Author's note: this is the second chapter of our story, hope you will like it, final one will come soon.
The next day
Back at the Baxter building the Fantastic 4 started their work of course Doctor Reed had managed to finish the cure that was needed for Damian, the only thing that was needed was only the patient to be brought to the lab in order to use it. While Mr. Fantastic finished the last adjustments, Ben was eating a giant burger he made for himself.
"Ben, Reed told me that the cure is ready, have you seen him." Susan asked.
"Not yet he is probably sleeping still." Ben said taking another bite.
"H.E.R.B.I.E is my nephew awake already?" Susan asked.
"He isn't quite ready to go to Doctor Richards at this moment, Johnny went to check on him but isn't quite fond of going to him." The computer said.
"Ben could you go and bring him, Reed would really want him in his lab." Susan said.
"I will go and see what happened right now." The Thing said and went in the direction of the medical wing and found Johnny looking inside the medical bay.
"Why isn't Damian ready?" Ben asked and Johnny then chuckled.
"Well, maybe you should go and help him prepare for his control." Johnny said in his usual tone wanting to prank him.
"All right, what is going on here?" Ben asked and in that moment the half- cheetah human jumped on the window menacingly.
"H.E.R.B.I.E for how much time is in that form, and out of his restrains." Ben asked.
"He had been transformed for 30 minutes now as for the restrains he managed to break free from them because he asked me to let him go to the bathroom, I accepted but when he returned I barely managed to activate part of the restrains and is free for 15 minutes. But he is contained and should transform back."
"Good thing you came to get him then." Johnny said.
"Me? He is your nephew not mine." Ben exclaimed.
"Sorry but I am not going in there while out of control to scratch me." Johnny said.
"And you want me to go there?"
"Mainly to exhaust him besides he wouldn't manage to scratch you."
"I am not a toy for giant cats." Ben commented.
"Come on, you only need to exhaust him to make him calm down and don't worry." Johnny said pulling out a big red collar attached to a leash of the same colour.
"I already took precautions in case he turns while getting to Reed's lab. Besides do it for him not for me." Human Torch said before both turned to the now cheetah humanoid hybrid who was grinning menacingly.
"You will owe me for this, you know." Ben said going in the direction of the door to the medical room. "I will make sure next time he scratches him." pressing the button to open the door and just in that moment the hybrid collapsed to the ground probably exhausted by how much he jumped around the room.
"Well that was easy." Thing said before noticing the boy shifting back to his human form and regaining conscience.
"Argh, it happened again didn't it?" He asked rubbing his head.
"It did, but luckily we managed to keep you in place and we haven't needed this." Johnny commented bringing the leash he was holding in hand.
"Ben, Johnny bring Damian here, I managed to make the cure for him." Reed said through a speaker.
"All right cat-boy; let's get you to Stretch to clear that pain in the brain before you wild back." Ben said pushing him from behind.
At the lab Doctor Reed had managed to finish the last adjustments for the cure that was needed to counter the brain abnormality it was in a sense a white electrical band to be placed on its head alongside some blinders. Once activated it should make some waves of energy that would little by little erase the abnormality.
"By my tests and analysis it will destroy the brain abnormality and as for the telepathic abilities however, I don't know what might happen to them." Reed explained.
"It doesn't matter; Damian had suffered enough from that abnormality. Besides becoming an animal isn't something he wanted." Sue said.
"Well he wouldn't become one after the abnormality is removed." Reed said before the door to the lab opened and both Johnny and Ben came in with the teenager.
"Is the cure ready for him now?" Asked Ben.
"Did he attack any of you?"
"Not for now, luckily."
"Let's do it before that happens." Commented Damian and Reed prepared him the chair where to sit. The boy immediately went to it and Reed placed the band on its head.
"Now before I start it, do you feel something the magnitude that could trigger the transformation?" Damian closed his eyes to concentrate outside to see if he feels anything, luckily there was none.
"So anything?"
"No." Damian opened his eyes to look at the doctor. "Nothing for now at least."
"Let's begin then." Reed said placing the blinders on his eyes before going to the consol. "We begin in 3, 2, 1. Go." Reed activated the band that sent waves of energy inside the teen's mind making him feel strange as if something like a heavy weight is drained from his brain. While on the computer Reed was watching as the abnormality was shrinking starting from the frontal lobe and so on till only very few parts were.
"Everything seems to go fine we are almost done." Reed said before the counsel turned red. "What?"
"Red alert, overheating." H.E.R.B.I.E said.
"What is going on?" Sue asked.
"Johnny, take the band off." Reed said and Johnny immediately went to his nephew and noticed the band was starting to turn red in some locations, he immediately took it out and threw it to the ground smoking before it exploded.
"Damian is everything fine?" Johnny asked, while the teen was rubbing his head now feeling a heavy weight on it.
