Chapter 13

I own nothing.

Ichigo woke up with a upset stomach. Though this was after he had been up 4 times during the night to puke his guts out. Even Heller had an upset stomach, and he was a virus that was designed to adapt to anything. Before dinner though he had called Soul society and reported in. they hadn't been surprised by most of it. Kisuke had said he had hacked Blacknet and gotten most of the story. But he did warn Ichigo that Blackwatch had recently made several discoveries. They had found that the infected creatures were more attentive to their surroundings, which was why Heller and infected creatures could see them in Shinigami form. And that Blackwatch had added a new function to the standard goggles that were similar to the BKE goggles in the movie Ghostbusters. Now they would be seen by soldiers even in Shinigami form and to be careful. He had warned his friends of this before going to eat the dinner Orihime prepared.

Now it was later in the morning. Ichigo Heller and Renji went down to the basement to find father Guerra tapping away at the computer.

"Father. Do you know where we might be able to find rooks?" Heller asked as he stood behind him looking at the screen.

Father stopped and leaned back as he said "His location would be top secret. But back in the day, we would hack into Blacknet trucks to steal that kind of info. Those are the satellites trucks you might have seen. There's one a block from here that you could hack."

Heller nodded as he turned and walked back out.

Renji spoke up as he dug for his soul pill. "I'm coming with this time. I want to help deal a blow against those guys."

Heller nodded as Renji and Ichigo got into their Shinigami forms. They went and found the satellite truck with no trouble. Heller had shifted into the form of the commander he had consumed yesterday and got the location where rooks was holding a private briefing. They got there in no time flat. Heller consumed a Blackwatch soldier with no trouble to get into the meeting but due to the new modifications to the Blackwatch goggles, Ichigo and Renji were forced to wait outside.

Heller's P.O.V

I walked along with the other jug heads until we came to a commander center with several computers and screens, with a table size touchscreen computer in the center. The group and I stood at attention as colonel rooks walked in with Reilly and said "all right listen up. We have a new mission. Genteck's been planning some new high-risk field tests. They've also modified their protocols for infected vs. civilians. Expect a body count increase. This is a high clearance detail. You're to report ASAP to a doctor Shaffeld. He'll give you the test site location. Dismissed."

All the others walked away as rooks and Reilly leaned over the touch screen talking in low voice. I tightened my grip on the machine gun I had taken when I had consumed the soldier. As I raised the sights to the colonel's head a hand tapped my shoulder and I turned to see another grunt say "come on lets go."

I nodded and turned back to find both the Blackwatch higher ups gone. I growled as I hadn't taken my chance when I had it.

I walked out of sight of the base and began running and gliding to the test site as Ichigo and Renji appeared beside me. I called father Guerra as we approached the test sight.

He answered immediately and said "James. Did you take care of rooks?"

"I'm thinking he might be more use to us alive. Now I'm looking for a doctor shaffeld."

"Si. I know this man. He's one of the scientists behind numerous experiments that involve injecting civilians with infected DNA. You need to stop those tests and any scientist involved in those tests need to be, how you say, dealt with."

Heller, Ichigo and Renji stood before the test site. Like every other camp, but with some people in cages like animals, while scientist in blue hazmat suits were walking around.

Heller grinned as he shifted back and brought out his claws while saying "that's my skill."

The Blackwatch soldiers quickly brought up their guns and pointed them at the group while one yelled into his mike "COME IN RED CROWN. WE HAVE JAMES HELLER AT TEST SITE JULIA. REPEAT WE HAVE JAMES HELLER."

The scientist panicked while one yelled "I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE."

Heller said "you two take the grunts, I'm going for the brains."

Renji nodded as he raised his sword and placed a flat hand on the base of the blade. He yelled "ROAR, ZIBUMARU!"

He swept his hand down the blade turning it into pink energy, before it faded and showed his sword having a new form. The blade looked segmented, growing larger as it neared the other end away from the hilt, with fang like protrusions coming out of each segment. He swept the sword out like a whip, causing the sword to extend with wires connecting the segments. The sword sliced through the Blackwatch soldiers like a hot knife through butter. Ichigo jumped in and used his speed to dodge bullets and slice their guns in half along with them.

