R:Ultra Evolution

by Primal WolfBlood

Follow the Renegades as they continue their quest for fixing the world, taking on all comers, including fellow revolutionaries Junction 7 led by their unhinged leader Rhydian, and the sinister Style Council, led by the devilish Caprice. To survive in this cut-throat world, they will have to evolve their power even further beyond. It's a battle for success and survival.

12. Storming the Spine

R: Ultra Evolution

Book 12: Storming the Spine

4pm, Renegades HQ

'Right, Jana's got the schematics, so when it comes to mapping out the route everyone's taking, go to her and you can work that out. Your mission is first and foremost to obtain the serum, and bring it home while keeping yourselves safe. This is a recovery mission, only get physical with members of Segolia if you have to. Sean should have set up the cameras by now, so you shouldn't be spotted, but be on your guard at all times.'

Denny then lifted his hand. 'No need to put your hand up Den, but yeah?' 'Shouldn't we be getting as much information as we can from there?' 'Yes, but you need to concentrate on getting the serum first. Everything else will be useful if you can get it, but only go after it if you have a clear opportunity and the serum is safe. Once you have what we need, you get out of there as soon as possible. Whoever leads the invasion mission will be carrying a bag to store everything you can collect in.'

The invasion team, as she was referring to it, consisted of Jana, Astrid, Denny, Alric, Aran, and several other members of Alric's wild pack. With Dakota having been stood down after her comments regarding Maddy, Freja had been drafted in as a lookout in an attempt to keep everyone safe. And she was taking this role incredibly seriously. 'Guys, if I see anyone coming, I'll signal with an air horn, and hold them off as long as I can.'

'Question is when do we go, I say we smash straight through there' Jana suggested, which was backed up by Alric. 'If we go now, we will catch them by surprise, probably catch them in the act of whatever they're up to. Then we attack whoever we have to, smash their experiments up, and take with us however much of this serum that they have.' 'If they don't see us coming, they won't be able to react, and by the time any reinforcements arrive we're already done.'

Astrid had a very different idea though. 'I was thinking of a night-time invasion. Don't forget what Rio said, our priority is getting that serum, so we go in under the cover of darkness, totally undetected when there's probably few if any people there, that way we take what we need and we're more likely to actually get more information from there, and hopefully we can avoid fighting altogether. Our first focus has to be getting what we need.'

Alric seemed to be convinced by this argument, but Jana was still unsure. 'If we go in there at that time though, it's easier to lose track of each other if we get separated on the way back.' Astrid responded to the fear by producing a handful of differently coloured pegs. 'I thought of that, so how about we all take one colour of these pegs, we can knock one into some trees on the way there, and then on the way back, we take them out. That way if anybody gets separated, they know which way they're going, and they know which way other people are.'

'And they won't just take the pegs out?' 'If they find out we're invading, they're not even going to think twice about them, they're just going to charge straight in to intercept us before we find anything they're wanting to hide.' This was when Aran chose his side in the debate. 'She's right, if we approach under the cover of the moon, there will be little resistance, any fighting we do will waste time. We're used to hunting at all hours, if you can act as a team then we can.'

Jana responded to this by taking the bag which Rio had alluded to, and handing it to a surprised Astrid. 'What's this for?' Calmly, Jana knelt to her, and put her arm across her forehead ina show of obedience. 'You should lead us into this battle, you have a powerful voice that people listen to, and it's your destiny to be the one who saves her soul.' The Norwegian was initially unsure, but upon seeing the rest of the wild pack swearing fealty to her, she stood up straight. 'Straighten up soldiers, we've got a job to do.'

As everyone waited for the final preparations to begin, Rio pulled Astrid to one side. 'What was this theory you had about Blood Rose?' 'You saw the reaction to Black Rose, right?' 'Yeah, she totally recoiled.' 'Now if we're having this theory about Blood Rose being the evolution, and Maddy lost to Blood Rose in their duel, then it follows that Maddy's soul is actually trapped by Blood Rose, if we destroy it then we might be able to get through to her.'

Rio liked the theory, but there was a concern. 'What about that with Clear Wolf then?' 'Don't forget, I was trying to take Black Rose as well. I think that Clear Wolf was a decoy, because he knew Maddy was going to lose that duel, so he pulled her out and tried to make us believe it's because we were going to take that instead of the Dragon. He knows we're chasing after him, and he's trying to stall and set up decoys so he can get away.' 'But with you that's not going to work. Great work.'

