New chapter! I apologise for the flop in the first paragraph that is supposed to be a fight scene, I need more practice on 3rd person fight scenes. Oh well, enjoy the new chapter

*Please Read the note at the bottom of the chapter*

The seconds that followed all happened in slow motion. Doyle lunged at them, knocking Doc (who had moved in front of Zak to protect him) to the ground with a snarl and a shout. Zak watched in horror as the two wrestled on the floor, Doc struggling with all of his might to keep control of the enraged hybrid. The older man grabbed him by the wrists to prevent being clawed but Doyle sent a sharp kick to his stomach and he loosened his grip. Doc managed to dodge most of the swipes Doyle sent at him but received a sharp slap across the face and was momentarily knocked down. Doyle went for Zak once again but found himself at the end of Drew's blazing sword. He snarled with ferocity and attempted to knock the blaze aside and would have succeeded had Doc not recovered quickly enough to grab the ex-mercenary and restrain him with a strong headlock which took both of them to the floor. Fiskerton grabbed his arms and kept the clawed hands from slicing anyone whilst Drew and Zak stood frozen above. Doyle's arms suddenly lit up once again and Drew gasped when she saw the Sumerian scriptures on his skin.

Zak could feel the blood pounding in his ears as Doyle's cries ran right down his spine. Doyle fought in a ferocious manner, snapping and slashing, just like a dangerous predatory cryptid would. The family had instead gotten into a messy fighting stance, not really wanting to seriously injure Doyle, unfortunately this made them vulnerable as Doyle, or whatever had taken his body by force, was out for blood. His mind had been twisted and gnarled by the black magic to a point where he was totally unnerved by Fisk's shrieking, Doc's shouting and even his sister and nephew's pleas for him to cease. It seemed nearly impossible for Doc (Who was usually able to wrestle with quarter ton animals) to keep any control over Doyle's frenzied strikes, he found it difficult enough to block them, avoiding losing the sight in his other eye. Komodo on the other hand, stopped watching the battle unfold and instead tipped the battle in his master's favour and gave the relentless opponent a quick but effective short sharp bite to the thigh. Doyle's blazing eyes snapped towards the lizard long enough for Doc to turn and give his wife a desperate message.

"Drew! Quick! Go! The cortex disruptor storage!" He cried, taking advantage of Doyle's distraction.

"I'm not leaving you here while he's acting like that!" She shouted, all the while shielding Zak from his uncle's brutality.

"There's no way we possibly stop or at least get through to him whilst he's in this condition, if we don't restrain him, one of us will be on the receiving end of a serious injury! What if he gets to Zak!?"

Drew shook her head, gave her husband a "good luck" glance before racing off down the hall, ushering her son with her, the Tibetan Fire Sword lighting the way for them whilst Doc was left with Komodo and Fisk to hold Doyle off. The other man had momentarily stopped with the rapid strikes and had begun to circle what he assumed was prey, nothing more than a distraction from his target. Doc studied Doyle's every move, never looking away from him. Being a cryptozoologist, Doc was able to scrape every animalistic detail off the other man, the short hoarse breaths, the unemotional eyes, even the slightest twitches in the man's physique all indicating to a disturbance somewhere in his thought process. He acted just like any cryptid would under the control of a neural parasite, going into a stage of perhaps pain, panic and confusion first, maybe even with a hint of fear, then slowly being driven insane, his overloaded brain going into a combination of unbridled aggression and screaming thoughts until becoming obedient, more like a machine than a living organism, only responsive to its controller.

Another twitch from Doyle (who was also bearing his now full set of fangs) made Doc in turn shift positions, which brought him to the question: Was Doyle fighting himself in the first stage, or was he already gone, his controller looking for the right time to make their "robot" strike a blow. Doc supposed it was the second one, as Doyle had no interest whatsoever in listening to anyone and hadn't at any point strayed from attack mode into hesitation. He was definitely being controlled, but Doc couldn't get his mind round who was the culprit. It wasn't Argost, his capabilities hadn't advanced that far and besides, he hadn't noticed any of Argost's parasites on the man. That was more bad than good. If there was some unknown evil force out there that was able to infect and control humans to such an extent, he knew his family was in danger as the unknown force had already taken his brother in law down without raising any suspicion.

Doc readied his fists as Doyle attempted to strike again, but ended up being shoulder barged by the man. Fisk yanked him back by the shirt like a poised dog on a choke chain and as soon as he did, Doyle lashed out, hissing at the Lemurian, he clearly didn't like being contained. That was the problem, his strength may have been inhuman, but his speed was like lightning, which meant that Doyle could lash out at any given moment and behave even more unpredictably that any normal human could before Doc could put up any defences. It was this behaviour that made Doyle so dangerous and it was this behaviour that made him try to bite Fisk in an effort to free himself. It was so disturbing to see that Doc only turned away when he heard the loud cries of his wife and son from down the corridor. It was this one second distraction that gave Doyle the opportunity to pounce.

He jumped and knocked Doc over, clawing him on the way down. He couldn't afford to take his eyes off Doyle, but he did see the green light reflecting off the man's pale skin and realised what Drew was armed with.

"DOC! Hold him there!" …..

…. Drew fired, hitting Doyle in the shoulder with a blast from the reflex disruptor and his arm instantly went to jelly, temporarily numb. Doyle seemed more frustrated than pained by this as he still used his three active limbs to attack Doc. However, he was slightly weakened and Doc managed to pin the man to the ground. Drew fired one more shot, just enough of a dose to get him to lie still before pulling out another weapon of some descript. Zak, looked slightly put off by the gun-like appearance but Drew held it firm and steady.

