"Dystopia Daggertail" by Mandy marie good

Chapter One

“Ah, Commander Cardozo!  It’s good to finally meet you.”  Dizzy could hear Lloyd’s voice through the foot-thick stone walls.  Sometimes it was a blessing to not be human.

“Just tell me why I’m here, Doctor Alden.”  Dizzy pouted.  The new arrival sounds grumpy… she grinned to herself.  I’ll just have to fix that.

“As you know, the Department of Inhuman Relationships started a program that introduces Beasts and Specters into human society a while ago—”

“A ridiculous program!  They are called Inhumans for a reason!”  Dizzy winced a little, but her grin only widened.  This guy is going to be fun to mess with!

“But these…Inhumans, as you called them…could be useful!  We have discovered them to be incredibly intelligent and loyal, more than our forefathers could have ever dreamed!”

“So the monsters can talk.”  Dizzy’s tail twitched at the Commander’s sneer.  Oh, I can do much more than that…

The good Doctor seemed to read Dizzy’s mind.  “But they can do so much more!  They have developed cultures and societies of their own!  The Specters are able to restore amputated limbs and cure cancer they can read intentions and feel other’s emotions!  We could learn so much from them!”  BO-RING!  Dizzy pretended to snore, despite the fact that the humans couldn’t hear her.

“What about the Beasts?”  Dizzy’s ears perked up at the snarled word.

The Dr. Lloyd Alden sighed and Dizzy knew he was rubbing his temples as he often did when speaking with such a bigoted human.  “The Beasts are as intelligent as humans and many times stronger and more agile.  They have an incredible sense of loyalty and although they tend to be rather stubborn and territorial…they have proven themselves able to maintain a cool head in high-pressure situations.”

“So we can send them into combat when human life would be an unnecessary risk?”  Dizzy narrowed her eyes at the stone wall and emitted a low, primal sounding growl.

“Calm yourself, Dystopia.”   The voice of the Specter next door floated though the room.

“Butt out, Ever.  This has nothing to do with you!”  Dizzy hissed.

“Well…that’s sort of why you’re here…what with your military experience and all…”  Lloyd suddenly sounded nervous.  Dizzy’s temper flared.

“Dystopia…”

“I said shut it, Evermore!”

“I’d like to introduce you to some members of your new team.”  Lloyd continued, sounding more confident now.

“My team?”

“Dizzy?  Are you in there?”  Lloyd’s voice now came from behind the steel door.  Dizzy was so focused on the conversation she didn’t even notice how close they were.  She contemplated roaring to scare the Commander, but decided against it.

“Yes, Dr. Alden?”  Dizzy could practically see Lloyd frown at the formality.

“There’s someone here I want you and Ever to meet.”

“Fine.”  Dizzy knocked on the stone wall next to her bed once—leaving a dent in it—to get the Specter’s attention.  “Lloyd wants to talk to us.”

“Dizzy, Ever,” Lloyd nodded to both of them as they entered the hallway, “this is Commander Cardozo.  Commander, this is Dystopia Daggertail and Evermore Wisp.  They’ve been in this program for about a decade now.  I’m sure their experience will be quite helpful for you.”

“Hello, Commander.”  Ever nodded at the human intruder.  Dizzy just hissed.

Lloyd raised an eyebrow at Dizzy.  “Um…I think I’ll just show you to your office now, Commander.  You can meet the rest of the team later…”

Dizzy glared after the two men for a while and then stormed into her room.  “Why do they even bother giving us names?!”

“Huh?  Dizzy, what are you talking about?”  Ever’s voice was worried as she followed the Beast into her room.

“The humans!  They give us these names just to keep our records from getting mixed up and then don’t even bother use them!  Like we’re not even people!  They might as well just stamp numbers on us!”

“Lloyd uses your name all the time, Dizzy.”  Ever’s colorless eyes bored into Dizzy’s copper ones.

“But others never do.  And this human is just like them.  It won’t matter if he works with us for a week, a year, or a decade.”  Dizzy growled.  “I guarantee that he will never call me anything other than ‘Beast’ or ‘Daggertail’ because that’s all he sees us as, Ever.  To people like him, we’re just Inhumans!”