I noticed this out of the corner of my eye's while I jumped around killing and consuming the scientist. When I was left with the head scientist, I swept his feet from under him then sliced him in half midair and consumed the remains before they fell. I clutched my head as the memories poured in.

"You know rooks this is like a dream come true for me."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, sounding irritated at being bothered

"I'm talking about what's being accomplished here. I mean the chance to experiment on live test subjects? These refugee camps are like giant petri dishes. It's amazing."

"Whatever float's your boat." Rooks said sounding sickened by the man's excitement.

Heller shook his head as he said "sick bastard. Should've taken my time ripping you apart."

Heller looked around as he saw that Blackwatch was dead here and Ichigo and Renji had cut the locks on the cages. The civilians carefully got out and looked at Heller in fear. That saddened him a little. Was he really the scary?

He looked at them and prepared to leap as he said "get out of here and get as far away as you can from Blackwatch."

He jumped up and glided away with Renji and Ichigo in tow.

They cleaned up the rest of the research team and shaffield without any trouble. Heller had learned about something called phase 1 and asked father to look into it and learned of the boss who was in charge of human and infected experimentation, a Dr. belmy. They had gotten another lead that had taken them to a Blackwatch base. Heller had gotten in no problem and Ichigo and Renji were ready to flash step to him when he gave the word. As Heller walked through the corridors to the man lab he heard the speakers announce "prepare for hydra DNA extraction 476. Measure strength, reaction time, and range of tendril attack."

"Tendrils? That sounds like it could be handy." Heller thought as he got off the elevator to the control room. Its windows were covered in steel doors for the test and the doors were locked. Heller spoke as he shifted his hands to claws.

"You want to see what a real monster looks like?" he said as Ichigo and Renji appeared with their swords drawn and in Shika state as the scientist panicked and the Blackwatch guards raised their guns to fire.

Ichigo acted first by rising a palm towards a group and said "Hado #54. Haien." A shot of dark purple fire shot out of his hand and incinerated a number of people where it hit. Renji swung his sword to impale several people while Heller consumed a scientist then killed the rest of the people in the room. Then he shifted his form and entered the chamber. In the center of the room was a something that looked like a massive tentacle set in the ground but as it neared the end there were two pincer's almost like a pair of claws that lay side by side. The Hydra was held down by several thick metal restraints. All around it were several scientist that were wearing the required blue hazmat suit while a few guards stood around the room with their eyes glued to the hydra.

As Heller's foot hit the floor, the hydra began to jerk and shudder in its restraints. A scientist yelled "GET BACK! IT'S CONVULSING!"

Another yelled "IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SEDATED. WHAT'S AGGITATING IT?!"

"IT MUST BE An OUTSIDE FACTOR, THE PROTOCALS HAVEN'T CHANGED. DAMMIT GET THE SUBJECT SEDATED NOW!"

The Hydra broke out of its restraints and stood up tall and screeched at the ceiling.

"IT'S TOO LATE! RUN!" a scientist screamed while he ran. He didn't get far as the hydra slammed itself against the ground and then quickly dragged itself around in a circle, sending the equipment and people flying against the wall where they broke. The hydra then rose and turned to face the disguised Heller and Ichigo and Renji. It screamed, showing a small tongue with spikes along the side and a hole where its mouth was.

Heller shifted back while Renji and Ichigo stood ready. The thing then darted like a snake, forcing them to scatter.

"ANY IDEA'S?" Renji yelled while moving.

Heller looked around quickly and spotted a shelf of bazookas. He grabbed one and fired a shot. But it did very little damage to it despite the explosion.

"WE NEED SOMETHING STRONGER." He yelled while firing to distract it.

Renji grinned then got into a stance with his feet braced. He held the sword in front of him diagonally with the handle level with his right shoulder and the tip going downward past his left knee. He then flared his spirit energy as he shouted "BAN… KAI!"