"Why are you using the bipedal cryptid tranquiliser gun?" Doc asked, still wary of Doyle.

"Because usually the reflex disruptor on a dose that strong can paralyze a human for up to 2 hours with one hit, so I don't think a human sedative will be strong enough to sedate him enough so that we can move him into a cell without causing harm to anyone", Drew answered, raising the gun and aiming for a vein to ensure a quick knock out effect. After she fired the dart, it took about five minutes for Doyle to become totally unconscious but his eyelids eventually drooped and unknown to the Saturdays, fatigue severed Rani Nagi's control over him. Drew sank to her knees with relief and wiped her brow, dropping her weapons. Doc took a step back and looked down at Doyle in disbelief, whereas Drew knelt down beside him and bit her lit when she noticed the scales on his neck and arms along with the ends of his fangs that were protruding from his now nearly black lips she then lifted his right hand to examine it. She traced her fingers over the smooth black scales, paying attention to the marking inked over them.

"These markings look like Sumerian", Drew said "Like the carvings on the Kur stone."

"Whatever the case, we can examine him later, we have no idea what kind of effects the drugs will have on him, he could change in an instant and besides, Zak needs medical attention", Doc said, gesturing to Zak who was rubbing his assumingly broken arm.

Drew walked over and put an arm around her son, "I'll take Zak to the infirmary and then I'll head down to the lab and try and find out what this "thing" is that were dealing with", She instructed, leading Zak off down the halls.

"I'll meet you there after I put Doyle in the holding area, the power is due to come back on in the next few minutes anyway", her husband called back. Zak turned around in time to see Fisk nervously pick Doyle up and follow Doc down the opposite side of the hall. When they did finally reach the med bay, the power had come on as Doc had suspected and Drew was able to take a quick scan of his arm.

"It's nothing too serious sweetie, only a small fracture, you'll be fine", She said confidently, wrapping the boy's arm in a makeshift sling and gently bandaging the small scrapes on his arms and torso. She made them both a drink and then headed down to the lab, Zak following close behind her. Doc came in about a minute or so later and began to set up some of the machines in the room.

"Now Zak, your mother and I are going to need you to tell us everything that happened", He said, a hint of severity in his voice. "How did your uncle start changing?"

"Well…", Zak started, scratching his head "It started yesterday whilst Fisk and I were playing Alien Airstrike 3 with Doyle."

"Did he attack you?", Doc asked defensively.

"Not at all dad, Fisk pulled one of Doyle's gloves off and his hand was a little scaly but when I asked him this morning he said he'd pulled them all out."

"The bandages, of course, he was hiding the marks! What about earlier, what caused him to crash the jet?", Drew asked, a little agitated by the fact that he hadn't sought help from anyone and had just left his condition to worsen.

"About halfway there, he started to freak out, like he was in a trance, he only just managed to land it but then he started to change more until he became what he is now. I tried to help him but he just told me to run, to stay away from him. After that he blacked out and started to chase me.", Zak sighed, Fiskerton making fighting actions behind him. "He's definitely gotten worse though, he never had that many scales when he first attacked me."

"Well I have one theory on why he's acting like that", Doc said, taking something out of his pocket and placing on a dish and putting it inside one of the machines.

"Is that one of Doyle's scales?"

"Yep. I figured that if he's changing into a cryptid, there's a likely chance he'll act like one too. So if we can find out what species or type it is through DNA, we have a better chance of knowing how to handle him."

The machine beeped and Doc walked over to the computer. He frowned.

"What is it honey?", Drew asked, looking over his shoulder at the screen.

"I can't find a match. Not even in the whole cryptipedia."

"Did you get any abnormalities in the DNA?"

"The strands that originate from the scales are multiplying in vast quantities, there is already hundreds of the foreign cells attacking and replacing the human ones.", Doc said "But I could try to match the DNA to find the group it's from."

"Try it."

Doc typed something in on the keyboard and a long list of categories came up, one highlighted in red. "It's of Reptilian origin, serpent to be exact. Similar to that of cryptids like the Lizard Man. But that still leaves too many options."

"Then let's narrow it down a little", Drew said. She brought up a picture of the Kur stone and some pictures of Doyle from the airship CCTV and zoomed in on his arms, "See that? Some of those markings are from the Kur stone but all of them look Sumerian. It isn't a neural parasite that's controlling him, maybe not even instincts, I think it's dark mysticism."

"Dark mysticism? Like the snake lady's relic?", Zak asked, both of his parents turning to him in surprise.

"Wait. Doc, did Doyle ever come in contact with the relic for long periods of time?"

"No, I don't think so. The only one who had physical contact with it was Fiskerton and I was just as close to it as Doyle was. But Fisk and I never started growing scales and fangs", Doc answered, putting his fingers to the corner of his mouth in thought. "We'll have to work this out back home as we'll need to use the winch to get the jet into the airship before it gets dark", Doc said.

"Zak you go with your father, I'm gonna go watch your uncle and make sure he doesn't break out", Drew responded, giving Zak the motherly stare to make sure he left with his father…

I have the rest of the story kind of planned out, it should have around 12-15 chapters but I want to do another "what if "endings fanfic for TSS, I already have a few events I could write alternative endings for e.g: Van Rook's death, the ghost in the machine, how Doc got his scar etc. but I want to see what you readers think I should write a "what if" ending to. So if you want to put any suggestions forward in the reviews, I will try to make a story out of it (a oneshot or multi chapter fic depending on the idea) and you shall get a virtual cookie :)

~Magenta