*

Commander Cardozo barely noticed as the Doctor steered him away from the Inhumans.  Did that Beast just hiss at me?  That Inhuman with the tail just hissed at me!

“Commander?  Are you all right?”

The Commander gave Lloyd a glance from the corner of his eyes.  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Please excuse Dizzy.  I fear she may have overheard our conversation…”

“It doesn’t matter either way.”

Lloyd frowned.  “I’m afraid her temper takes some getting used to.”

“How does the Specter figure in?”

“Excuse me?”

“You said I’d be working with Beasts for combat situations.  That other girl was a Specter.”

“Yes…they come in handy from time to time as well…”

The Commander just grunted in reply.  “So, what are the rest of them?”

“Oh, you mean your team?”  Lloyd’s face split into a massive grin.  “We have one more Specter and another Beast assigned to you.”

“Perfect.  I hope they know how to take orders.”

“Don’t worry, Dizzy is the most difficult of them and she’ll just need some time to warm up to you!”

The Commander stepped in front of the Doctor, forcing him to stop walking.  “I don’t want them to warm up to me.  I want them to listen to me.”

The Doctor ran a hand through his thinning white hair with a sigh.  “Understood.  This is your office.”  He motioned towards the door beside the Commander.  “You’ll find everything you need in there, including your team’s records.”

Commander Cardozo narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Lloyd before finally turning to open the door.  The Doctor exhaled deeply and started to walk to his own office, more agitated than usual.

After turning on the light and glancing around the room once to make sure it was tidy, the Commander headed straight for the filing cabinet beside his new desk.  Taking out the records of the four Inhumans that were his new subordinates, he glanced over them once before pausing to clear his head.  A Wisp, a Parasitus, a Flesher, and a Daggertail…  Now mentally prepared and determined to know more about how he was expected to keep them in line, he opened the first file to read.

*

Sanare didn’t even glance up from his meal when Dizzy sat across from him.  “What do you want?”

“The new human arrived today.”  Dizzy hissed.

“Then go bother him.”  He shoved a forkful of pasta into his mouth and his face contorted in disgust.  Humans.  They always overcook everything.

Dizzy let out a short bark of laughter.  “You obviously haven’t met him yet.”

The ill-humored Specter looked up from his plate to glare coldly at the Beast.  “What do you mean by that?”  Dizzy just smiled in response, her long tail swinging from side to side behind her like the pendulum of a clock.  “Oh.”

“I give him three weeks.  What’s your bet?”

“Don’t know.  Don’t care.  Go away.”  He returned his attention to his unsatisfying meal.

Dizzy shrugged and her tail snapped one of the condiments from Sanare’s table, coiling around the container like a snake.  “Just came to borrow some salt.”  Sanare continued glowering at his overcooked noodles as Dizzy approached the next occupied table.

“Dizzy!”  The seven-year old cried out eagerly.

“Hey, Critter!  Where’s Ever?”

“She went with Dr. Alden.  Something about records?”  The young Beast shrugged.

“Need some salt?”

“Yes, please!”  Critter held out his half-eaten chunk of meat with a big grin.

“Did you meet the new human, yet?” Dizzy asked as her tail shook out a generous amount of salt.

“New human?” Critter chewed on his extremely rare steak.

“The one that’s supposed to help with the combat training.”

“Oh, yeah!  Is he here yet?”  Critter grinned as blood dripped down his chin.

“He arrived this morning.”

“Is he nice?”

“Not really…”  Dizzy leaned over to whisper in Critter’s ear.  “I want you to keep an eye on him, okay?”

Critter gave Dizzy a worried look.  “Why?”

Dizzy shrugged.  “Just make him feel welcome.  And if he does anything suspicious, feel free to take a bite out of him.”

Chapter Two

The Specter hissed, the bitterness of his soul clearly portrayed in his voice.  The humans would regret pretending that they had any power over other creatures.  “Where is the Champion?”

“Yes, Leader?”  An enormous Beast stepped forward to face the Specter.

“Is everything prepared?”

“Yes.  We have gathered as many Untamed as possible.  Soon we will attack the Department and get rid of those Domesticated traitors.”

