Chapter release dates are going to slow down for a little while, I have exams to revise for. Anyway, don't give me too much grief on punctuation on this one. I got a review saying that I was putting the comas in the wrong place, I'm assuming that's the American way of punctuating sentences as google says US grammar puts them inside the speech marks whilst UK grammar puts them outside, that's how I was taught it anyway, so I'm sorry about that. Thanks for the review though, I'm sorry that I just burned it :P.

This chapter is a bit more brutal so be warned , enjoy and review if you want to

…..

"I thought you said you sorted the scales out?"

"I did."

"Then what's that on your wrist?"

…..

Doyle stared at his arm and gasped. New patches of scales had started sprouting on his wrists. He stuttered and faltered, failing to utter a complete syllable.

"Doyle, what's happening to you? You look like you're turning into some kind of cryptid", Zak said, lifting his hand, looking concerned. Doyle looked ashamed. He tried to jerk his hand away when Zak began to unravel the bandages on Doyle's hands using his good arm and both he and his uncle grimaced when they saw the glowing marks and scales that were popping up all over Doyle's digits. Doyle brushed off the help Zak was trying to give him, stood up and began pacing the crash site. He moved back to the side of the jet before collapsing against it, breathing heavily. Zak approached him, worried, but Doyle signalled for him to stay back. He ignored it and walked forward to put a hand out to place on his shoulder but jerked it back when Doyle doubled over with a cry, his face contorting in pain. Zak watched what was unfolding in horror, shivering every time Doyle screamed. His nails were beginning to look more and more animalistic, not human at all, if anything, they looked like komodo's claws, only smaller yet just as sharp. He dug them into the side of his jet, dragging them through the paintwork, creating large scratches and an awful screeching noise, his breath ragged, his muscles straining. He was glowing like a lightbulb, the different symbols all lit up. He took his hands out of the marred metal and stared at them in disbelief before dropping down onto his knees, groaning in obvious pain. Doyle felt his mind once again dip out of reality as he fell into the abyss.

"HA! Feeling my power now you fool!"

"YOU! Why am I changing?!"

"You're changing because I want you to human."

"You tricked me!"

"Of course I did fleshling; did you expect a Dark Queen to keep her promises?"

"I never should have trusted you!"

"Out of all the humans I have trapped, you must be the most insolent, you believed that there was a way back from the start! Why would you think that I would spare the ones who deny Kur his freedom?!"

"I hate you."

"Your opinions are irrelevant, your human mind may be rebellious but I can make you behave like a bloodthirsty beast for as long I please, I'm just giving you the body to match."

….

"I can and will make you kill human, as I said before, I can change you from pathetic man to Savage beast, that is your fate."

"It is?"

"See human, you are already questioning your own decisions, you will have no human traits soon, no compassion, no fear, only a fierce desire to serve and serve you shall, up until your dying breath."

"Serve you?"

"Yes, you will eliminate your "former" family, I have no use for any beings who are against Kur and you shall start by slaying the boy."

Something inside Doyle's bewitched mind snapped and bent and he lunged for his nephew who was standing beside him. Zak jumped back in surprise, stumbling over.

"Doyle, what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that", Zak asked. Doyle's stare was ice cold, he moved nor his lips nor his body, he just focused on Zak, claws poised to strike. He made his move when Zak least expected it and grabbed the boy by the collar in a matter of seconds, pinning him against the tree. Zak was both confused and frightened as Doyle stood stock still, holding him up by the neck alone. Doyle shifted his grip and leaned into the boy and Zak saw more scales growing on his uncle's neck. He was lifted higher until he was looking directly into the mindless man's eyes that were focusing on nothing.

"Doyle! Stop it, you're freaking me out!", Zak cried. He tried to squirm out of his arms but Doyle's fists had grips of iron and he was able to hold his nephew effortlessly like he was restraining a small animal or a rodent. He lowered the boy slightly and opened his mouth a little, revealing a newly acquired set of fangs and to Zak's horror a black, forked snake tongue. Zak felt it brush against his cheek along with Doyle's ragged breathing. Zak wondered why he was so close to him; it was almost like he was going to bite. The man raised his lips and began to snarl, a low inhuman sound emulating from the back of his throat. He shifted his grip from neck to arms, trying to hold Zak still by sinking his claws through Zak's shirt and into his skin.

"OW, OW, OW! Doyle that hurts! Let go, stop it! You're hurting me!", Zak cried, begging Doyle to release his broken arm. "DOYLE! Can you hear me in there! It's me Zak!"

"Zak?", Doyle asked, his cold silence returning to his normal voice, his eyes focusing on Zak. He immediately dropped him and backed away. Zak cradled his injured limb whilst Doyle looked on from a safe distance, going wide eyed as he saw the small tears his claws had made in Zak's shirt. Zak got up, but grabbed the claw before making his way over to Doyle, who moved back as soon as he spotted his nephew.

