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CHAPTER 3: A NEW LIFE
Ari awakens to start her first day as the king's newest recruit. She cleans herself up and heads to the kitchen where Piper and Michelangelo are preparing breakfast. He has prepared several distinct styles of pizzas including vegetarian, meat-lovers and cheese. While Piper, with help from her sisters and the kitchen staff has laid out a huge spread of both breakfast and brunch items. Including restaurant quality, gourmet and down-home and family recipes. She even prepared a rare authentic Chinese dishes for the Asian clan members, that she received from a young Chinese man she met and helped years ago in San Francisco's Chinatown. Ari grabs a few pieces of pizza before the rest of the family wakes up and eats everything. After that she goes to the training area to sit in on a sparring match between Maggie and Kitty. The two teen mutants have been restricted from using their powers as this is a sparring match and only the hand-to-hand skills that are taught during these classes are allowed. After the match both girls are physically spent and Maggie calls it over. Ari sits and watches several more sparring matches, including one that gets a little bloody. She thinks to herself about one day seeking out her previous boss and showing him what a mistake he made firing her like he did.
Meanwhile, the king is back down is the lab along with Dr. Hank "Beast" McCoy, Lab Tech/secret service Agent Claudia Donovan and builders Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. He has decided to build a new monster bodyguard, stronger than Luca ever was. He studies up on what the strongest breeds of demons might be, including brutes and apocalypse demons along with various species of animals. He sends Spike, Black Whirlwind, Angel, Faith and Wolverine out to hunt and capture the demon parts while Rogue, Maggie, Beast Boy and Mystique are sent after the animals. Each squad is watched by at least two guardsmen for extra protection. While they wait the king has the lab readied to bring all the parts together with assorted human parts taken from slaves and prisoners.
The king gets an alert from Rogue's team from the zoo. "Mama has infiltrated in the guise of a zoo keeper. she's going to kill all the workers using her stealth skills, Maggie and Beast Boy are going in as a Rhino and Elephant to lure the critters back to us then we'll try again for a tiger or something else that's aggressive and ornery" says Rogue in her strong southern drawl. "Gorillas are notoriously territorial, Rogue. And they can exert over 800 pounds of force with their arms, breaking bamboo or a person. Get a Silver-back Gorilla, they're the big daddy Gorillas. They have the broad grey patch of fur on their back so you'll spot them easily." suggests the king.
Rogue tells the guards to help her catch a Gorilla. They get to the makeshift Congo jungle exhibit and find the Silver-back. Rogue takes her jacket and gloves off so she can use her powers to subdue the beast. She flies up over the fence into the jungle. She is faced with a larger Silver-back who is ready to fight Rogue for trespassing. However, Rogue flies up and lands on his back and tranquilizes him by touching his head with her bare hands absorbing his strength and vicious territorial attitude. She carries the Gorilla out of the jungle as if he were a baby. Back on the jet the animals are locked in crystal cages and they are transported back to the castle.
The animals are led to the jet and the scientists, lead by Miranda Lawson, hook wires to each one to transfuse their characteristics into the new humanoid shell the king and his lab techs have constructed. An 8 foot monster of a man, made up of innumerable demon body parts. Soon he will get the combined strength of the demons, the animals and the mortal parts he was constructed from. Forensic Scientist Abby Sciuto lowers a lever and the lab lights up with electricity and all the animal's attributes are transfused into the latest monster bodyguard. Minutes later the monster begins to move. "Holy Frankenstein, Batman, it worked" smirks Claudia as she looks in amazement. "Of course, did you expect anything else?" asks the king jokingly. The king stands in front of the monster having planned him to be susceptible to mind control, the king telepathically orders his creation to be utterly obedient. The monster drops to one knee and says "yes master." The lab is cleaned up and the king orders his creation to stay in the dark room in the back of the lab until the king calls for him.
Back outside, Ari is receiving training from Angel and Spike to fight like a vampire. The boys set up the training dummy Buster dressed in a mask to mimic the Masked Man the clan is trying to fight to save Rocco. Ari swipes at Buster with her claws, striking the dummy in the head. Then unleashes a high spinning jump kick to knock Buster to the ground. The dummy's head is fitted with an accelerometer that is feeding information back to a computer in the workshop, where builders Kari and Grant check the data and find that Ari's attack was lethal just with the claw swipe alone, putting out over 8,000lbs of force. The data is relayed back to the king who is interested in the progress Ari is making. He is happy to learn that Ari is learning as quickly as she is. The king takes a look at his other promising student, the young witch Punky. The teen pink-haired witch is with Paige, Storm and Mr. Giles in the Danger Room, a high-tech computer controlled training room where the mutant clansmen and those with magic come to train their powers. Punky is placed through an obstacle course in a simulation of the underworld, given a task to fight off demons to claim a prize at the end of each level of training. She makes it through 7 levels before being defeated by the simulation. The king speaks over the intercom "nice job kid, next time I wish you 'd at least make it to level 8 maybe 9." Punky limps out of the training area and up to the medics to get checked complaining of pain and swelling in her ankle. Dr. Cameron checks her and says she sprained it but it wasn't that severe. She wraps it up and tells her to stay off of it for a few days to a week. Colossus offers to carry Punky back up to her dorm. She tries to walk on her own stubbornly but realizes she can't. She gives in and Colossus carries her upstairs.