In Canada

An increasingly agitated Rhydian was on the phone to Kincade. 'What do you mean you've moved everything back to England?' 'We received a very credible tip-off that a wild pack of Wolfbloods are planning a huge attack on our base in Toronto, so we have moved our operations to a temporary laboratory in Glasgow. We will return within a week or two when everything has calmed down. Have you had any more time to consider my proposition?'

Clearly highly paranoid, Rhydian had started to relent to the scientist's demands. 'Fine, you can have her for experiments if you give me the permanent cure. But you can't take her wolf, and that's going to be in whatever contract we end up signing.' 'That's absolutely fine, but you still owe me another Wolfblood to defang.' 'You can have one, but after that and after Maddy's cured, then our deal is done.' 'Agreed, we will both have what we're after then.' Rhydian just looked at the vacant Maddy, and said 'We should do it sooner rather than later.'

At the base

Lydia had been trying to gather dirt on Belle for several days at this point, while also trying to work out why Rio would be protecting her. And by this point, she had a theory. 'So she's a high achiever who just so happened to "accidentally" kill someone and get diagnosed with Schizophrenia after that? Smells like excuses to me. She knew what she was doing all along, and Akiza's been blackmailing her. And they know full well what's going on. With all this evidence, I think it's time people heard about this.'

In Canada

Belle was increasingly suffering from her mental health, but with her word as her bond, she was determined to use this as a weapon. When Akiza was without Rhydian, she would get in Akiza's ear. 'I heard him talking earlier, he and Maddy are going to report you to the police.' 'What for?' 'Kidnapping Maddy, he's going to get you arrested and then take advantage to be taken into police protection. Worst case scenario you go to jail, best case by the time you get released without charge, they've vanished.' Grateful, Akiza brushed Belle's plait, and patted her on the head. 'You're a good girl, I want you to keep updating me on that snake's plans. Because there's absolutely no chance he's going to catch me out.'

And when Akiza had gone, she would be talking Rhydian into thinking Akiza was the enemy. 'Do you not hear her talking? She's ready to take Maddy any day, she's just waiting for an opportunity. She said earlier that when you take Maddy to Segolia to be cured, you're going to be ambushed and she'll snatch her away. Heard her saying you're going to end up like Daniel did.' Rhydian nodded, and patted her on the shoulder. 'But you're loyal to me, right?' 'Of course, I wouldn't be telling you if you weren't my Master and I wasn't your loyal servant. I want you to succeed so I can serve you and Maddy.' He smiled hearing this. 'Well there's no chance of her plan succeeding, I'll just have Kincade come here.'

In the base

Rio was providing a map of the schematics and floor plan of the lab to everybody, as Jana explained how she got them. 'Me and Maddy went there on a school trip a couple of years ago, and we knew that something was up, so while she had everyone distracted by asking these really long-winded questions, I managed to snipe a map of the floor plan, it helps that they'd not long finished kitting out the lab at the time. So as you can see, the office is near the back, by the stairs up to the first floor, and that's where we're most likely to find what we're after. So we'll enter from the west, because there aren't any houses on that side'

Just as this was being planned, Lydia busted into the war room, holding some pieces of paper. 'Rio, we need to talk right now.' 'Well we can't talk right now, I'm busy.' 'You're always busy.' 'Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, I'm organising a large-scale invasion, if you can hold on for about an hour, I can talk to you.' Annoyed at being palmed off as she saw it, Lydia made a shocking accusation. 'You're covering up the truth, you knew all along that Belle was going to turn on us all.' This shocked everybody, and amid the talking, Rio raised her voice.

'I hope you've got some really good evidence for accusing me.' 'Would you like to tell me what "on assignment" means?' Before Rio could even consider her answer, Blair stepped in with a timely intervention. 'Ah, that was me.' 'What are you covering up then?' 'I'm not covering anything up. That was from the day that Belle left us, while I was still acting president. I wrote "on assignment" because I was really hurt at the way she betrayed us, and I refused to believe she'd just up and leave like that. I left it in the office by mistake.'

