Chapter Four: Hungry like the Wolf

Maybe the city knew that trouble was coming for it, under the moonlit night through the valleys of the Hudson Valley. Red eyes, traveling under the full moon, maybe a hundred or so gathering in a pack. They screamed and howled as they ran next to the Hudson River, running along the free flowing water towards their target. A large collection of shining lights traveling up into the sky.

Maybe a thousand years before no one would have noticed what was happening in the city, candles lighting up the city would have drawn no attention but now with buildings raising a thousand feet into the sky shined all night, truly the city that never slept. At some point in their time, the people of the Hudson Valley just gave up and closed their shades at night.

Yet now as they ran along the river, all heading towards one object they were being led by someone not with them, simply the beasts being controlled by their own mental programing telling them to sniff out whatever they could find. And as they traversed their valley, going through the darkness of the grass filled wonderland.

And then as they searched, running between their packs suddenly something caught the nose of one. Deviating from the pack it followed the smell and followed it, sensing the stench of mortal men radiating from a source. Running to it the best smiled, showing its large teeth as it pointed towards the moon and then howled. Releasing a signal to the others, the pack ahead of him stopped and halted as they answered the call.

The beasts stopped as they stood on their now bipedal feet and they all examined the one feature on the land. A simple pipe with a green liquid flowing out slowly, following it would reveal that it led to city. Looking at it the beasts knew they had found their stratagem, a way to get into the city without anyone knowing of their approach. Seemingly the demon who discovered the pipe now led the pack and ran away from it at full speed.

He had a reason to do so, a force of his own, his own tiny pack nothing compared to what they could bring. And while in his mind, he thought little of his own, in a castle five miles north in the valley, their leader through happy thoughts knowing he had found a way for his army to invade New York City and now he would revert the city back to its natural way, the forest inhabited with its natural citizen, the werewolves.

Dustin felt a newfound respect for Ronan and for once; he didn’t feel appalled when the wolf asked to come over. And there they were once bully and victim; now they were moderately working together on a large poster board. Carefully Dustin was looking down at the white cardboard, placing a picture on it. His eyes scanning the board; making sure it wouldn’t mess with the feng shui of the poster. It checked out all right to him and they proceeded to the next stage.

“Now then, hand me the glue.” Dustin said as he held a piece of cut out paper in his hand and waited for Ronan. Quickly a glue stick was placed and the shark gripped onto it as he pushed off the cap and started to apply the mixture to the back of the cutout. Carefully he wiped the purple mixture of glue against the paper spreading it out evenly and making sure no large chunks ruined it.

It remained tense as Dustin wiped sweat of his forehead, putting the cap back onto the stick. Turning the piece of paper around, it slowly descended onto the paper. Falling like a brick in Tetris, Dustin made sure that it would go in the right place or else their efforts all in vain.

Dustin applied one side down first, before slowly sliding his hand along the cutout and securing it to the piece of paper. Ronan grabbed a towel and rubbed the sweat off of Dustin’s forehead, before he moved down to the paper and cleared it of extra glue.

He sat back, amazed at how prefect they made their cutout look; unfortunately that was only the first cutout of thirty. Their job never ended, being professional paper appliers was something that Ronan invented more or less to be his hype man and it was working out okay, so far they had picked out about fifteen memes, seven ample exposition drops and eight pictures that convened their message to an audience.

“Ok, now then let’s take a break.” Ronan said as he stood up, the night was still young and the news was only on their fourth continuous hour of reporting and they wouldn’t get worried until it was at least the tenth. Standing up as well, Dustin looked at the large meal he brought out from the freezer; he placed it in the oven and set the timer. The oven activated as it activated starting the process to melt and then heat the highly processed meal as it threw heated particles at the food.    

“Ok, that should be done in about twenty minutes, my rehydrater doesn’t work anymore and I always thought that a homebaked meal tasted better than a rehyrdrated one.” Dustin said as he looked into the oven’s void, seeing his meal getting blasted with multiple rays of heat from the conductor. Standing back and leaning against his counter, he wondered how long he might have until they would finish their project. 

“So where are your parents, you never talk about them and they don’t seem to be home; are they out on a business trip?” Ronan suggested as his theory while Dustin just stood in place, the shark standing still forward a second as his eyes sunk down towards the floor. It felt like a tiny arrow striking his skin, Ronan perhaps accidentally or not had obviously hit a nerve but still Dustin didn’t look very hurt, just nostalgic.