"I-I think...s-s-so." He said trying to get on his feet but his body wouldn't let him, gravity was his enemy now.
"Did it worked?"
"From what it seems it did. With the exceptions that 8 to 10% of the abnormality hasn't disappeared in the part responsible with the senses."
"10% isn't out?" Damian asked.
"How did you know?"
"You said it Doctor Reed."
"I haven't said that?" Reed said before the teen turned to his uncle.
"Boy the band almost exploded on its head." Damian heard Johnny but he didn't even moved his lips before turning to Mr. Grimm.
"Hopefully his brain isn't fried up."
"Ahh, I think something happened." Damian said.
"What?" Ben asked.
"I can hear what you think but you don't say it out loud." Damian said before they turned to Reed who immediately went to analyse it.
"It seems that the abnormality is officially cured and from what it seems after it was removed it increased your mental abilities with a very large percentage."
"Meaning his mind reading and penetration abilities increased?" Ben asked.
"Yes and I guess it isn't only his telepathic abilities."
"What else came?" Sue asked before Reed turned to a chair.
"Hmm." He then turned to the teen "Damian, try to concentrate to that chair. See if you can move it with your mind"
"Right away." Damian said turning to the chair.
"What did you told him to do?" Johnny asked before he noticed the chair been lifted in the air. "Do you need a chair sis?"
"I don't do anything." Sue said turning to the chair.
"It is Damian who does that, with the removal of the abnormality he now posses telepathic abilities to move objects with his mind."
"And I don't even put too much effort in it." Damian said while moving his hand to make the chair to rotate in the air before placing it to the ground.
"Well, like aunt like nephew." Ben said smirking.
"Still why has the band overheated?"
"Well inside your brain there is a small particle that remained and from what it seems it might have some sort of link, but I don't know to what, do you feel any kind of violent action that might happen at this moment?" Reed asked while Damian closed his eyes to concentrate.
"Hmm, small argument over prices at a grocery store usually might have given me a small sting in my brain, but now I don't feel any pain anymore." Damian said with a calm tone smiling, at least he will no more have headaches.
"I see."
"And what about...his fury issue?" Johnny asked.
"I might have needed that form to solve that issue now." Reed said before thinking for a bit.
"However, Damian try to concentrate on your cheetah form." The boy was stunned at what the doctor told him.
"My cheetah form? How, I haven't done that before?"
"I know it sounds scary to you, but you have to try."
"Hmm." He started awkwardly getting up from his seat before he felt something around his neck; it could only mean one thing.
"For every possibility." Johnny said holding the leash attacked to the collar.
"Not quite helping Uncle Johnny." He said awkwardly.
"All right Damian, do it." Reed said and the boy with reluctance complied, closing his eyes he started to think of his animal form before in the next moment he forced his eyes shut feeling his eyes stinging before opening them abruptly.
"Arghhh" He felt a surge of pain going threw his body collapsing to the ground feeling the change, the tail coming out, the fur growing and the legs modifying and his claws coming out on his hands.
"Damian, are you all right?" He heard his Aunt with a worried voice.
"Never...got...used...to this." Damian said in a heavy thick voice before turning to his hands seeing, they had changed before realising that he was in that form, but he felt different now.
"Huh, I can now control this body; my mind is 90% active the animal instincts are surpassed. But how?"
"The abnormality was the one that was making you to turn savage, after most of it was removed you now can take control, what is to know is that there is a small particle that remained." Reed said displaying a very small particle at the edges of his brain between the frontal and the parietal. "That particle is the one responsible from what I could tell for what remained of the animal instincts. Good news is however that from now on you can turn at wish, no more savage out at random times when you feel violence or other things like this." Reeds said.
"So it means no more headaches and no more wild animal out of control." Sue said removing the collar.
"I am glad to hear that, however it is doubtful that my mother would accept this, in a way she hopes that the part with the mutated DNA would be cured as well." Damian said.
"That might now be a bit hard but not impossible I just need some samples while in this form." Reed said before they heard the door opening and another woman come in.
"Alicia you arrived." Ben said.
"H.E.R.B.I.E told me you were here, from what I was told you are with a relative of Susan and Johnny." She said before the teen made some steps back not wanting to be seen by her.
"You don't need to worry, she is blind she can't see how you are at this moment." Johnny whispered.
"I might not be able to see but I can hear, what might be the problem?" She asked.
"Well let's just say that our nephew Damien, he has an old issue, and he is in a sense, ashamed by his form now." Sue said.
"Isn't the first time I heard that?" Alicia said making a reference to Ben before moving closer making the teen even more tense turning away from her gaze not minding that she isn't able to see he then felt the woman's hand touching his face making him even more awkward.
"You might be frightened by how you look. However I can see what is beyond this coat." She said removing her hand.
"It's in a sense, hard to tell." He said covering his exposed face that was just touched.
"It isn't the look that I can see, but something else and more valuable." Alicia said with a soft smile.