'Would you mind telling us what's actually going on then?' 'Belle quit the Renegades because she feels like she owes everything to Maddy, she's the one who brought Belle in to begin with, she sent you and Freja to talk to her initially. She sees Maddy as the one who saved her effectively because she gave her hope while in the young offenders place. I understand her decision and choices, but I don't agree with it, and the fact she turned on us means she's an enemy right now. I still have hope that she'll return when we get Maddy back.'

This seemed to be reasonable enough to Lydia, but she still wasn't happy with the prospect of Belle returning. That was, until Rio put her foot down. 'Right, two things. Firstly, Belle returning is up to me, not Blair, not Lydia, not anybody else, me. If she asks to return and I say she can, she can. If I say she can't, she can't. Secondly Lydia, you're on a final warning.' 'What - for the truth?' 'No, for raiding the draws in the office.' 'Why though?'

'Well, ignoring the fact it's a hideous breach of privacy, and the fact that I'm in charge and don't have to justify myself to anyone, there are a lot of extremely important documents in there when it comes to business, people's personal details, scouting reports, and all sorts of other things, and they are kept under lock and key in there for a very good reason, not least that if any of those things go missing, this entire place could sink financially. If there's something you want there, you ask. Now if you don't mind, we're busy, so you can carry on your conspiracy theories on your own.'

While a furious Lydia was steered away by her frustrated sister (who berated her all the way up the stairs), Rio signalled for a private word with Blair. 'I'm sorry for you having to take the shit for my mistake' 'It wasn't your mistake, it was her mistake for snooping where she's not allowed.' 'And I'm sorry for being bratty with you.' 'Bratty?' Blair questioned while laughing. 'That was awesome, I love seeing the hard-headed version of you.' 'Thanks.' 'No need. You're the Interim President, what you say goes.'

At Ashworth Brook Farm

Hannah was watching with a rare cup of coffee as Skylar slept, and Phil discussed business with Meghan. 'So 2pm there's a video conference with several other farm operators, just discussing various business practices, I've written up a crib sheet of things you might want to bring up, can also mention the books that you've seen.' 'Which suppliers am I banned from talking about?' 'Lakeland Dairies, also anyone we've got an exclusive contract with, I've written them on the sheet for you. I'll be hopping on at some point when I've sorted the visa issues.' 'Sounds good, I can handle things until you're there.'

Just then, Meghan's phone rang, to the sound of some grungy rap music. 'Excuse me a moment. Hello, Meghan Cummings speaking. Yep, speaking. Really? That's fantastic! Thank you so much, I promise you won't regret any of this. Ok, thank you, bye.' As she came off the phone, Hannah seemed interested. 'You got something to share Meggy?' 'You know the duelling convention?' 'Tyne-Town?' 'Yep. Guess what - I've been chosen to duel there!'

Delighted, Hannah put her drink down, and ran over to give her sister a huge hug. 'Congratulations.' Phil then patted her on the back. 'You've done good. Let me know if you need me to look at your deck.' 'I will do, thank you. And I promise, this won't distract me from helping with your business stuff.' 'I know it won't, I trust you. Also you're already doing far more than I should be asking you to do.' 'Gotta do it at some time' she glowed, before responding to the first half.

'Thank you. Say, I know you're kind of not duelling at the moment, but is there any chance of a duel in the arena in the next couple of days?' Considering it, he replied 'I could do, but I don't know if Hannah wants to give you a tune up considering she's also got a duel coming up?' Smiling, Hannah agreed. 'Absolutely, we'll work on that in the next few days. Now why don't you go and have some down time before the meeting later?'

In the base

Continuing to be suspicious, Lydia continued doing more research online, but wasn't finding much, even by rooting through old school reports. 'Nothing, just she's "quiet and very capable", a "high achiever in most subjects", she's "as far away from her family's reputation as you can get". I just don't get this, there must have been some kind of warning signs before she was in Year 11.'

Her concentration was then disrupted by a thump outside her room. As she looked, Blair was walking into the bathroom at the end of the floor, and her phone was lying around in the middle of the walkway, having apparently slid out of her jeans pocket. In a moment of opportunity and impulsive desperation, Lydia grabbed the phone, and shot back into her room, gently locking the door as she did.