“Oh it’s the longest business trip as they say; I remember my mothers’ faces as they took me out to Central Park but it all changed that one night; as if the world wasn’t satisfied with my happiness one night a robber broke in our building and they froze trying to protect me from the man .” Dustin said as he stood in place, smiling as he explored his own past looking into the parts he often tried to ignore and hide away from his self. He frowned trying to block out her face as she still smiled despite getting beaten.

“Oh dear, I’m sorry for bringing that up.” Ronan said Dustin had heard the words for the first time in his life it felt; Dustin had heard Ronan apologize to him. 

“Don’t be they died trying to save me and slowly but surely their memories are turning into stories; that’s what happens we all turn into stories when everyone forgets us. I don’t know how my story will go, but I know it will be a pretty good one.” Ronan said tears falling out of his eyes as he reflected on the good and olden days of his childhood.           

Ronan stayed silent as Dustin sat down in his seat spinning around on it and trying to poorly emulate his mothers’ attention to him and how they take him to the tulip field and they could spend an entire day outside playing and singing and dancing.

“As for me however, I landed in ORION. I could take care of myself and I had the money to do so and that is pretty much how I ended up here, but all in all any questions?” Dustin said feeling as if someone finally cared for well-being and his story for once. He looked over to Ronan, the wolf smiling as they talked, seemingly both of them finding a kindred soul inside each other.

“I don’t know what to say to that?” Ronan argued as he sat down next to Dustin and patted the shark on the back. Dustin stood still for a second, his body shivering as he felt the furred hand of Ronan touch his back. “Thank you for having the confidence to share that story with me.”

“You know, I’m sorry for bullying you; I really am.” Ronan said as he looked at Dustin, the shark and the wolf by now had eaten their meal no emotional boundaries would prevent them from doing that. Dustin stayed still for a second, realizing that he was getting what he deserved, all the shit he took finally leading up to an apology for everything he took.

“However, if I had to say why I did it, it would be because I could never figure out why I liked you and that if I pushed you enough you would develop the confidence you needed and maybe then we could get together.” Ronan said as he placed his hand on Dustin’s face and rubbed it, however as the shark realized what Ronan was doing rather than saying he had his mind changed.

Ronan brought his face in together and their lips touched, Ronan led and it was simple both of them never having done anything like what they did. However, it was Dustin who pulled back first once he realized what Ronan truly said.

“Wait you couldn’t take that you liked me and so you tried to modify me for your needs.” Dustin said knowing full well that was the complete meaning of what he had said. Pulling off the chair and standing up he looked at Ronan, who had a nearly shit-eating grin on his face.

“You son of a bitch, was I not good enough for you ; after all this time all you had to do was say something drop a little hint and I would have been over you like all the times you said when you taunted me!” Dustin yelled at Ronan, knowing that he would have to hold his powers back or else face action from the Outsiders congress for attacking a civilian.

“It’s not like that Dustin, you just needed more confidence; people were going to knock you around like a bag in the wind the whole time. In my head I was trying to save you.” Ronan said to preserve his own safety, as he too stood up trying to once again get the height advantage over them. Dustin approached, the sink behind him groaning as his powers seemingly leaked out. Dustin seemingly held his out his hands, the apartment creaking and croaking as he walked forward.

“Well then is this what you want, this is me with the confidence to say, get out!” Dustin said as he pushed Ronan, who didn’t fight back and still had the same grin on his face, towards the door. Opening it Ronan didn’t move as if he expected Dustin too push him to a cab as well and open the door from him too.

“You sniveling son of a bitch, I said to get out!” Dustin couldn’t hold back any longer, and just threw his fist forward. While the Outsider code of conduct said he couldn’t attack civilians with his powers they said surprisingly nothing on sons-of-bitches with his fist.  

Ronan groaned in pain as he was hit in the eye, he wobbled out of his apartment and onto the outside hallway. It was far enough for him to leave; quickly closing the door he locked Ronan outside and put the chain up.

Perhaps depressingly he lied against the door and slowly fell to the ground as tears filled his eyes. He cried into his eyes as he was disappointed on how sour one of the greatest nights of his life when so quickly. Sinking against the floor, he felt like he had risen so far and then fallen deeper than he could imagine.

…

And now we move up north, imagine a place in the Hudson River valley; green grass, river running calmly through the depression in the ground it helped to shape, what about Plattsburg? Not far to north for our purposes, no now image a place a little more south than Albany against the Hudson River, imagine that place. We go to somewhere near the town New Baltimore, a continuous cloud layered over the town.