"So when would you want to go with Ben?" Johnny asked.
"We can go now, by the way a pleasure meeting you Damian." She said extending her hand and the boy still in the cheetah although a bit reluctant he shook it, he was too well behaved to be rude to people that want to shook hands.
"Pleasure was mine; wish to have been a better moment however."
"In my view it was a good moment when you know that the one nearby isn't actually a best on the inside." She said.
"Wish others to have seen that." Damian said.
"It is never too late for them to see." Alicia said before taking Ben by the hand.
"We will be back soon, by the way Damian don't wild out." He said leading her to the exit.
"So should we continue?"
"Yes, right away." Reed said.
"Should we proceed?" Asked the Lion mutant through the an earpiece, he alongside his fellow colleagues were climbing the wall of the Baxter Building to the Fantastic Four place ready to strike.
"Yes, you may go, make sure he doesn't escape or fights back. I need him for my study." Ordered the boss.
"Our target is in sight sir." Said the Panther theme mutant.
"Let's go." The of the group ordered and they continued to climb up
In the meantime
"By the analysis of the hair sample I took from you. The cheetah genes had amazingly integrated with your DNA probably because of the time; however I believe that something could be done to at least ease the possible animal tendencies." Reed explained.
"Well, it is a start at least. And yet what tendencies should include expect?" Damian said staying in a chair.
"Well for starters things like." Reed started getting out a cage with a mouse and the cheetah boy looked at it attentively feeling an urge, he however tried to snap out of this.
"Urgh, what I am doing." Damian commented trying to think clearly.
"Tendency of hunting rodents." Johnny said placing the cage under the table. "By the way did you had other troubles like tendencies of chewing plastic, paper or wood?"
"Chewing the other end of my pencils or pens when I feel stress sometimes il ajoute, is it counting?"
"No, I mean out of sudden when you aren't stressed and in powerful ways which doesn't include pencils or pens in general but includes wood, plastic, paper or even metal, happening when you aren't in this form." Reeds explained.
"Oh yeah when that happens I poke myself when it happens or when I have a tendency, it's really unpleasant."
"Yes this been one them outside of this, form." Reed explained while looking over his computer. "In any case I think there will be a possibility to solve some issues, but like I said I am not a great expert in genetics." Reed explained.
"But even if it takes time, I have no reason to complain about it." Damian said before starting to sense something from outside while his aunt was coming near him to encourage his nephew.
"Prepare smoke bombs; I am sure that the four are occupied with stopping him running around like wild." The voice of the Lion mutant ordered to the jaguar who was preparing some smoke bombs with sleep gas.
"Don't worry Damian, we will manage something. There is no way I allow anyone to put you in a cage-"
"GET DOWN!" Damian said jumping on his aunt to get her to the ground.
"Hey what is going-" Johnny started before an explosion came and 3 grenades came in.
"Their back, don't inhale, sleep gas." Damian said covering his face and mouth alongside the animal mutants came in.
"It seems the flea circus is back." Johnny commented flaming on ready for a fight.
"H.E.R.B.I.E. how come they came here?" Reed asked and his super computer showed on the screen.
"Jamming devices? Impressive, coming from them." Reed said a bit impressed.
"REED! Not the time." Suzan called.
"Right, H.E.R.B.I.E call Ben immediately, we will need him." Reed ordered before stretching his arms to catch a jaguar and a panther mutant coming to him.
"Right away, sir."
"Wonder why they came here in the first place." Sue said staying in front of her nephew to protect him while Damian tried to enter into their minds and what he read shocked him.
"They came for me!"
"What?" Sue asked turning to him while making a shield.
"The one who gave them those powers they came for me, with the purpose of him to experiment on me."
"I don't think so." She said angrily not noticing that above them, their leader ready to aim at her with a sonic gun.
"Watch out!" Damian pushing her aside and got hit by the sonic ray collapsing him to the ground unconscious and turning back to human form.
"Damian!" Sue called before a flame blast launched in front of the leader and made him run.
"You cover him; I will make sure they don't try to run." Johnny called coming to the aid.
In the meantime with the Thing
Between the things that Ben Grimm didn't liked was when people were peaking on him especially by the Yancy Street Gang. Those been of course minor annoyances, never giving mind to those things that much due to getting use with the passing of time for been pile of orange rock. One aspect that he enjoyed was the time he could spend with Alicia she been one of the few people that don't see him as a freak that been his case, of course he was thinking how the cheetah switching teenager boy Damian was handling that issue, by all accounts he was thinking if there is any progress. By all accounts he should be jealous if there is a possibility of quickly been cured.
"Ben you seem a bit silent lately. Is something bothering you?" Alicia asked touching his right hand both been at a coffee shop nearby the building.
"Oh, ahh no, it is nothing really." Ben said but Alicia knew that the situation was different by his thoughtful tone.