The king meanwhile takes the ExOps mercs and the Warehouse agents on a mission into a nearby county to investigate a series of murders involving demons. The victims were hardly respectable people. In fact, they were a sect of bank robbers and murderers. Nonetheless, they way they were killed warranted the sheriff to call the king to come out and investigate. "What happened?" asks the king. "Well I don't rightly know." says the sheriff. "I came across these guys about midnight after I heard something out here. It's not a big town so you can hear everything. Found them cut up like fishes. No critter could do that, no one I know of mind you. So it had to be done by a creature of some kind. I heard y'all were keen on this stuff so I called y'all up." "Jennifer, get the gear. Chris and Peter help her out. Fiona, you Mattias and Myka keep talking with the sheriff. Steve and Claudia go set up in the sheriff's office then we'll all go out to hunt this thing."
The king sits in the conference table reviewing evidence. "Sheriff, I want the bodies sent back to my castle for my Medical staff and the science team to study." "I'll make the arrangements now," says the sheriff. "We need Diana and Wolverine." the king says as he calls home. "Kurt, I sent you the location of where we are, bring Diana and Logan. And come armed" commands the king. Minutes later the three of them teleport into the office armed with guns and Diana fortified with her enchanted bow and arrows. "Glad you guys got here. We got a demon" remarks the king "Good. I think i need a decent fight. That kid of yours is a hand full. Nevertheless, I think she is ready for the fight with that masked bastard." says Wolverine.
"Glad to hear. Ari will be an asset when we find that guy." says the king. "Take a look at this monster we came here for." The King hands them a case file from eyewitnesses. The agents return from their scouting trip, exhausted and empty handed. "Claudia, Jinx did you find it?" "No whatever it is it's either very elusive or it can't be detected on the scanners." says Claudia. "Logan, Diana get out there. Sheriff, can your men back them up in any way?" asks the king. "No, none of my men will dare go in those damn woods." says the sheriff. The king stands up enraged. He confronts the sheriff. "Listen here, I'm not sending my team in without backup. Now you and your lackeys grow some nuts and get your redneck asses out there before we rip your throats out and feed your worthless corpses to that creature out there. Do I make myself clear?" the sheriff storms out and gathers his men and waits at the edge of the woods for the king and his hunters.
The king and the others head towards the woods to speak to the sheriff. Suddenly they hear a loud bone chilling roar that is not anything like a werewolf or vampire. "That's a big one alright. We should have brought some extra firepower." says Agent Jinx. "No time Jinxy, we are required to put an end to this thing, now" orders the king. They dredge deeper into the forest, tracking the scent and sound of the creature. Logan catches a scent on the breeze and takes off towards a cave. The others follow and they stop at the mouth of a deep water filled cavern. "Damn, has to be it. Guess we need to go in." the king commands. "But what if it's too deep to swim. We need Bobby to ice it so we can walk over it." suggests Pete. Suddenly Pete gets a bad vibe that they shouldn't even try to go in. "Oh no, bad vibe, a strong one. We're not going in" and as he says that the cave starts to crumble then it suddenly collapses. "The scent was good here. It was in there. Nothing could have survived that cave-in" says Logan. After checking the area thoroughly, they confirm the cave-in killed the beast and the town can now rest easy.
The king picks up his team and gear and they return home. Ari is slumbering on the couch in the den after a long training day. Other members of the team are asleep as well. Velvet and Lita are helping Amy, Piper and Kari carry the children up to the nursery while Adam, Paul and Leo aid Toad and Blob in cleaning up where the kids were playing. Then the guys head upstairs after the women, and soon everyone has turned in for the night. Theresa welcomes the king home and is ready to stay until the mission is finished completely. The king offers the blind seeress a permanent place on his staff and she agrees. The king sets the alarm to warn them if any intruders should try to trespass on the property, goes to feed to heal a minor injury he got while out in the woods then retires to his chambers for the night. The night is calm and no one disturbs the quiet as the clan sleeps preparing for whatever tomorrow might bring.