"Miniman! Are you alright?! What did I do to you?", Doyle asked fearfully.

"You attacked me Doyle. Why?", Zak asked, still weary of him. Doyle once again dropped to his knees and covered his face, shaking his head in dismay. Zak watched in horror as poor Doyle continued to shift forms. His hair began to darken at the ends, turning jet black, the areas around his eyes followed, black freckles and marks showing up like ink blots on his white skin eventually joining and becoming black distorted rings around his eyes. The whites of his eyes became pure black, his irises went from blue to orange (the same shade of his markings) and his pupils became slit like those of a cat. Doyle was nearly overrun by new desires and instincts as his panic became blind rage.

"Zak!", He cried desperately, looking towards his terrified nephew. "Zak! You have to get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving you alone in this condition!", Zak shouted back. "Who knows what you could do!"

"NO ZAK! Listen, I'm being controlled, I can't control my body, whatever's inside me, it wants you dead."

"Doyle, I don't understand, what's controlling you, who's doing this to you?"

"There's no time for that Zak! You need to run; you need to get as far away from me as you can!"

"Doyle?", Zak whispered.

"I will try and hold myself back as long as I can but as soon as I lose control, I will chase you and if I catch you and I WILL hurt you", Doyle was by now nearly hysterical.

"Doyle! I know you wouldn't do that!"

"You saw what I just did, if you hadn't have woken me up, I would've seriously hurt you. Zak please! Grab some of my concussion grenades, take the video phone, find somewhere safe and try to call your parents, tell them to get you out no matter what."

"Doyle please."

"Zak! Go on! Get out of here! NOW! RUN!", Zak finally just gave in, grabbed his stuff and made a beeline for the nearby trees. The whole time Doyle screaming for him not to look back, just to keep running.

"Good luck kid…you're on your own…I'm so sorry", were the least words of sanity that Doyle was able to speak before everything went black.

"Transformation complete. Now find and slay the child my servant."

…

Zak sprinted through the woods as fast as his legs would allow him, not daring to look back to see if he was being followed. If Doyle was nearby, he would have surely heard the sound of crunching leaves along with Zak's loud breathing. Zak ran for what he thought must have been a good 5 minutes before stopping to rest. He leant against one of the trees, panting. He scanned the entire area, no sign of Doyle but there were so many places he could hide, he could leap out from nowhere in an instant and knock the Saturday boy to the floor. Zak didn't know what to do, he had learnt all of these methods from Doyle, but now that the terror was all too real Zak felt helpless and alone. It wasn't Argost or Van Rook, who would only to be a danger for him if he was to interfere with their criminal deeds but his own uncle and he was out to kill. The thought scared him. He tried to clear the echoing of impending doom in his ears and put his head to one thought…

What would Doyle do at a time like this?

*Flashback*

The humid summer heat shone down onto Zak's face as he wandered through the trees surrounding his home. He was looking for his uncle who he was supposed to be playing capture the flag with as part of his training.

"Come on Doyle, at least give me a hint or something!", I'm starting to think you've just gone home to cool off and eat the rest of the ice cream in the fridge, deliberately leaving me to melt out here!", Zak wiped his brow and continued to pant like a dog. "You cheat just like Wadi does!", He declared. But grunted when he was hit in the back on the head with a pinecone.

"No I don't."

Zak picked up the pinecone and scanned the trees to see Doyle sitting high up in one of the branches. He had one hand behind his back, a pinecone in the other and all in all looked rather pleased with himself.

"What!? I must have checked the trees about a thousand times!", Zak cried.

"Listen Miniman", Doyle said, jumping out of the tree and lowering himself down with his jetpack. The best thing to do if you're being chased and your pursuer isn't airborne is to get to high ground."

"High ground?", Zak asked, slumping down against the tree that Doyle was previously sat in.

"Yep, somewhere where you can get a good vantage point, then you can hide or move when you see anyone coming."

"Thanks, I'll remember that."

"Now, how about I try being the seeker?", Doyle said, bringing out the flag, tossing it to Zak, then ruffling the boy's hair."

…

High ground. Zak took the claw and shot the grappling end out towards the nearest tall tree. It wrapped around the largest branch and Zak hoisted himself up, making himself steady in the branches as quickly as he could. About a minute later, Zak began to hear the leaves crunching again and Doyle burst through the undergrowth and skidded to a halt a few feet from Zak's tree. Zak held his breath, trying to stay as quiet as possible for fear that Doyle could and would pick up any noise he made. The man began to look around, sniffing the air, just like a cryptid would. Zak hoped he would leave, but it soon became clear that he wasn't passing on at all. He just lay in wait, like a fox waits for an unsuspecting rabbit to emerge from its burrow. One of the them would soon make a mistake by chance it happened to be Zak. He moved one of his feet and knocked a twig loose. It fell. Landing at Doyle's feet. The man immediately spun round and locked eyes with the boy in the tree. Zak's eyes widened with fear, Doyle's narrowed with murderous intent. The man took a few steps back and then ran full speed at the tree. He jumped and latched onto the tree with his claws. He began to climb, getting faster and faster, closer and closer to Zak. He reached the top and swung at Zak, catching his shirt and nearly knocking the boy completely out of the tree.