"I might be blind and I might not be able to read minds like Suzan and Johnny nephew, but I can tell it is something off." Alicia said with a smile and a soft tone.
"What can that be the worry?" She asked ant Ben tried in a way to avoid the question but with Alicia he couldn't.
"I told you on the road here about Suzan and Johnny's nephew, with his condition and his mind activity that increased drastically by all accounts after curing his abnormality."
"But it is another problem, which is bothering you?" She asked.
"Well I do admit that I expected one to be as annoying as Johnny but I found out that he is a nice boy, not annoying anyone and I do am sorry for what he went through due to freak accident in the biology lab at school. And now he could be cured..."
"You are a bit jealous that he has a possibility of been cured isn't it?" Alicia asked and Ben looked at her, although her eyes didn't told much he could tell he expected a positive answer from him about this.
"Officially he is a very good kid, and I do am glad that he could be cured from turning into a humanoid cheetah, whenever he senses a crime with his brain powers. But I do admit that I am a bit jealous because he could be cured quicker than me. I shouldn't feel this way I do admit but I simply couldn't help despite my efforts trying not to." Ben explained while Alicia hold one of his massive hands.
"Ben I might not be able to read minds. But I believe that Damian is feeling the same for you." She started and the bigger Fantastic Four member turned to her.
"His condition is very similar to yours with the difference that in the past he turned whenever he sensed bad intentions around him and primal instincts activated. But now he can do it when he wants and without behaving like a wild animal. He might be in the cheetah form part of the time, but I sensed that he feels sorry for you because of the fact that in your case, you can't turn human whenever you want and probably thought it wouldn't be fair." She explained.
"By this difference he is the lucky one, because even if he wouldn't be cured of the cheetah mutation he at least could choose not to turn at all for the rest of his life."
"This might be true." Alicia said taking a slip from her coffee. "But it can't bring back the time he had lost. It is just like you said, after that accident he shunned himself from other people, with the fear of having to harm others by accident, five years he spent trying to behave as normal as possible. But he lost, a great part of his childhood he didn't managed to enjoy company of friends and he never lived the life he was given. I might have come during the time when he was in the animal form, if I had the ability to see I would have been scared as well, but when I touched him I didn't sensed a wild animal but a boy who lost his childhood, because of that event." Alicia said before Ben turned his reflection, by all he can tell both he and Damian could be more alike and he does agree that if his condition happened at his age it could have been much more unpleasant in this case he was a lucky one that he didn't turned like this at the age of 13.
"I do admit that I can't describe how he felt all those years." Ben said.
"You 2 are very much alike Ben, you will also need to see it, besides he a good person, this because he had his family and close ones near him to help him through everything. The same as you are." Alicia explained smiling at the Thing.
"Yeah I do admit this now; you always know what to say." Ben said before his Fantastic communicator started to ring in his ear and Ben turned to his girlfriend.
"You should better answer." Be immediately pressed the answer button.
"Ben, come here as soon as possible, you are needed." Reeds said.
"What is happening?"
"The mutated animals returned, it seems that they came for Damian you better come here quickly."
"On my way." Ben turned to his pocket to pull some money to pay for his coffee before turning to Alicia.
"Don't worry Ben, I shall handle everything. You just go." She said with a smile and Ben left for the Baxter building.
"They surely don't want to give up easily." Johnny said while fending 2 of the animal mutants.
"We need to hold." Sue said shielding Damian form bear theme mutant before Mr. Fantastic intervened as a giant ball bouncing around pushing hitting some of the mutants.
"Ben should arrive here any minute, when he arrives he will be able to push them back." Reed said.
"They will not budge; we would not manage to take him on time." The male lion leader said to his other acolytes.
"Yes we will, cover me." Called the female panther mutant and he alongside the panther, tiger and lion and other 4 prepared themselves, 2 of them launched at Mr. Fantastic while other 2 at the Human Torch while the rest went for the Invisible Woman and Damian.
"You will not take him you animals." She said while shielding herself and Damian from them struggling to break her shield, despite her sweating and her head aching from the attacks, it was to no avail however and she slightly let go of her shield, big mistake.
"ARGH!" Something jumped on her and right when her nephew was regaining conscience he was grabbed by the lion who pinned him down.
"Aghh, NO!" He said explained before a hanky with a sleep substance was placed at his nose, despite his struggle he was again subdued and taken up by the humanoid lion mutant.
"NO!" Suzan screamed in anger, struggling to get loose from the grip of the panther mutant.
"Sue!" Johnny called getting towards his sister and the panther mutant to chase her away. "Get off my sister you bag of fleas." He managed to hit the panther and make her run away to her colleagues.
"Retreat, retreat!" Called the leader getting back towards the hole in the building outside was a black helicopter that was ready to leave.
"They got Damian; we must not let them run." Suzan called right when Ben arrived.