Immediately guessing her password (0311, Jade's birthday), she started snooping on the phone. 'Why's she got pictures of being handcuffed to a bed…oh… it's that. Still don't understand why she has that.' She then focused again, going on her text messages, and found a series of updates between she and Belle. 'So Blair was the one lying all along? Neat, I would never have guessed it. Well, let's make sure Rhydian does what he has to, this will make sure she never comes between me and Freja again.'

In Canada

Rhydian and Akiza were busy making mental plots against each other, when Belle's phone suddenly rang, and she broke her character as a sharp chill went down her spine, and Rhydian took her phone. 'Why's Blair ringing you?' 'I don't know.' He then answered the phone. 'Unless you're phoning to tell us that you've given up, I'm not particularly interested in negotiating.' 'It's not Blair, it's Lydia, I thought you'd like to know that little Belle has been plotting against you.'

Surprised, Rhydian dug for the information. 'I want to hear this.' 'She's been exchanging messages with the Renegades. Here are some of them: "Maddy injected with serum, have under 7 weeks to save her", "Maddy doesn't remember anything now, running out of time", "Rhydian has hypnotised me, don't know how deep", "Donna now taken, working on a permanent spell", "Kincade and Rhydian don't trust each other, permanent cure being worked on". Enough for you?'

Rhydian started nodding, as Belle looked on in fear. 'Yep, that's plenty. Plenty enough for me to know that you're trying to play tricks with my mind.' 'The information is literally on this phone' 'You've just given me a load of information that is public knowledge.' 'What - that you don't trust Kincade.' 'I don't trust anybody other than my Maddy. And certainly not you. You're just another stupid trap that isn't going to work. Lose this number and go away.'

As he terminated the call, he got curious, and started looking at Belle's text messages, but all he found from the time she'd been there was a single message to Rio, reading "I've chosen to follow Maddy, Rhydian is my master now, please don't come after me or Maddy, this is right for both of us". 'I can't believe they'd be so stupid as to try and trick me like that, I'm not nearly as stupid as they think.' 'I told you Rhydian, you're my Master now. I came all the way here with the knowledge and acceptance of that.'

Maddy then started screaming and crying again, as the rose in her brain was now functioning at maximum power and ferocity, causing incomprehensible amounts of pain to her. So bad was it that she even returned from her now-trademark dull tone of voice, to her old, vibrant accent, as she screamed 'Make it stop! Make it stop!', and continued to cry. But by this point, Rhydian had become numb to it. No amount of crying would help her, nor would roaring and howling uncontrollably, Rhydian now so convinced of his might and right that he couldn't accept the vague notion that he was starting to lose control, as he shouted 'That's my girl! Kill your old self!' The screaming would continue constantly all day, as Rhydian seemed to enjoy the show, even though deep down, everyone knew he was desperate for it to end.

At the Segolia lab, Glasgow

The team arrived at the lab just before 10:20pm, and Astrid reminded them of the plan. 'At 10:35, Sean has arranged for the CCTV cameras to all shut down for three hours due to a short circuit. Now that means the lights might also go out. If they do, you all have torches, but keep them as low as possible to avoid detection. Now you've all seen the plans, right?' They all nodded as a response to their leader.

The team were all dressed in matching riot gear: black, woven bullet-proof vests protecting their bodies, with a red "Renegades" scrawled onto them in big block capitals, while also sporting a red right hand below it, and fastened with two long velcro straps on the back, as well as a single three-pronged clasp to provide a double dose of protection. Their vests also had thick fabric collars which stretched all the way around their necks, allowing the vests to act as full body armour in case of attack from knives, guns, or needles, the latter of which being a major concern of the severely needle-phobic Astrid.

The protections did not end there, with their trousers being made out of fabric several inches thick, which again was stab proof, and was dark enough to help the Renegades and wild pack to all be camouflaged against the dark and starless night. This practical legwear also contained a number of velcro pockets with which to put rolled up papers, smaller notes, or even test tubes that contained the possible serum or any other form of chemical.

In preparation, Astrid had put her hair up in a braided bun, heavily pinning it to avoid it getting tangled in anything. As they waited, Jana pulled her vibrant red hair up, in a high ponytail, and forced a black hair bow into it, before using a hair pin to stick the middle of her tail into the back of her scalp, in an attempt to stop it flying around. Freja meanwhile, took her ponytail out, and then pulled her hair up high, tying a brown hair bow into it, before looping her ponytail back in, a high loop being hidden by a baseball cap that she had borrowed from Blair in the build-up.