“Good.”

“One question, Leader?”  The Champion scratched vaguely at the scar on his right arm.  “Why aren’t we attacking the research centers and the zoos instead?  They are the threat.”

“The Domesticated are being trained to stop us.  We cannot allow this.”  The Specter fixed his colorless gaze on the Beast’s dark amber squint.  “Understood?”

“Of course Leader.  We attack in three days.”

*

Commander Cardozo was deeply disturbed by what he saw the day after he arrived at the DIR.  He had walked into the designated training room where he was supposed to find his new team working diligently on their combat skills.  Instead, he found complete and utter chaos.

All of the gym equipment in the room had been shredded or chewed to bits by the combined efforts of the Daggertail’s blade and the Flesher’s teeth.  Everything from the plastic padded mats to the solid steel dumbbells were ripped and snapped and scattered all across the floor.  And there, standing before him, were the obvious culprits.

A teenage girl with dark hair and a long, twisting tail, and a seven-year old boy picking the bits of chain links out of his teeth.  The two Specters were in the back of the room; one trying to pick up the pieces of gym debris, the other leaning against the wall and looking rather disinterested in the general situation.  Ever greeted the Commander and apologized for the mess without even looking up from her menial task.

“So, this is the guy that got Dystopia’s tail in a knot,” Sanare remarked with a bored expression.

“What are we going to do today, huh Mr. Commander?”  Critter’s metallic eyes glittered with anticipation as he spat out the last chunk of iron.

The Commander was too busy gaping like a dehydrated fish to respond at first.  “You two!  Explain what happened here!” he snapped once he regained control of his voice.

“Dizzy dared me I couldn’t chew through the chains on the machines!”  The sharp-toothed child grinned happily, as though destroying the machinery was just an amusing game.

“Guess I lost that bet.”  Dizzy shrugged with a smirk.  “I’ll pay you the fifty bucks once I get my allowance from Lloyd tomorrow.  Okay, Sanare?”  The Parasitus nodded in response without even bothering to look in her direction.

“What about everything else?”  The Commander hissed, trying to keep his voice at a tolerable volume.

Sanare raised an eyebrow as he gazed at the Commander for the first time.  “What about it?  Those two always get carried away.”

Ever glared at Sanare before standing to offer the Commander her usual reassuring smile.  “They just get so excited about everything.  It’s amazing how much energy and adventurous spirit Beasts have.”  Sanare rolled his eyes at her praise.

Commander Cardozo snarled in frustration at the middle-aged woman.  “Then let’s make them put that ‘energy’ to good use.”

The Commander led the four Inhumans to an outdoors training area and had them shoot targets and complete obstacles for five hours straight.  Or at least, that was the plan.

“Mr. Commander?  What is this anyways?  It tastes worse than the sweaty stuff in the training room.”  Critter held up his hand to show the Commander a gun with a large chunk bitten out of the barrel.

“New rule.  No guns for the Flesher kid,” Commander Cardozo announced as he snatched the disfigured weapon away from Critter.  Ever breathed a sigh of relief.

About two hours into the training, the Commander had them begin the obstacles to show him their abilities.  He thought that reading their records gave him fair warning.  He decided otherwise once a polished blade came sweeping past his face, nearly taking off his nose in the process.  “Daggertail!  Watch where you’re swinging that thing!”  The Commander turned to glower at Ever when he felt his rage dissipate without his permission.  “Wisp!  If you’re not going to be helpful, at least let me do my job right!”  The sudden rise in adrenaline returned.  “Thank you.”

“If you thought that was impressive, wait until you see my signature move…” Dizzy gave the Commander a strange expression—a sort of mischievous smirk paired with cold, unforgiving eyes.

With the Commander’s words to her best friend still ringing in Dizzy’s ears, her tail lashed out.  It speared through the center of a nearby wooden post they used in target practice.  Dizzy flicked it in a whipping motion, and the post soared over her head.  Not a second later, it crashed upside-down not an inch away from the Commander’s steel-toe boots.