"I am on it. It's clobbering time." Ben said charging hitting several humanoid animals like the bear, the gorilla and the wolf who tried to attack him but he only got captured.
"This is a white zone, there is no abducting giant spotted cats in a white zone." The Thing said.
The Lion got into the helicopter however holding the still unconscious teen while some others with the exception of the wolf.
"LET'S GO NOW!" The lion roared and the helicopter started to depart at full speed, Johnny got outside the lab, reading a fire ball to try to damage the helicopter but it activated its rocket engines to depart at full speed.
"Darn it, again!?" Johnny commented.
"Johnny where is Damian?" Reed asked.
"They left, that helicopter they came with had rocket engines. It reminds me of the time we had to deal with Bruce."
"We have to go after them." Sue said now angry that someone took their nephew for who knows what experimentation.
"Don't worry, we will catch them." Reed said before turning to Thing who was holding the humanoid wolf hybrid.
"Alright you oversized mutt, how about you tell us where you took the boy if you don't want to become a fur pelt." Ben said holding the wolf, and by the look of his face he is willing to talk.
In the meantime
Damian was starting to regain conscience, his sighting was still cloudy but he could figure out that he wasn't in the laboratory of doctor Reed. This was a bad sign it meant he was taken by the robbers and it was more obvious by the fact that the female panther was holding his hands tight.
"We were wondering when you will wake us boy, the boss would really want to meet you." Said the panther with a smirk while the boy was struggling in her grip.
"Who is your boss, and what do you want?!" Damian asked.
"You will see soon, very soon." The Lion leader said while Damian's eyes turned feline like, for the first time he wanted to turn to fight them.
"Don't even think about this, you have no way to escape and you wouldn't manage to fend all of us and no mind tricks as well." The Lion said.
"GRRR!"
"It seems that they came from the early begging to take Damian, the question is however why and for what purpose?" Reed said all now been in the Fantasti Car flying to get to him.
"Genetic experimentation, Damian managed to tell me before been taken, the one who send them want to experiment on him because of his cheetah DNA" Suzan said with bitterness in her voice.
"So what do we do now?" Ben asked.
"We go and take him back, he suffered enough."
"Good thing Mr. Big Wolf told tell us everything we needed to know especially the location of the lab." Johnny commented.
"Not only that." Reed said while looking at his scanner in his cockpit and managed to track him "His DNA sample also works as a flare gun, I managed to track him down, we are very close."
In the meantime at a location in the desert
The helicopter just reached the destination and the animal hybrids were taking Damian to the main entrance of a lab dug in the rock, the teenager was trying to struggle against his captors and also had launched a mind blast to disturb the his captors, but to almost no avail.
"We got him boss." Said the lion tossing Damian at the floor. before a slender man in his late 50s wearing a lab coat and long trousers black, his hair already greyed by time as well as his sharp face but one thing to know was the fact that he was looking at the boy with satisfaction.
"Well done Lars, well done." He said before Damian looked up to see him, it was a man he knew before a slender man in his late 50s wearing a lab coat and long trousers black, his hair already greyed by time as well as his sharp face but one thing to know was the fact that he was looking at the boy with satisfaction. However it was someone he knew, someone he didn't expected to see for a long time, a teacher that was replaced in his second year of high school.
"Bonjour monsieur Du Molais."
"Professo Animaux!"
"What, did you missed me?" He asked with an evil smirk and by the look he had Damian knew he wanted something.
"What is happening?" He asked.
"You were always a curious student I always appreciated that at you and also a peculiar one." He said with a smirk and the teenager knew a bad thing would be said now. "You want to know how that substance got there. It was me who created it."
"Why did you do this?" He asked horrified.
"Why, because I wanted to create a human that have the abilities of an animal. I was about to do it but I had to hide the serum with the cheetah DNA when I was replaced and I intended to come back for it and the formula. I hoped that you wouldn't have found it in when I placed it deep in your locker, and with the accident that I made in order to make you and Delavan leave the lab, however because of it this happened." He said, Damian only remembering it and he started his eyes to water, it was too much a painful one to want to remember while his former teacher pressed a button to show some thing on a screen. They were pictures of him in his cheetah form, doing his endeavors while the animal instincts were taking over because of the abnormality he had looking through the pictures he noticed that he usually attacked and stopped either robbers and other wrongdoers, he also saw 2 times when he helped his bigger sister.
"And yet look what came out, the perfect living weapon, the ones who I presented my findings though to be unreliable and yet look at those, look at you. You in essence are the perfect specimen."
"Tu as ruine ma vie, tu m-a transforme en cingle. Tu ne pas avais un Dieux et un conscience (You ruined my life, you turned me into a freak. Don't you have a God or a Conscience!)." He shouted angrily.
"For the progress of science don't you think every sacrifice, don't you think?"
"You are mad. Science shouldn't be for those kinds of experiments, it should be to cure people to help people. You put your ambition before the needs of others!"
