Okay so first off I'm sorry to those people who reviewed, because of the problem with fanfiction which doesn't let me read any new reviews, this problem has been around since boxing day and I'm surprised its not been fixed yet, so if those reviews do get deleted I'll be annoyed because I really wanted to read then. Oh well, here's the next chapter, now with more Zak and Fisk.

We reached Paris in record time and put a stop to Zak Monday, saved the world, all that heroic stuff. I needed to get back to work on the relic, maybe fixing it would reverse this thing that I'm changing into, I'm still not admitting Drew is right though. After a plenary in one of the 100 or so rooms in the house, I dashed back to where I had stashed the relic away. It wasn't how I had left it, it wasn't glowing but it was still in pieces, more work for me. I was about to start when I heard a loud knocking on the door, again.

"Doyle! Since mom said I could stay up for 15 minutes longer than usual, do you want to try out my new video game, alien airstrike 3? Zak shouted excitedly. The kid was determined I'll give him that.

"Sorry Miniman, I'm busy right now, maybe tomorrow".

"But you said you were taking me on a training mission tomorrow!" He whined. I had forgotten about that.

"Sorry Zak, its important, can't talk right now".

"Please! Please uncle Doyle! I promise I won't ever steal from your concussion grenade storage again!".

"What?"

"Nothing".

"Alright, alright, I'll come out".

"Yes!"

….

For the next half hour, they played alien strike 3. At some point Fisk made his way into the room and sat on the floor, shouting and clapping his hands (and feet) and high fiving Zak whenever he won a round, which was a lot because Doyle wasn't entirely concentrating, his nails were hurting and his scales were beginning to tear into his gloves.

"You aren't very good at this Doyle, are you losing your touch?" He asked, elbowing me him the ribs.

"Not at all, I'm just tired is all", he said, yawning and cracking his back. Zak looked at him.

"Maybe if you took your gloves off".

"NO, DON'T… I mean"

But Fisk had already listened in and pulled the glove off his right hand, exposing the mutation underneath.

"Woah" Zak cringed, moving back, "What's wrong with your hand?!"

"Ebuzzur" Fisk cried, lifting said hand.

Even Doyle himself cringed and gasped at how much more bizarre his changes had become. The marking hadn't changed, but the black scales that were once on his fingertips only, had started sprouting on his knuckles and his nails were beginning to blacken, becoming slightly pointed like claws. Fisk curiously reached down and tugged on one of the scales, when it wouldn't budge, he gave it a sharp yank and tore it from Doyle's skin. A trickle of blood ran down from where the scale once was.

"OUCH! Do you mind? Those are attached to me you know!" Doyle scolded, cradling his hand.

"Hebuzurer?" Fisk garbled, examining the scale in his hand, then handing it back to a rather angry looking Doyle.

"What did you do?" Zak asked, touching one of the shiny black, diamond shaped scales.

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Does mom know?"

Doyle's head shot up and a sinister grin appeared on Zak's face.

"Don't you dare" Doyle said, glaring at his nephew.

"OH MOM" Zak called loudly before Doyle clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't" He warned. Zak peeled Doyle's hand from his face.

"On one condition".

"What?"

"That you buy me a jetpack for Christmas", Zak smiled innocently.

"WHAT! No way Miniman, your parents would kill me".

"Fine then I'll tell dad instead".

"Alright alright fine! Just don't tell anyone else" He said, standing up from the sofa, snatching his glove and stomping over to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To fix my hand!" He yelled, slamming the door as he left.

...

The next hour was a painful ordeal of tweezers, bandages and anti-itch cream. Doyle pulled out the 100 or so scales on both hands using things he had found rooting through the bathroom cabinet, tweezers, scissors, wax strips and razors. He had to pull of each one individually with the tweezers which was painful enough, but because the scales were so small and difficult to grasp, it left tiny holes all over his hands, which wept blood so he had to bandage his sore bloody knuckles. He then had to cut and file his claws and in the end decided that his excuse for the nail colour was that he trapped them in a door. He removed his other bandages to see that the mark was still there. He checked his other arm and sure enough, there was more beginning to show up. One on his upper arm (a jagged lightning strike) and one on the back of his hand – a crescent shape. He didn't bother to bandage them, it would look too obvious, so instead he began work on the relic.