Once the Commander’s heart calmed to the point that he no longer was afraid it would stop, he gave the Beast a calculating look.  “Never use that move again.  Not on the training field, not in battle.  And from now on I’ll keep your gun unloaded at all times.  You obviously are too impulsive to trust with bullets.”

*

“Commander Cardozo?”

The Commander turned to see Lloyd trying to catch up to him in the hallway.  “Something wrong, Dr. Alden?”

“Ever told me about what happened today on the training field…”

“That Beast is too reckless for her own good.  She’s a danger to herself and the others.”

“Commander,” the white-haired man’s voice was suddenly stern, “the Inhumans can take care of themselves.  You are here to make sure that they can work as a team, but that won’t happen if they think you’re against them.  Now, Beasts have a tendency to be rather temperamental.  Critter shouldn’t be a problem—I raised him myself with Ever, so he is much calmer than most—but Dizzy is still extremely distrustful of most humans and has a history of overly-aggressive tendencies.  If your comments and actions cause her to regress—”

“I assure you, Doctor.  As much as the Inhumans can take care of themselves, so can I.”

Chapter Three

What am I, five?  Dizzy frowned at the ceiling of her room.  It wasn’t the first time that Lloyd had confiscated all of her snacks and comic books and given her a “time out”, but that didn’t make the situation any less frustrating.  The least he could do is call it “being grounded”.  Or leave me with an old Captain America…  The Beast glanced mournfully at her now empty bedside table.   Dizzy sighed before sitting up from where she was laying on her bed and digging under her mattress for a stash of beef jerky.  It was stale, but she was never the picky sort.

Apparently, as much as Lloyd preferred Dizzy pranking people to her slashing people, he highly disapproved of her little stunt on the training grounds.  And because he was her psychiatrist and her parole officer, when Dr. Lloyd Alden is not pleased, the DIR is not pleased.  Nobody wanted the DIR to be displeased, so Dizzy was given the punishment that Lloyd knew she despised more than anything.  Having to sit in a boring blank room with nothing to do and no one to annoy.  Then he gave it an embarrassingly childish name, just to rub salt in the wound.

As she chewed on her jerky, Dizzy’s tail began to swing like a pendulum.

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

“EVER!  I’M  BORED!”  Dizzy’s fist made contact with the stone wall that separated the two rooms and about a quarter of the concrete and fiberglass building shuddered at the impact.

“That’s the point Dystopia.”

“But it sucks!”  Dizzy pouted at the wall as if the Specter could see her.

“Too bad.”

Dizzy heard the door to the next room open and gentle footsteps emerge into the hallway.  “Hey!  Ever!  Don’t leave me here!”

She collapsed back onto her bed when nobody replied.  “Well this is just great…”  For the next half-hour, Dizzy laid down on her bed, too bored to sleep and too anxious to eat.  What I wouldn’t give for some excitement… any reason to get out of this stupid room.

The Beast heard a strange pulsating buzzing sound and glanced at her alarm clock to see it still smashed beyond repair from her earlier tantrum.  Shrugging off the sound as the product of her under-stimulated imagination, Dizzy ignored it until familiar footsteps began to race through the hallway near her room.  Wonder why Commander Cardozo would be in such a rush…

“Daggertail!  Get out and get moving!”  The steel door was a blur as it swung open to hit the wall beside it.  The Commander gave Dizzy a fervent glare before he spun around to continue running towards the front of the building.

Dizzy took a few moments to blink and stretch before hopping off her bed and following him.

The main lobby and the surrounding offices of the DIR looked like a warzone: Most likely because at the moment, it was.  Beasts and Specters of all kinds were scattered throughout the area, each involved in their own individual battles.

Unfazed by the otherwise confusing atmosphere of the room, the Daggertail Beast leapt into action.  With a few quick whipping motions of her tail and a dodge or two, Dizzy had incapacitated at least a dozen rebel Inhumans and nearly decapitated a couple of them.  It barely mattered: There were hundreds more.

Dizzy was about to swing her tail again when she was suddenly swung back herself and collided with a nearby wall.  “You will not interfere with the Uprising, traitor,” snarled a massive Beast.  He had at least a foot’s length of Dizzy’s tail wrapped around his deeply scarred right arm.  His grip on the extremity was so tight that Dizzy felt nothing but numbness past that part of her tail.