"It wouldn't be for too long, after I find out how you can turn without the need of a bio chip. This is what all those robbers have, I invited them and gave them the powers they need to rob banks but it is due to a chip in their arms that is able to turn them and give them all the abilities, too bad that the formula was destroyed in the accident. But with your help I will manage for this to no more be necessary together we will revolutionize everything." Animo said looking at him hoping for Damian to help. But for the teen, everything he was telling him only made him mad and by far everything was foolish, if he would help him he would only commit a mortal sin both to God, the world and humanity. There was no way he would do what the one who turned him this, the one who destroyed his teenage years, it was absolutely out of the question.
"NON, never. I would never help the one who destroyed my life you are mad Animo and nothing else. You are a disgrace for everyone." Damian said turning away from him.
"How unfortunate." Animo said before the alarm started to ring. "What is happening?"
"It's the Fantastic Four!" The jaguar hybrid said, while Damian smile, he knew his aunt and uncle would come.
"They will stop you for sure now."
"I don't think so, because you will fight against them?" Animo said smirking infuriating the boy even more at him and his plans.
"I will never do so." He shouted his eyes turning feline again but he must control his rage.
"You might not want to but I want." Animo said pulling out a small round chip. "Hold him!" He ordered and the lion and panther grabbed him while he tried to struggle from their grip.
"No!"
"You might not want to cooperate but it is not you who would decide. Because I shall use your temper to make you fight." He said placing the device behind his neck causing an uncontrollable rage in him starting the change from human to cheetah "This neural transmitter would cause an artificial rage in you, which would start your transformation and obey to my orders. Let's see how the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman would manage to fight against their own relative."
"No, no, NOOOOWRAAAA!" He shouted feeling the rage and the pain while his body was transforming from human to cheetah-hybrid.
"This is the place." Reed said.
"So how do we enter, do we knock?" The Thing asked preparing his fists with the intend of ramming the door, while Reed looked around and found an entrance.
"No." Mr. Fantastic said extending himself towards a ventilation shaft, removing the grill he entered in the main chamber everything was however dim lit barely seeing a thing, by all accounts Johnny despite his antics he is good to light a path.
"Should have let Johnny melt the door." Reed commented, before seeing a shape in the dark that surely was a switch, he didn't however noticed another person or rather creature that was looking at him with anger, ready to jump on him like a predator on his prey.
"If I think correctly." Reed started turning the switch for the metal door to move upwards for the light outside to get in.
"Now should gargh….." Something jumped on Mr. Fantastic something that had fur on it, hissing at him and pinning down, the head of the creature been close to his head feeling his breath; surely was one of the half animal robbers.
"I am not one for animal cruelty but I am not very fond when wild ones jump on me and want to use me as a chew toy." Reed said stretching his hands around the animal from behind him to pin him down, right when the light shown to see who the animal was, however this time it was much wilder then before.
"HIIISSSSSSS" He hissed at him struggling to liberate himself from Mr. Fantastic's tightening grip right when the rest entered.
"Damian?! What are you doing?" Sue asked before the cheetah boy grabbed Mr. Fantastic from the back and threw him at the others and The Thing caught him.
"What happened to him? He seems more savage then yesterday." Ben commented before the boy was ready to jump on them.
"I knew I should have brought the leash. Flame On!" Johnny said activating his powers to fly above his nephew who was in all fours. "I don't know what is happening Damian, but I surely don't want your mother scolding me for giving you a burn." He said before he noticed some pairs of eyes in the room, flaming much brighter and saw who they were.
"HIIISSSSSS!" Damian hissed making another charge at the 4.
"Ben, try to catch him!" Suzan ordered and the Thing went before the humanoid cheetah hybrid and caught him right when he unsheathed his claws.
"Alright kitty, I don't know what is wrong with you but I am sure we can figure this out back home." Ben said holding him tight so he would not escape, his right arm also in his grip.
"Ah, maybe after we deal with the rest as well." Johnny called.
"The rest?" Ben asked noticing the other mutated animal hybrids.
"I think we will need a zookeeper." Johnny commented before the others started to charge at them and Suzan made a shield before the charging hybrids to knock them as if they hit a wall.
"Ben try to hold Damian as much as you can, don't let him escape." Suzan ordered.
"I am trying but I don't think he wants to stay still. Wonder what happened to him." Ben commented before Reed who threw the lion leader away he noticed something on the back of his neck.
"I think I know." He said extending his hand but Damian hit it.
"Hey how about you stop that, what got into you?" Ben asked.
"It's not him, he has a neural transmitter on the back of his neck that causes a rage in him from there the transformation and his aggressiveness." Reed said pointing at a black round device.
"I see I will get it off." Ben said moving his hand towards the round device however from behind a crate the man responsible for everything was watching.