With all these preparations sorted, Astrid reiterated everybody's roles in the raid. 'Alric, Denny, I want you both to go straight to the Managing Director's office, that's where we're likely to find some good information on their operations. Alric, if you get into trouble, let Denny know, he can rewind time by just a few seconds.' 'I just need to be able to reach the floor or a wall with my left hand. It might get us out of some trouble' he added, and Alric nodded to him. 'If she trusts you, then I trust you. We'll take as much as we can from in there.'

'Jana, I want you to take the left wing of the lab, you said that's the area you spent the most time in when you visited here a couple of years ago didn't you?' 'Yeah, that's where a lot of the tour was spent.' 'So you're likely to remember a lot of things that are there. I'm hoping they'll have the serum there, or at least some kind of plan for it. I'm relying on you to be as thorough as possible.' 'I understand, I won't let you down.'

'Aran, Mille, Gem, I need you all to take the upstairs, it wouldn't surprise me if they're hiding a lot of their most important notes up there, and we need to make sure that we know nobody's hiding up there to call Kincade or any of his cronies, the last thing we want to do is to be distracted by an all-out war with them.' Aran knelt to her, and stated 'For you, we will do anything.'

'I'll take the right wing.' 'On your own?' Jana questioned in concern. 'You know that it's where they keep the chemicals and it's near the security room?' 'I know. I don't expect anybody else to put themselves on the line in that way, you're taking enough of a risk by following me here. The last thing I need to do is put any of you in more danger then you're already in, especially the Wolfbloods among us, I can't do that to you.'

Jana smiled as a response. 'Spoken like a true Alpha.' 'Never call me that, the only Alpha's Maddy as far as I'm concerned, I'm just the leader of this outing. If any of you have absolutely got everything from your area, then I want you to go and help other people, because the quicker we can do this, then the quicker we can get out safely, and that's the main priority, we get what we need and then we get the hell out of there.'

This is when Freja asked an important question. 'What do you need me to do?' 'You're our lookout. When we arrive, there will likely be at least one security guard, so I want you to help take them out, and then I need you to morph into one of the guards. That way, if anyone does arrive, you can assure them that the situation has been sorted.' She then put her hands on Freja's slim shoulders. 'I know you're racked with doubt Fre, but listen to this; we all trust you. You can do this.'

She nodded, a firm and focused look in her eyes. 'I'll do whatever you need me to. If they don't believe me, then I'll knock them out.' This was exactly what Astrid wanted to hear, as she started to pump up. 'That's the spirit I want to hear. This isn't a revenge mission, this is about taking what we need. So you don't need to go overboard with anyone who arrives, you just need to do enough to incapacitate them. Now we just need to wait and be ready for the time to come, because when it does, we have to be ready to get in there immediately. Every single second is vitally important.'

10 minutes later

As the wait continued with baited breath, Astrid started fidgeting with her arms, clearly incredibly nervous about what was to come. But Jana was there by her side to reassure her. 'You can do this, you're a born leader and you were born to do this.' 'I hope you're right, because I don't feel ready. Not in the slightest bit ready. I mean what if my tactics turn out to be wrong, or what if attacking at night was the wrong decision?'

'Remember what the legends said, you were born in the fires of battle, it's your destiny to lead a great army on a dangerous venture and use that to save Maddy's soul. If anybody can do this then you can, because this is you. You're brave, you're a leader, you're confident, and most of all, you're Astrid Hofferson, you're the last true Viking, this is your birthright. You were born for this exact moment.' Having been reassured, Astrid took a breath, and then looked at her watch. 'Five minutes until we go in there. Everybody, on guard.'

As she said this, they all got into formation, with Freja and Aran stood at the front, then Jana and Alric, then Mille and Gem, and Astrid at the back, holding on to a tree. Behind them were trees littered with coloured pegs, with the expedition party having followed her advice on how to keep track of each other. 'Don't forget your colour on the way back either' she barked to everyone, with them making sure to listen.