A large castle stands in the distance; thunder strikes the ground, the yellow blur often arcing down and blasting the grounded castle, knocking off chunks of the stone as they so often did. Inside this castle was something different, the townsfolk often mentioned to the police officers that something unnatural happened inside the place, howling was heard, strange beasts seen.

…

“Mister, I do dung believe that there is an unholy happening with in that castle up thare on the hill.”

“Cletus, do I have to say this again, for the last time what you sees when your drink is not real life, next time do it away; we’re the police not baby-sitters for drunks.”

“But mister…”

“No buts or ands about it; now try going a night without drinking yourself to death.”

…

Inside this castle, the howls were true. Inside swarms of fur and muscle moved around, and it wasn’t a meeting of the Superbeasts. Instead a swarm of Werewolves lived in the castle and they were all lead by one man.

“Moonraker! Is my name, in case you forgot but even I highly doubt that, no instead we’re going to talk about our new, improved and unsinkable plan; Operation Complete Success!” The large werewolf said as he spoke to the crowd, their reactions ranged from clapping and howling and the largest werewolf of them all sucked it all in.  

“Now then one of our scouts has found a new secret way into New York City and this time we’ll be going in through tunnels. Alpha Pack, you are proud and strong werewolves, the three thousand of you shall be enough to transform the entire population of the city.” Moonraker yelled out to the crowd as they could only howl and yell and cheer. 

“Go now invade, transform, seer, rinse, repeat!” Moonraker yelled as he howled into the air and sent the signal for them to swarm. The thousands of werewolves swarmed out following the scavenger that found the tunnel. Moonraker jumped off the platform he stood on and joined the crowd below him.

They followed the scavenger moving under the cover of darkness. They passed through threes and darkness, until they found a tiny pipe sticking out of the mountain side, a tiny stream of toxic water was slowly leaking out into the Hudson River, poisoning the well.

Their howls bounced off the walls only making them more powerful as they jumped into the pipe and traveled into the metallic passage. They ran through and made their slowly into the sewer system of New York City, passing into the underpassage.

…

“Hell he Hello citizens of New York, I’m Sally Sparrow and this shithole is where all your shit goes when it goes down the hole, where not working with much here.” The reporter said as she made sure all the muck on the ground didn’t accidentally splash into her boot. She was dressed in a bright yellow raincoat and had her microphone hung behind her.

Behind her engineers were taking the metal sheets off the wall, stripping the wall to its bare minimum. She had headphones on and a soft piece of foam was placed over the microphone as to saw the audience’s ears. All along the tunnel the toxic waste that had gradually accolated over a hundred years since its construction. 

“Due to a newly passed law, these northern parts of the sewers are slowly being converted into a more water saving system, using vapor to slowly have this muck be redirected towards a sewer treatment plant.” Sally Sparrow said as she had her camera man swiped around and showed the views the extent of the sewer.

“As you can see this is why we normally send Tom on the dirty assignments, but he has the bird flu.” She said whining as she slammed her foot down, garbage piling on her foot. She screamed a bit and moved out of the sewer pit. Suddenly a large howling noise was heard, it echoed down the tunnel and her body shook as she heard it.

“That’s strange someone must be pranking us these tunnels get excellent vocals, do re mi fa so la ti do!” Sally said as she let her sing voice go, hearing it echo through the tunnel back at her “pranker.”

Another howl came back and suddenly the tunnel started to shake, the camera man turned towards the tunnel trying to find the source of the noise and possibly see what was making it. Multiple red glows appeared as he shined a light down the tunnel. Sparrow started to back up down the tunnel as she started to count the eyes.

“Ah something appears to be happening, maybe some prankers; why don’t we just back up a bit.” Sally Sparrow said as behind her the engineers stopped as another roar bounced through the tunnel. She nearly had a chance to run but as she did, suddenly large black furred beasts jumped her and she was knocked down.

Falling on the ground as they were swarmed by werewolves, the camera captured the footage of werewolves attacking. The werewolves once seemed to bite her but that was enough. Sally Sparrow screamed as her legs expanded out and her skin was replaced by mangy brown fur.

Five new howls were added to the pack as they found themselves trapped within the tunnel. The camera shook as it was picked up, the transformed werewolf grabbing it and nearly crushing it as he fogged it with his breath. The camera fell back on the ground and captured the howls of the pack as they swarmed.

…

“That is not good.” Dustin said as he looked at the television, his morning television show quickly replaced by the live stream of the horror show. Standing up Dustin knew he had to act, the Superbeasts and the Environmental Bunch were about to finalize their treaty and they couldn’t be interrupted.     