He was engulfed in a whirlwind of power and smoke. The hydra tuned to him as the smoke cleared to show Renji surrounded by a skeletal looking snake. The tail ended by meeting the sword handle in Renji hand while the head looked like a cross between a snake and baboons skull, with yellow glowing eyes and red markings around the eyes while having a bushy red mane like a lion's mane. The body looked jointed and had spikes running down the spine like in Zibmaru's Shika state but larger. Renji now had some pink fur on his back running across his shoulder blades.

"HIHIO (baboon king) ZIBIMARU!"

The hydra shot out a longer tongue to try and snag the head of the Bankai but Renji swung the handle and it dodged with ease and darted forward to sink its fangs in. the hydra yelled and threw the head of. And Heller ran in with Ichigo and slashed the base of the hydra on opposite sides. It thrashed around weakly as Heller ran towards it back, stabbed his claws in and jumped, opening it up. And the hydra fell to the ground dying, Heller dove into the cut. The body of the hydra exploded in blood and Heller stood there, his arms covered in more tendrils as he gained a new weapon. His arms settled down looking normal except for the hands. They had three stubby looking fingers with small claws at the end and the rest were like small black boxing gloves. He looked at the weapons with a glance then looked at Renji Bankai, where the snake had coiled around him with the head besides his own.

"man nice weapon. What kind of options does that thing have?"

Renji smirked as his sword went back to its Shika state. He lifted it to his shoulder and set the blunt edge there to rest.

"A few. One is that I can disconnect the joint's to dodge any attack and prevent it from breaking. And I have an energy blast called baboon's king cannon. I haven't had much practice with it, so that's all I have right now."

Heller nodded as they walked back to the control room to leave. As they entered both elevators opened and let in a group of black watch guards. They met in the middle and prepared themselves to fire.

Heller reacted instantly. He slammed his arms together to unleash a small whirl of tendrils, and then shot both arms forward and unleashed a black hole attack that hit one of the solders at the center of the group, then shot out several branches that attached to the other soldiers and lose debris of tables and some broken off pieces of wall. Then they retracted, causing a fountain of blood and gore as they tables and stone met at the center.

He looked down and chuckled as he shifted his arms back to normal. "Damn, that's going to be useful."

Ichigo and Renji chuckled as they went into the elevator to exit the base. As expected they found a small army. They fought through like berserkers, Renji and Ichigo slashing while Heller made one arm it's claw form, and the other tendril to tear apart Blackwatch.

They heard Belmay say over the radio "Commander this is belmay! Why am I getting reports the hydra is dead?!"

"We got tangos in the base! They're tearing us apart!"

"We you can go to your fucking dance class later, hat is months of research ruined! Kill them! Kill them now!"

Ichigo yelled "Guy's I'm wrapping this up! Jump now!"

They responded immediately as Ichigo concentrated his power and jumped. He swung his sword and shouted "GETSUGA TENSHO!"

The crescent of energy hit the ground and exploded, collapsing the base and killing all those there.

As Ichigo and Heller landed, Renji looked around and said with a sigh "typical Ichigo. Always goes for the flashy exit."

"Maybe, but at least my Bankai looks normal, unlike that freaky snake of yours"

Renji was about to retort when Heller said sharply "can we at least get home before you start fighting? I feel like crap."

They nodded and headed for home, feeling good that Blackwatch lost another weapon to use. But then they heard something come in over the radio. It was belmay and he was saying "Burk it's belmay… the hydra…it's"

He couldn't talk right as he was so furious and scared of what Burk might say. They heard the reply "relax. We've extracted enough DNA for phase 1. We can move on to phase 2 soon enough."

Heller looked at Ichigo and Renji who looked a little grim. Heller said "looks like they're cooking up more trouble."

Renji nodded as he said "and I shudder to think of what that trouble is. After all, look at what they could do with the Blacklight virus."

They didn't need to look far. After all, the sight was all around them