10:34

With just a single minute left, the next order came through. 'Approach, low.' As she declared this, every member of the team crouched down, and moved down the embankment they had been waiting on for a better view, moving ever closer, and getting a full view of the lab for the first time, with its blue exterior walls being coloured not by paint, but with heavy cladding, and the doors they were going to invade through being glorified fire doors, which from Jana's recollection, were easy to just kick open.

Amidst the baited breath, Freja started whispering 'Everybody's waiting, everybody's watching, even when you're sleeping, keep your eyes open', noticed by Astrid. But she didn't say anything, not wanting to remove the elder twin from the zone of concentration and focus she found herself in, nor wanting to miss their cue by so much as a second, aware that every single moment they wasted could be deadly.

10:35

As Astrid's trusty watch reached the time, they waited for the signal they had been told to look out for. But there was no initial sign, leading to her muttering 'I swear if he forgot I'm going to kill him.' They were crouched, with baited breath, the three security guards stood outside clearly unable to spot them due to their dark clothing and the poorly-lit trees and shrubbery situated just behind them. Finally, at 10:37, they got the signal they were after, as the security cameras blinked and then the lights on them went out. The moment this happened, Astrid shouted 'Charge!'

No sooner had the words started to leave her mouth than they all did so. Security were incredibly fast reacting, but still were very clearly unable to keep up with the trained pack, who quickly had knocked one of the guards out, slamming their head into the cladded concrete wall, while Astrid floored a second one immediately with a flying dropkick, sending them backwards into the doors, which burst open as they did.

The third guard, knowing they weren't able to do anything, decided to try and retreat into the building, only for Freja to kick him in the groin, and then grab him in a chickenwing choke, allowing Jana to throw him face-first into one of the trees, not only knocking him out but also leaving him tangled in the dead branches of the rotting tree. With the guards out of the way, Freja morphed into one of them, before hiding their limp body behind a tree.

She then directed traffic. 'You all go in, I've got this.' As she declared this, the rest of the crew entered the lab, and she kept watch. 'I swear, if any of you even so much as think of disrupting this, I'm not responsible for what I do. I'm going to break your bodies so hard that being mindless and corrupted and slowly drained of everything that makes you a human would feel like a holiday in comparison.'

In the lab, Jana immediately speared off to the left like agreed, and Astrid split off to the right. As she did, she made a beeline for the security room, but stopped along the way to insert a USB drive containing a nasty piece of malware, which immediately started spreading throughout the entire Segolia network, downloading every single file on their shared networks to the stick before shutting down the entire system, rendering them totally unusable.

With that, she then made her way to the security room, and taking her trusty double-headed axe out of her bag, started to smash the computers in there. She then spotted a filing cabinet, and quickly tried it, only to inevitably find that it was locked, and the key was nowhere to be spotted. So without even stopping to think, she took her razor-sharp axe head, and with a mighty heave, cleaved straight through the top of the cabinet, allowing her to see a good many papers inside.

With maximum precision, she positioned her axe right above the papers, and then sliced through the side of the now ruined cabinet as well, breaking straight through and allowing her to raid the room for various machinery plans and chemical formulas. And amongst the papers, she found one particular one that really caught her eye. 'That might be what he injected into Maddy.' So hurriedly, she grabbed every single piece of paper, and filed them into the bag with both speed and delicacy, in order to not disrupt the order of them.

Shen then left the room, and found the chemical store next, taking the opportunity to take as much as she could find, including various acids and anaesthetics, snatching them away and storing them in a nearby transport box, before carefully wheeling that out into the main corridor, and making a point of putting it by the entrance. As she did, she passed by Aran, who was coming down the stairs with some natural herbs and various recipes that the staff had been working on.

He then returned upstairs, to find his two comrades in the process of incapacitating another Segolia employee who was unlucky enough to walk out of his office to find them raiding the lab, stealing various scientific items and instruments, with them clearly not being very familiar with the human technology, taking anything they could find on the off chance it was useful, be it thermometers, paperweights, or plastic graduated cylinders.

They were bundling everything they found into a burlap sack, with Aran having to remind them several times not to break things. Once they had done this in one desk, they would move to the next one, and do the same, taking whatever took their fancy, destroying anything that they didn't think was useful, and then once the damage was done, quickly moving on, leaving a mess of broken glass and ripped lab reports behind them.