"I don't think so." Animo said taking his phone that had the remote to all the bio chips. "Stop The Thing, and the Four from taking him NOW!" He ordered and the bear and gorilla mutants charged at the Thing and jumped on him right when the thing wanted to remove it and he had to use his free hand to punch them. Other hybrids also started to also attack the Fantastic Four, but they were managing for the moment to keep them at bay. Johnny was chasing them away with fire some of the feline ones, Suzan with her shield the gorilla, tiger and bear, Reed and Ben the rest.
"They are too many of them and I can't fight with one arm occupied." Ben said.
"We have to try." Suzan said trying to hold firm starting to break sweat while Damian was watching them struggling and it seemed that his mind was starting to fight back.
"What…..am I doing…..I should help them." Damian said in his mind.
"Fight against them and release yourself from their grip!" He heard Animo through his device.
"Fight…..against….my own….aunt and uncle? No!" He though in his head.
"Don't resist now, you are mine I gave you all that you have now, you owe me." Animo said and the teenager was for a moment about to lose his hope, he was a freak now like all them now.
"I can't let them take my nephew." Damian heard the voice from his aunt, and Damian turned towards her who was trying to maintain a shield with all her strength despite the attacks from the more bulky and massive hybrids.
"I will not let them harm my family, Ben, Johnny, Reed and also our cousin Liz and her children Damian and Marie." He heard her thoughts about him although a whisper he could hear them.
"If only I could at least take the neural transmitter to wake him up. If I wasn't tied by all those, I surely could work together with him on something." He heard Doctor Reed's thoughts before turning his sight towards Ben.
"I once said I don't want to fight you and I still don't want to but if you only could help us." He said this time out loud and Damian despite the influence of the transmitter his mind was starting to wake up and take back control, with every percentage of clearness he could remember who were the ones that want to help him, his father, mother, sister and his uncles and aunt in the Fantastic Four whom want to help him, his real enemy isn't them, but Animo the one who made all this his real anger towards him replaced the artificial one the transmitter was causing him.
"WRAAAA!" Damian roared, his free will coming back to him, with his free hand getting on the neural transmitter, taking it away from behind his neck and with it his mind cleared back to normal while the Thing turned to him.
"Hey you are alright?" Ben asked.
"I will be very soon, and I need your help to put down the one responsible for everything." Damian said with a determination.
"Glad you are back in command." Ben let him be and he prepared himself for a fight. "So where we have to go?" Damian started to use his mind to analyze where he might be and he detected him where he is hiding.
"He is behind the crates on that platform I need to get there, but I need an opening and also a lift."
"As it happens I am ready for a fight." Ben said preparing his fists.
"Then let's put an end to this." Damian said and with a powerful swing he hit the tiger robber while Ben went for the gorilla and bear hybrids that Suzan was still holding with her shield.
"Time out you fury pelts." Ben said knocking them down.
"Ben where is Damian?"
"Need a little lift aunty." He called while fighting another wolf hybrid and the panther and Suzan helped him by trapping both of them in 2 invisible balls made by her mind while Damian was going forward.
"NO! This is not to be!" Animo said while trying to run away with his phone in hands.
"You aren't going anywhere. It's clobbering time." The Thing called ramming metal bars that were still holding the platform, Animo was about to fall but he managed to hold himself before Damian turned to his aunt.
"I need a lift."
"Right away." Sue said making a force platform to lift him up where Animo was and charged at him right when he was about to try to run, Damian however was too fast for him and he knocked him down with his face to the ground.
"You aren't going anywhere Animo. Pas cette fois (Not this time)!" Damian said with anger before Animo tried to go for his phone in his pocket but he could find it.
"What where it is?"
"Vous recherchez ceci? (You are looking for this?)" The cheetah teen said showing him his phone pressing a button, and out of sudden every hybrid animal started to shake and collapse to the ground in pain, all of them starting to turn back to their original human forms.
"You don't know what you did." Animo said.
"I don't know!?" Damian said with anger turned to him with a ferocious look taking him by his lab coat up with his right hand, while his former teacher's phone was in his left.
"You took away my childhood at 13 and turned me into this, well now it looks like your experiment turned against you. And I will take away what you worked for." Damian hissed at him looking at him with the face of a ferocious beast showing his razor sharp claws and teeth, ready to make the kill while Animo looked at him with the greatest face of fear. The Fantastic Four were also looking at him thinking at what he might do at this moment. Damian looked deeply in the eyes of the man who turned him into what he is now however looking in them he saw his own reflection of what he was about to do and he also got scared of what he was about to do, and looking at his claws and rolling his eyes to the heroes he realized that this wasn't him, he wasn't like this.
"Non, I am nothing like what you wanted and never will be. You wanted to make me a freak but, I had my loved ones who took care of me all this time and helped me to not become what you wanted and what you are. So!" He moved him closer crashing his "I will tell you this only once. Leave me, my family and friends alone to live in peace."
