash it into the wall at high velocity.

It thrashed and shrieked, and pounced at him again, lower this time. The Evolved easily avoided by jumping upwards and out of its range. It stopped its attack and instantly swung its long tail at him, blade angled to impale him. Heller snorted and swung his claws wide, ripping the blade off with little trouble-

Acid erupted from the injured limb and the thing flailed back screeching, spreading its blood everywhere. Heller swore and instantly kicked off the wall to get out of range, but he already had some on his claws, and this shit burnt even stronger than the spider-thing's blood - concrete, bone, flesh and steel was eaten away within moments, and it didn't peter out the next minute. It just kept on sizzling and hissing until there was a sizable hole in whatever material it had hit.

Heller hissed under his breath, ignoring Frosty's frantic demands about what was going on, and hit the ground on the other side of the sewer. The animal had gotten itself back together, had turned to stare at him and suddenly flung its leaking tail into his direction. He barely avoided another splatter of acid.

Scratch that- he avoided most of the splatter of acid, he mentally corrected himself when he felt the bite of it against his lower leg. It wasn't much, only a few drops- but they almost instantly tore through his calf and eroded his muscles at a merciless pace so his leg buckled, forcing him to slam his paw against the wall to prevent collapsing.

The next second he noticed it was the hand that already made close friends with the animal's acid blood when he chopped its tail off, and as such, sent a white-hot flash of pain right through his body. Heller swore up a blue streak under his breath, then had to force himself to move to prevent more of his body getting acid on it.

"Sarge? What is your position? I'm gonna send somebody-"

"Negative", Heller caught himself and instantly dived to the side, ignoring the way his leg screamed at him. "Just took me by surprise, and anyways-" Somebody had apparently dumped a whole bike down here, so he just grabbed it and threw it with full force and high precision at the animal. He hit, and the thing went down shrieking. "I dealt with worse already. Stay. Put!"

He meant it. Compared to Manhattan, this was nothing.

The acid blood was an initial shock, but something that could be worked around. Just a shame there was a lack of throwable objects down here, and the bike he used before was mostly a half-melted piece of trash by now.
Though...he didn't need to squash it, right? The spider-thing had bones. It stood to reason that the adult animal had too.

If he broke its spinal column, then he could kill it without getting doused in acid, and the tail wound he'd inflicted already petered off, likely clotted up.

Heller grit his teeth and slammed his fists together. He probably should switch to a different power, but he decided against it- his body would need all resources it had to fix up the damn acid burns. Instead, he scraped his remaining claws against the concrete. "Okay, bitch. Time for round two."

It shrieked and dove at him again. Heller effortlessly ducked to the side, whirling on his damaged leg to kick his other into the thing's side with so much force, he flung it down the sewer and into the wall hard enough to crack the concrete. It thrashed, he kicked off the ground and drove his knee into its chest, collapsing its ribcage. The animal wheezed, and continued flailing. Claws ripped through hardened scales and shredded muscle tissue, no matter how dense it was.

The Evolved bared his teeth and seized its skull, then violently twisted it around with an ear-splitting crack - the body convulsed several times, and dropped limp.

Heller scowled and got up, silently mourning his now stained and damaged pants, and tapped his radio. "Okay, threat terminated."

"That...sounded brutal" Harrison commented from his end of the line. "What did you do, exactly please?"

"Broke its neck", he replied. "Couldn't tear it apart because of the acid, but hey, at least we'll have an intact carcass now-"

There was a crack, and a hiss. Heller only had a short second to realize what was going on when the chest area of the thing ruptured and ripped open, spraying acid everywhere. He barely managed to avoid the worst of it, but it just wasn't enough- the liquid burnt the ground and the walls, causing holes that the sewage gurgling emptied into.

Holes torn into his chest and stomach area too, air wheezing from lungs that suddenly couldn't hold it anymore. His leg probably wouldn't take any weight anymore, so he dropped against the grimy wall with a grunt.

"Sarge?"

He hissed in pain, could barely move his arm to tap the radio. "Accidentally compromised that bitch", he bit out, "Exploded acid everywhere."

"Shit, Sarge. What are your coordinates?"

Heller grunted. Tried to think around the pain eating through his insides. "Four thirty-two?"

"...Okay, you sit tight, and I come and get you."

He grit his teeth. "Negative, you stay. Just gonna-" He winced briefly at the feeling of his flesh starting to grow back while still being eaten by the thing's acid. "Gonna heal first. Ain't a nice sight, want to spare you."

"Sarge, I'm pretty sure I can deal with it. I'm on my way, and I'll drag Duke along."

He huffed out, dropping his head back against the wall- and grimaced. He probably shouldn't heal up down here and end up with blood poisoning, or worse- with some trash grown into his body.

Yeah, no.

He grunted and forced himself to stand through sheer force of will alone. His entire body was shaking, whining at him to stop moving until it had healed, but he wasn't gonna do that down in the sewers. Besides, here he wasn't going to find anything to fuel himself with, no sugar or fats his system craved for any sort of quick repair.

So he stood, bracing himself against the wall when vertigo hit, and forced it all down in favor of moving. He stopped two steps in, and glanced back at the dead animal.

Then, after a brief consideration, he turned around and hefted it up. The acidity had finally petered out, so he could carry it without adding to his burns. It was also evidence, so it was important. His camera had luckily survived their encounter, so that was another plus point. Yeah, he was going to wrap this up real quick and take a nap.

Luckily, there was a ladder right to the side, and he only had a brief moment to think about what he would say if he ended up in, say, a market place, a busy street or even a school. As it was, he ended up in some blind alley.

And, as he dragged the carcass to the surface, he realized he wasn't alone. The mouth of the alley was suddenly blocked by several heavily armored soldiers. For a split second, he thought it were those concrete assholes, but then the first high-speed large caliber bullet tore into his body with starting clarity. The burning pain didn't set in until another dozen projectiles found their mark in his torso and throat.

That was when he figured he should be pissed. Heller snarled bloodily, and threw himself into the crowd, missing them when they scattered and he couldn't stop either because he was trying to put weight on his damaged leg and it snapped from his momentum. He caught himself on the closest car, realizing too late it was one of the military ones- and that it was guarded, too. The soldier didn't hesitate to shoot a pretty damn big bullet straight into his face and everything went dark.

Wow. Two Chapters in and we not only met the main Antagonists the first time, but we also lost the first Protagonist. Could have gone better?
Please try to remember that my in-depth knowledge of the Alien Lore comes from the 2001 Game Aliens vs Predator 2, where my very first playthrough had been as the Alien.

Also, to adress your questions: Yes, this story is indeed set in the same universe as Genesis and Evolution. InFAMOUS exists here.