Eventually the sack was full, and they had left no stone unturned, no desk nor office nor conference room untouched on the entire first floor, so the three of them took their sack, and dragged it down the stairs, the weight being so great that even between all three of them, it was still bouncing off the steps frequently, the sound of glass smashing making the more civilised Aran grimace. While they were dragging the huge sack to the doors, they passed by Jana in the main lab, and she nodded to them to continue.

In her sector, Jana was quickly discovering a goldmine of ingredients she recognised as being quintessential parts of Wolfblood culture. 'Meadow Rocks, Asiatic Rocket, Ebony, Cardoon leaves, Dragon Bud, Wood Sage, they really have everything here.' She then explored the far side of the lab, and found more dangerous ingredients. 'Peyote, Opium, Anise, they're really focusing on the hallucinogenics here.'

But what she found next wasn't psychoactive, but simply disturbing, as she found a printout of a text message from Rhydian to Kincade, reading "If you draw up the contract, I will sign it. When Akiza has re-brainwashed Jana, I will bring her here to be defanged, and then you will leave Maddy alone. She'll come, Akiza's taken her once and now with Maddy gone there's no reason for her to stay with the Renegades."

The reply from Kincade read even worse. "Jana alone will no longer suffice. £2000 or pictures of your little cub stripped and in the positions which I demanded, and I will provide you with what you are after. Otherwise, I would be more than happy to take you to the police, and then defang her myself. Either way, my experiments will go off completely unhindered. I look forward to your reply."

Disgusted, she had to remind herself to keep her head, so she took the transcripts, as well as samples of the substances she had found, before moving on to checking the inner sanctums, and not long after beginning, she found the first clear details. 'This is… this is how they made the serum, it must be.' Reading through the ingredient list, she was shocked. 'No wonder she's so far gone, they've put enough hallucinogens in here for 50, I'm surprised her brain's not just exploded.'

Realising the importance, she wrote down every step of the recipe, word for word, and highlighting every single important ingredient by underlining not only the words but also making reference to the exact quantities, before taking the original papers as well. After collecting some more samples of various other experiments, Jana ran over to the right hand side again, and upon exploring the area for a second time, she discovered what looked to be an innocuous CD, until she flipped it over and saw a plain case under it labelled "The little cub's Faustian".

Recognising how useful this could be, she swiftly slid the disc under her vest, using her breasts and the inside lining of the vest to create a pincer, keeping the crucial evidence safe. Having found that, she continued looking, picking up a number of other message exchanges and contracts from the ground, as well as two more unlabelled discs, and another, annotated copy of the serum progress details, with Stage 3 being circled.

With that done, she left there, and having dumped everything she'd found in the front with all the other winnings, she saw the reception desk not far from Kincade's office, and dove over the desk, rolling through as she landed, and without even looking, stole all sorts of papers from the reception, as well as a number of consent forms and contact details. She also found a key for the drawers in his office, and realising what it was, she opened the door to the office, and handed it over to her Dad, as they gave each other a knowing glance.

Having been unable to find much until that point, Alric passed Denny the key, and within a few seconds, he had unlocked the drawers on the left, leaving the elder Wolfblood to explore those while he unlocked the other side, and then pulled the drawers out himself. And sitting there, obscured only partially by a thick file, were two test tubes filled with the milky coloured serum, just like Tee had described.

So he coughed to get Alric's attention, and they took a tube each, as well as the permanent solution that Kincade had alluded to, and all the documentation from his private file, and a pair of mobile phones. As they went to leave though, Denny noticed Donna, and they just about managed to hide in time to avoid being spotted as she blankly walked past, not so much as considering walking into the office.

As the team all met back up, Denny explained their near miss, and that gave Astrid an idea. 'If she's here, we're taking her back as well.' So quickly, they walked up to her. 'Donna, it's time to go.' She just tilted her head, and stared blankly, her short hair forced into a sprig of a ponytail, and now wearing a black rose-shaped choker. 'You're invaders, I must let Master Rhydian know.' 'Master Rhydian?' 'Yes, he made me pure and made me work here. We're going to cure Maddy after they get married.'

Realising that she couldn't talk any sense into their former ally, Astrid quickly took a neurotoxin that she had found in the chemical lab, and grabbed Donna's arm, before injecting it into her, making her go completely limp immediately, as Denny reacted. 'Is she… dead?' 'No, just paralysed. This will only last a few hours probably. Did anyone find the serum?' Denny showed a test tube, while quietly stating 'Two'. 'Right, let's go.'