Growling in response, Dizzy snapped her tail, hoping to free it, or at least to send the other Beast flying into the wall like he did her, but he only bared his teeth.  Tightening his grasp on Dizzy’s tail, the Champion Beast gave it a tug, causing Dizzy to fly over his head again.

Dizzy hit the ground face-first, smashing the concrete around her and breaking her nose.  “You Domesticated have only let yourselves grow weak.”  The Champion’s hold caused some bones in Dizzy’s tail to snap.  “Had you remained Untamed like the rest of us, you wouldn’t be in this position.”  He bared his teeth again in that strange expression that wasn’t quite a snarl or a grin.

Before Dizzy could prepare herself for whatever was coming next, something barreled into the Champion Beast, effectively knocking him off his feet.  The Champion only growled in frustration as Critter’s razor-sharp teeth dug into his side.  Before the Flesher could deal enough damage to make the abdominal muscles of no use, he was thrown into another room.

The Champion charged at Critter claws-first and slashed at him, only to be intercepted by Sanare.  Every wound dealt to the Parasitus healed instantly and reappeared on his attacker’s body.  The Champion winced and snarled but continued to try to get past Sanare to destroy the Flesher that dared to snack on him.

Before blood loss or exhaustion could truly affect the Champion Beast, a cry of complete and utter despair resounded throughout the building.  A mixed emotion of desperation, grief, and rage washed over everyone in the city, human or Inhuman, and the team immediately knew that whatever happened must have been disastrous.  What else could make calm, considerate Ever so distressed?

Taking that as their cue to leave, the Untamed cleared out of the area, but not before a Specter with a cruel, bitter smile turned from the unconscious Lloyd and announced that they would return.

The entire team, save for Commander Cardozo and Dizzy, ran up to Lloyd to assist him.  The Commander had gone with a number of human officers to stop the Untamed.  Dizzy just sat there, a tempest of numbness and shock roaring within her.  As much as her heart lurched at the thought of Lloyd’s suffering, she couldn’t shake her mind free from thoughts of that Champion Beast…

Chapter Four

Lloyd had been injured fatally.  Or, he would have been if Sanare wasn’t around.  The moment that the team reached Lloyd, Sanare had given the doctor a large portion of his own life force.  It wasn’t enough to heal the wounds completely, but it kept both of them breathing until the ambulance came.  Sanare was back to normal and sent back to the DIR in a matter of days.  Lloyd on the other hand had to be kept for observation.

“So when are you going to visit Dr. Alden?”  The Specter asked as Dizzy sat across from him.

“E-excuse me?”  Dizzy was startled.  Sanare was always blunt, but he never really seemed to care about what others did, so it was unlike him to express an interest in such things.

Sanare shrugged.  “The two of you seem so close.  I thought you would have been going over every day.”

Dizzy hesitated before scoffing at the Specter.  “What does it matter to you, anyways?!”

“He doesn’t blame you.”  Sanare shoved a forkful of salad—barely wilting at the outermost edges—into his mouth and grimaced.  That lettuce was far from his definition of “fresh”.

Dizzy narrowed her eyes and snarled at Sanare.  “But you and the others do, right?”

“Stop jumping to conclusions.  You know Evermore and Carnivorus would have forgiven you even if you did it on purpose.”

“So you do blame me.”

Sanare looked up to meet Dizzy’s glare, keeping his face as stoic and disinterested as possible.  “I think that you should have kept your head on straight instead of drooling all over your opponent in the middle of a battle.”  He looked down at his salad again.  “That being said, there was nothing you could do.  We all tried.  Your involvement wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“But I should’ve tried.”

“Perhaps.”  Sanare swallowed.  “I suggest you be careful.  You’re starting to sound like you’re accusing yourself instead of defending yourself.”

“I don’t need your advice.”  Dizzy hissed as she stood to leave.

“Dr. Alden says ‘hi’, by the way,” he said it barely loud enough for the Beast to hear.

She froze and turned back to Sanare.  “You visited him?!”

He shrugged one last time before focusing all of his attention back on his meal.