Zak used the claw to grapple into another tree before Doyle could grab him and began to move through the trees, fearing for his life. He continued this until the trees disappeared and then used the claw to get across a ditch. He paused and looked back to see Doyle leap over the hole with almost little effort, landing on his feet. Fortunately, Zak had already seen his saviour in the form of a large farm just down the hill. He could lose Doyle in there. Zak continued running until he reached a paddock of cows. The large animals were undisturbed by Zak, but were immediately spooked by Doyle, so much so that he ended up being chased down by some of the bulls in the field. Zak continued to run until he reached one of the barns. He dashed inside and closed the door behind him. Then climbed a ladder (nearly falling off due to fact he was climbing one handed) into the hayloft and hid amongst the bales. He took out his video phone, Doyle couldn't possibly hear him over the cries of the chaos he was causing outside. Zak dialled and the phone rang.

"Come on, please, please pick up the phone", Zak begged. He breathed a sigh of relief as his Mom's face appeared on the screen, she was about to greet her son but she noticed his distraught face.

"Zak honey are you alright?", She asked, seeing her son's torn shirt, muddy face and fearful eyes.

"It's Doyle. Something's wrong with Doyle", Zak choked.

"Wrong? baby where are you?"

"I don't know, we crash landed somewhere and he started to change."

"What, change how?!"

"I don't know! He started to change into some kind of cryptid, I don't know why mom, he wouldn't tell me. He just snapped! He told me to run, t-then to get somewhere s-safe and call you. He said whatever was controlling him wanted me dead. He started to chase me mom, he attacked me, he's still outside, t-trying to find me!", Zak was hysterical.

"Zak stay where you are, we can track your signal, stay safe honey we'll get there to help you both as soon we can, I don't know what's going on, but I'm sure we ca— "

…..

Drew gasped as the line suddenly went to static, then to black. She tried countless times to call him back, but he didn't answer. She rushed out of the room and straight to the lab where she knew her husband was working. He was confused when she burst into the room looking close to tears. When he asked her what was wrong she nearly collapsed into his arms.

"Something happened Doc! We have to go and find them!", She cried.

"Zak and Doyle?", Doc asked, concern showing up on his face.

"Zak called me, they crash landed somewhere, he said something happened to Doyle, that he underwent somekind of change."…..

"Change? In what way?"

"Zak described it as cryptid like, he said that afterwards Doyle started chasing him, trying to attack him."

"Can you track them?"

"I have the signal from the phone."

"Then lets go save our son.", Doc shouted, slamming down his research and arming himself with his battle glove.

…...

They had boarded and sped off in the airship within ten minutes of getting the news, fisk and Komodo accompanying them. They flew over the area, scanning for the GPS signal in the phone and they weren't having any luck.

"This is useless, we need to search from the ground!", Drew shouted, turning the airship around for the 3rd time.

"I'll prep the engines for landing soon we can touch down in that field", Doc stated but then squinted his eyes when looking at the ground below, "Wait is that?"

"Doyle's jet", Drew whispered, choking back her fear.

Doc immediately set the blimp down next to the wrecked jet, then lowered the ramp so that they could get out as soon as possible. Drew ran up to the mangled wreckage, shouting the names of her son and brother. Doc walked round the back of the jet and examined the crash site.

"They must've tried to land, judging by the marks in the ground, I'd say they were trying to stop", he said, relief in his voice "It looks like they made it out uharmed."

"Doc come and look at this", Drew said, beckoning her husband over to the side of the jet where she had found the deep claw marks in the metal, "What do you think made these?"

Doc furrowed his brow and examined then gashes. "I don't know, there isn't many cryptids with five fingers or toes that have claws like this but I don't know of any that would make marks like this, the little finger and thumb are in the exact same place as they would be on a human hand."

"Do you remember what Zak said? Doyle changed into some sort of cryptid, these could be his."

"What about the bandages", Doc asked, picking up the now muddy rags.

"Those are definitely his, he was wearing them this morning", Drew responded. Doc climbed up into the cabin and began to search through the bags behind the seats.

"Doyle's jetpack is still here, but the claw is gone.",he called, tossing the remeinder of the supplies down to Drew.

"There's more claw marks on the tree here, it looks like there was somekind of fight."

Drew and Doc stopped their search when they noticed Komodo had caught the familiar scent of his "brother" and had gone scampering down into the trees.

"Come on" ,Drew said, waving Doc over "lets find them before they dig themselves into deeper trouble.

…