"Alright." Animo said with fear in his voice before Damian threw him away and Doctor Reed tied him with his elastic hands.
"Well done Damian, you did the right choice" Reed said.
"So who is mister zookeeper over here?" Johnny said getting his feet on the ground flaming out.
"My former teacher who got replaced in the second year of my high school the one who made the serum. And one who though that he could teach me more, but I believe I learned that it is me who will choose what to do." Damian said.
"A lesson you learned more by yourself." Johnny said with a smile and his nephew returned the gesture.
"Fool you really don't know what you have lost." Animo commented.
"I believe he knows what he have gained Professor Animo." Reed replied him. Later that day the police and National Guard were called and took into custody both the robbers Professor Animo away to a federal penitentiary. By all accounts what the professor had done will earn him a very long sentence. After his arrest the Fantastic Four returned to the Baxter Building to Doctor Reed's lab to run several tests for Damian, by all accounts he had managed to correct some issues in his DNA and some other things.
"So how is the situation?" Damian asked while staying on the medical bed he was now back in his human form.
"Well Damian the good news are, you DNA is officially stabilized some minor negative issues that could have occurred while not in the cheetah form had been solved. Unfortunately however due to the fact that it passed so much time the mutated cheetah DNA became part of your genetic code, by all accounts it will stick with you but in a much stable form." Doctor Reed said.
"So it means that I will stick with this for the rest of my life."
"Of course there could be something done like an attempt to clean it up by using radiations however, this could be too dangerous for you and I don't wish to risk. I'm sorry." Reed said letting go of his restrains while Damian took a deep breath.
"You don't need to apologies, in a way if I will stick with this affliction I believe I could use it, the way you are using it." Damian said with a smile.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked.
"Well, Animo wanted to turn someone into a freak and it was me who turned into by mistake. He might have wanted it to do it for evil and he would be reprimand and disgraced by the scientific community forever. It might have worked if I haven't got the people close to me who wanted to help. And so if I will have this for the rest of my life I believe that I should better use this in a much more proper way."
"And that would be?" Johnny asked liking already what he was telling.
"The way you are doing it, you use your abilities to save other people every day. And well it seems that this is what I was doing without been conscious of it and so this is what I should still do." Damian explained.
"You just made a very bright decision. I am sure you would do great in Montreal."
"Merci. I just hope that mother and father would accept however the new situation."
"We will explain to them how the situation is don't worry, they will accept it." Suzan said.
"On the other hand, they might have no choice, because of a situation that will be needed to be taken into account." Doctor Reed said.
"Qu'est-ce que ca pourrait être? What that might be?"
"Well officially you will not turn out of sudden and you might not need to become a hero so often, thinking that Canada isn't that a hot bed of villains. But you will have to turn at least once a week because the animal instincts are still active and are part of the DNA, and so they will need to be let free that on one side, on the other you must watch out for your rage; anger and rage at very high levels are also a things that could kick your transformation, but not in the same manner that is the issue with the Hulk or what was with the abnormality." Doctor Reed explained.
"Je comprends, I understand."
"Oh and by the way, if you want to walk in our footsteps you might need to assemble yourself a team. Since you probably tried to keep this a secret and didn't want to tell others about it." Johnny said scratching the back of his head before Damian pulled out a picture.
"Oh about that, who said that I don't have a team already?" Damian said pulling out a photo of him with a group of other teenagers, Damian been in the center wearing his glasses and his usual clothes while to his right there was a beautiful slender native American girl with oval face, brown eyes and rich black hair wearing a red t-shirt with long blue trousers and black shoes while on his left there was a white boy with messy black hair, green eyes, triangle face wearing a green sweatshirt over a white t-shirt with long blue jeans, near him was a black boy with short hair, brown eyes, wearing a red sweater and long blue trousers, followed by a blond white girl with blues eyes and diamond shape face wearing a long blue sweater with black trousers.
"This is the club that I part of, we are declared the youngest protégés at the university. Alex is with chemistry." He said pointing at the first boy. "Noah is with physics." He pointed at the black boy "Chloe with Chemistry." Pointed at the blond girl "and Adeline is with robotics." Pointed the Native American girl.
"You got quite the team of intelligent people. And I guess that they know your secret, aren't they?" Ben asked.
"Well I had to tell them when I turned in an evening, when during a study group and someone wanted to wreck our projects for the next day and I had to stop him, Adeline was the one who followed me and saw what was happening. She was also the one who helped me calm down when I chase the intruder away. Of course with how the situation was I told them that I might be too dangerous for them, but they didn't minded and stick with me till the end."
"This is what true friends are for Damian, never forget that. They went for you to help you and you helped them because they will always help you when needed." Ben said.
"I will always remember that."
"And by the way, you should try to ask one of the girls out, they are very pretty." Johnny said before everyone started to laugh.