*

Commander Cardozo woke up in a cold sweat.  Something wasn’t right.  He couldn’t tell what it was, but something woke him up.  Was someone in his house?  He glanced at the clock before getting out of bed.  3:21 a.m.  If someone broke into his house, they were about to regret it.

He silently made his way through the halls, avoiding any floorboards that creaked.  The Commander scanned his eyes through every room, and in every room he found nothing out of place.  Not even a single cracked window.

Finally, he went into the kitchen and—after a thorough search—sat down to speculate about what could have woken him up.  He considered going back to bed, but decided he wasn’t tired anymore and turned to head into the living room—only to stop once he saw a certain Beast rummaging through his refrigerator.

“Don’t you have any pork rinds in this house?  What’s wrong with you?”  Dizzy said without looking away from her foraging.

“What’s wrong with me?  WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!”

“I needed to ask you something.”  Dizzy finally settled on a package of uncooked bacon and pulled out a chair to sit.

“WHAT IS IT?  WHAT COULDN’T WAIT UNTIL I GOT TO WORK TOMMORROW?!”

“Geez, you’re loud.”  Dizzy slurped up a strip of bacon like it was a noodle.  “Do you think I’m ‘Tamed’?”

“What?”  The confused Commander sat opposite Dizzy.

“Am.  I.  Tame?  You know; tame, docile, domesticated…”  She set the bacon aside and looked Commander Cardozo in the eyes.  “…a pet.”

“Beasts are too dangerous to keep as pets.”  The Commander began to stand up again.

“But am I ‘Tame’?  The way that those others are ‘Untamed’?”

“Way I see it, Daggertail,” Commander leaned across the table and glared at her, “you’re as bloodthirsty as the rest of them.  Now get out of my house.”

*

“Lloyd?”  Ever approached the hospital bed slowly.  “The doctors say you can go back to work in a week…”

“That’s good to know, Ever.”  The human smiled at her.  “How are the others?”

“They all visit you quite often, Lloyd…”

“Yes, but they don’t tell me everything.  They don’t seem to want me to worry.”  He chuckled, making sure his worries did not disrupt the warm smile on his face.  “Strange, seeing as I’m their therapist.”

The Specter sighed and sat on the foot of the bed.  Lloyd’s appearance did not fool her for a moment, but she knew it was as much for his benefit as hers.  “Sanare is agitated.  He doesn’t show it, but your being wounded has gotten him as upset as the rest of us.  Critter—the dear little darling that he is—has been trying to keep the others preoccupied and has pestered the human’s to no end, chewing through chair legs and setting traps…”

“Just like Dizzy.  I swear those two will give me gray hairs.”  Lloyd chuckled again as he ran a hand through his snow-white mane.  “How is she?”

“I’m fine,” called a voice from outside the window.

“What are you doing out there?”  Lloyd sat up on his bed and leaned over to try and see the Beast, but she kept her head ducked under the window.

“Sitting.”

Lloyd smiled to Ever before turning back to the window to address Dizzy.  “Why don’t you come sit in here.”

Sensing that it was not a question, Dizzy climbed through the window to comply.

The entire time that Dizzy was visiting with Lloyd, Ever was giving her a concerned if not slightly confused look.  Dizzy purposely avoided discussing her opponent during the battle, but that didn’t prevent an ember of emotion to spark up whenever Lloyd tried to bring it up.  Lloyd, being Lloyd, decided to drop the issue.  Ever, being Ever, complied for his sake, but still glanced at Dizzy curiously from time to time.

Chapter Five

“You all know what to do.”  Commander Cardozo’s steady gaze rolled over each Inhumans’ face as he waited for confirmation.

“Keep our eyes and ears open,” Critter chanted.

“Expect nothing,” Sanare repeated dully.

“Anticipate anything,” Ever said.

Dizzy sighed as the Commander’s eyes rested on her.  “Stay focused.”

“Good.  The last thing we need is to get caught off guard again.”  Since the good doctor was in the hospital, Commander Cardozo had been even more tense than usual.  As confidant and stern a man he was, he knew too little about Inhumans to be entirely comfortable leading this team without Lloyd’s supervision and advice, however unwanted it often was.