He decided it would be a lot easier to fix the smaller parts first, so he took one of the smaller gems, superglued the bottom and stuck it in the hole at the top. It went from pink to orange. Doyle rejoiced at first, but then jumped back as streaks of orange power began to jump out from the now white hot orb. The glow got brighter and brighter until the mysterious aura completely covered the room. When it faded away, he saw that he was no longer in his room, or even in the Saturday compound, he was in a tomb of some sort. A brick tunnel, with glowing carvings just like the ones on his skin, the carvings were the only light source, so he found himself stumbling around trying to find his bearings. He began to hear a hissing coming from behind him and his suspicion told him to run, but he couldn't because whenever he started running, he always ended back where he started. The hissing got louder and louder until a pair of red eyes came into view. Doyle stayed rooted to the spot and readied his fists, wincing as the Naga Queen made herself know and began to circle the confused mercenary.

"Relax human, this is an illusion that I have planted in your mind, none of this is real apart from you, you aren't going to be harmed as long as you cooperate, that's not what I brought you here for".

"Then why am I here?"

"Because I feel that I should give you a hint about your current predicament human".

"Why? I'm handling this perfectly by myself" he snapped, eyeing her nervously.

"Are you sure? I didn't think you liked what you've become"

"Heh, I still look better than you don't I?". This angered Rani Nagi and she crushed him against the wall with her tail.

"Arrogant ape creature, talk like that and you won't get the cure" She purred, scraping her claws down the wall.

"The cure?"

"Yes the cure, my dark magic has seeped through the cracks in the relic when it was broken, you touched it so now it's inside you, altering your body, changing the way you think, after all, why do you think all of Kur's servants are cryptids? Fleshlings are way too weak without their technology".

There was a moment of thought and Doyle actually recoiled in fear whilst Rani began to wrap her thick tail around him, constricting him like a snake does to its prey.

"You repair those cracks now human and you will keep your pitiful human body from getting any worse, but what can you offer me in return human, what can you offer Kur?"

"I don't bargain with my enemies lady".

"Oh is that so?" She began to squeeze him tighter to the point where he was gasping for breath.

"What do you want in exchange then?"

"I want you to bring me the relic and I want you to sabotage Argost's search, he is foolish too, a fleshling could never control an ancient beast of mass destruction like Kur".

"Or else?" Doyle asked, because he knew it was coming.

"Or else I let you change into a rampant beast ready to serve my every command and I turn you against your own family".

"Done, but you better not cheat me" He growled, wriggling in her grasp.

"That's all I wanted to hear".

The white aura returned and blinded Doyle and when it cleared, he found that he was back in the house and that the relic was still on the table. He scrambled up and began immediately sealing the cracks in the relic, desperately hoping to stop any more of the dark magic from leaking onto him. He worked for 3 hours straight and because his fingertips had been exposed to the surface of the relic, the poor mercenary had grown a new set of fingertip scales and his nails were beginning to grow into claws. He got into bed that night irritable and uncomfortable after plucking all of the scales from his fingers again. He was covered in scratchy bandages, with each of his fingertips hidden under plasters. Doyle was so exhausted that he fell asleep within ten minutes of lying down, so he didn't hear the whisper that passed through his room that night.

"Your foot is in my snare human and I'm not cutting the rope to set you free".

"If you think that you're a monster now, you have no idea the extent of my power".

"I bid you farewell human and I extend welcome to my new servant".

Even though I didn't get emails about reviews, I did see the people who faved/followed this story. thank you! The next few chapters are going to be mainly action so say goodbye to the long speech lines for now!