As they went to depart though, the police arrived, having come from the main entrance. However, even though their armed weapons had torches, Astrid was able to manage the situation. 'From the side or behind' she whispered, and before the forces could take any control of the situation, they were ambushed, with Jana easily taking care of most of them, and Denny knocking one to the floor with a knee to the back of the neck, and Astrid then stamping on their head to knock them for six.

While all this was going on though, Kincade managed to sneak up from behind, and grabbed Jana in a choke, before holding a knife to her cheek and backing off. 'It's your choice - either she gets defanged or she gets killed. Because either way, I'm not having your lot come here and disturb my experiments. You can give my little lab assistant puppet back as well, it's nice having someone who will do whatever you want.'

Not willing to mess around, Astrid simply shouted 'DUCK!' to Jana, and in one fluid motion, Jana slipped down, while Aran launched Astrid into a flying headbutt, catching Kincade right in the jaw and stunning him. Now bleeding heavily from her head as a result of the impact and landing, Astrid screamed 'Torpedo Alta!', before hitting a second flying headbutt, and then allowing Jana to do the same, the trio of skull collisions being enough to knock him out.

As they went to leave him though, a clearly dazed Astrid stated 'We'll take him', and injected him with the same neurotoxin, before Alric dragged him away. After one more quick sweep, Jana stopped off to quickly tape Astrid's head up, and they dashed outside, to find around a dozen more officers laid out on the ground, and stood above them was Freja, stained with blood, and tossing a metal bar up and down in her hand, a psychotic look on her face. 'That's what you get for trying to stop us.'

Flashback: 15 minutes before

Astrid was quite effectively slicing up everything in the security room, but while she was doing so, she didn't notice the blade of her axe nudge a burglar alarm that had been installed. And while the computer virus had disabled nearly every alarm and camera, all the technology in the security room was unaffected due to being on a different system. So no other alarms went off, which prevented the leader of the party from being aware that she had tripped anything.

Within minutes, the police had arrived, but not bothering to wait or explain, Freja detonated a smoke bomb right in front of them, causing sheer confusion and panic in all of them. While they were trying to adjust to the conditions, she picked up a metal bar she had hidden under her bra, and started to smack all of them, running from the front to the back, hitting every single person in sight as she did, before doing the same on the return journey.

One of the officers then raised their gun to her, but as he went to fire, she kicked it upwards causing the bullet to go skywards, before she disarmed him with a leg trip and started hitting the remaining conscious officers with the gun, using it as more of a melee weapon than a firearm, and happily smacking several of the police over the back with it. Only one officer managed to avoid this fate, but as they radioed for more backup, Freja dropped to the floor, and pulled his trousers down, before kicking him in his private region.

This bought her enough time to find her trusty bar again, and she went berserk, constantly hitting him with the weapon until he was no longer moving. She then meticulously rolled up the trousers of every officer, hitting them once with a perfectly placed bar to the back of each knee, rendering them completely unable to walk when they did regain consciousness. Afterwards, she de-morphed, with her limits being reached for how long she could hold the form.

End of flashback

'Good job Fre, let's go.' As they tried to escape though, two more armed guards approached them, and Freja looked at everyone else. 'Leave this to me.' She took a run-up, and then with a single mighty bound, leapt into the air, before coming crashing down with a pair of overhead tomahawk chops to their necks, completely knocking them both out, and leaving their path ahead completely clear.

As they collected their first pegs on the return journey, Jana was impressed. 'Where did you learn to do that?' 'Oh, you can thank Mads, she taught me just where to hit them in order to knock them out. Did you get what you needed?' 'Yeah, we also got Donna.' Jana then had a thought, and turned around, before returning seconds later with Kincade's limp body, as they left, having succeeded in their mission, with Jana declaring 'Astrid, you're an incredible leader. From all of Wolfblood's kind, thank you.'

Next time: Freja looks to stun Rhydian with a blast from the past, Blair and Kari look to mend fences, and will Maddy's duel against Hannah provide an unexpected piece of inspiration? R: Ultra Evolution Book 13: Fighting Evil with Evil