“If those ‘Untamed’ dare to come back…” Ever began to say.  A torrent of rage and bitterness suddenly filled everyone in the room.  The emotions were so strong and so…unlike Ever…that even Dizzy was frightened by the sudden change.  But they all agreed.  The Untamed Uprising had started a war, and the DIR’s “Domestics” were planning to finish it.

*

The repairmen had covered the entire lobby in plastic sheets as they rebuilt the concrete floors and walls.  To Dizzy and Critter, the place looked like a modern, urban version of a haunted house, with ghostly figures and inexplicable sounds echoing throughout the building.  Under different circumstances, the two would have made a game of hiding tools and spooking the construction workers.

Which is why no one in the DIR was surprised when a splattering of red suddenly appeared on the white sheets.  It was all a game until the workers began to scream.

“Daggertail!  Flesher!” the Commander bellowed from the doorway.  At first it was silent.  Then the Untamed emerged.

The alarms blared again, but this time the team knew what it meant and wasted no time joining human officers to defend the DIR.  Critter jumped into the fray teeth-first as Sanare shoved his gun into the Commander’s hands.  It would be more useful to him anyways.

Ever was the third member of the team to arrive and immediately her pale eyes scanned the area, singling out the Specters and searching for the one who dared to injure Lloyd.  Dizzy was the last to enter the room, but the fastest.

She spun and kicked and flipped, all the while a streak of pure scarlet followed her.  Even she couldn’t see exactly where her tail swung, it was moving too fast.  In a matter of seconds, the sheets were torn down and the Inhumans who remained in hiding were staining them.

As Sanare acted as a sort of shield for the humans and Critter devoured the surrounding Untamed Inhumans, Ever sent a barrage of bullets into the Uprising’s leader.  Despite there not being much for her to do, Dizzy was about to dive back into the slaughter in an effort to relieve some of Ever’s excess anguish.

But something on the edge of Dizzy’s perception caused her to pause.  It wasn’t what Dizzy heard, so much as what she didn’t hear.  Commander Cardozo’s guns had stopped firing.

Acting on pure impulse and instinct, the Beast’s path veered towards where she had last heard the Commander’s bullets ring out.  There, in the center of the control room, was the Commander, ducking and dodging as a Beast slashed mercilessly in his direction.

The assaulter snarled and the tendons beneath his scarred right arm tensed in fury as he continued to strike at Commander Cardozo, only landing a few deep gashes and a number of minor ones.  Captivated by the brutal sight, Dizzy was still for a moment, not fully conscious of who was on her side and what was about to happen.

As the Champion Beast dealt a grave blow to Commander Cardozo’s ribcage, Dizzy snapped back into awareness.  With her mind being too rushed and numb to formulate an actual plan—Dizzy did what was natural for her.  She speared her tail through the Champion’s neck and flung him over her head, minute droplets of crimson arching through the air.

The Commander grasped at his wound and winced before gawking towards the Champion’s bloody body and turning his wide-eyed stare at Dizzy.  The Daggertail saved me?  She killed her own kind for a human?  Why?  “Why did you…” he couldn’t find the words, or the breath, to ask her.

Dizzy merely pouted in the direction of where the corpse fell.  “Too bad…he was kind of cute.”

*

“That Parasitus certainly is a miracle worker.”

Lloyd chuckled at Commander Cardozo’s comment as he walked back into his office, closely followed by the Commander himself.  “I suppose this means you don’t find the DIR’s program all that useless anymore.”

“Well, the Inhumans do come in handy…but I do still have some concerns.”  The men sat on opposite sides of the room, attempting to gauge each other’s reactions.

“Such as?”

“The Daggertail—Dystopia—when she killed that Beast that tried to kill me, she admitted to being attracted to him, but was so passive about it.  Is that normal?”

“Completely,” Lloyd nodded with an understanding smile, “Beasts don’t mate for life.  They reserve their passion for battles and their compassion for parenthood.”  The doctor shrugged.  “I’m glad you finally respect them as people, Commander.  But don’t expect them to act ‘normal’ by your definitions.  After all, they are Inhumans.”