Activating his perception filter and freezing some water to his body he walked out of his apartment and under the cover of the sunrise, he jumped into the sewer pipe. Holding his breath as he fell, he landed into the toxic waste and stood enough.

Using his powers he dispersed the toxic waste off his body. Above him the manhole was covered as he heard the sound of a waking city. He saw where they were at; Sally and her camera crew were at the New HuHu

Hudson Aqueduct, sending toxic waste in and bringing good water back.

He knew the sewers extensively and turning around he knew the werewolves were going to swarm New York, collectively using the sewers as a transportation tunnel in order to hide them. He ran through the toxic mess and hoped that Nightshifter would meet up with him.

The tunnel was dark and long, he heard the howls ahead of him and paused. He knew that he would need a way out, he could barely take three werewolves let alone what looked like hundreds in the case. He wondered if the Hudson Aqueduct’s fresh water tunnel was closed, Lake Champlain was surely drained for the season and they couldn’t funnel any water.

Looking over he saw a hatch in the wall, if he was right by the time he walked he should have been in the lower part of the ducts. Riptide walked over to the hatch and spun the release. As it opened he looked inside, clean fresh water being led to a purification plant was now down to a tiny stream.

“Still it might be good ammo.” Riptide said to himself as he activated his powers and dragged the water down clumping it into a large ball. Pulling the water back through the hatch he froze it and floated it over the ground, barely touching the toxic waste.

Ahead the howls were loud, they didn’t seem to be getting any closer still. At most they were at least a thousand yards ahead and weren’t moving on their own. He prepared to fire the first shot and draw first blood with an ice spear as a hand touched his own.

Looking at his hands he suddenly saw he was invisible, behind him he could feel Nightshifter touching him. The wolf must have arrived, seeing as Riptide was now in the invisibility matrix, there would be no other way for him to do such.

“There are werewolves ahead, what exactly are you thinking on fighting them alone and only with about twelve spears?” Nightshifter whispered as he spoke to Riptide; they might have been invisible but silent they were not and they certainly didn’t want to attach a werewolf to the area.

“I needed to do something; we can call the superhero teams until they sign their treaties, so we need to do something now.” Riptide said as he turned around, he then had the idea of creating a wall of ice, he still wasn’t sure that he would have enough water to do so. Breaking off the ice into spears he walked out of the invisibility matrix and prepared to face the werewolves.

He could hear the howling and the rumbling of the massive pack of beasts in front of him.

“Are you sure of this we could at least call the military and get a good layer of cannon fodder in front of us.” Nightshifter said as he felt his phone in his pocket knowing that additional help was only a few calls away.

“No we need to stop the werewolves, this is our job; we are Outsiders we protect this city and we will stop at nothing to make sure this is done.” Riptide said knowing that were surely outmatched and numbered, but their gusto might at least let them win in some way.

And with that the first pairs of red eyes appeared. Riptide stood still for a second knowing what that surely meant.

“There are werewolves in there.” Nightshifter said knowing that if Riptide could use his spears in an efficient fashion, the wolf could rain chaos throughout the pack and turn it in on itself. All he needed to do was stay invisible and he was golden. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Holding steady, Riptide walked forward keeping his breaths deep and going slowly but surely. The eyes continued to pop up and more and more slowly appeared, they seemed to notice him; their eyes slowly following him. They respected his power, bowing to him as he showed up.

They started to appear in the light as he showed up; their sharp teeth shining in the light and their eye glow disappearing. Riptide stayed confident believing in himself. His body told him run but he wanted to act like a real shark, be a real shark and deserve that title.

Walking forward, he presented himself to the werewolves. Riptide looked at them and saw they didn’t seem like they were moving, someone or something was commanding them. With a somewhat healthy interest he decided it would be in his best plan to find that control person/device.

Yet the werewolves shuffled, parting like the Red Sea a single werewolf stepped forward; he was the largest and if he knew anything that would mean he was large and in charge. The werewolf towered over Riptide as he approached, standing only feet away from him, in ample distance to snap down and bit his head off.

“Speak Outsider, we know that you have no chance of beating us, we can match you in every single way and form; all and all unless you are willing to make a deal with us; it would be with in your best interest to move out of the way.” The leader said as he bowed down to Riptide, he spoke eloquently and seemed to pronounce his words in such a way to place emphasis on every line he spoke. 

“Ah but Outsiders; then where would my manners be?” The werewolf said before Riptide could pick up on the other end of the conversation. “My name is Moonraker and this is the Alpha pack; we recognize your power, we have seen your feats but even they cannot stand against a pack of werewolves.”

Looking to the left and right, he saw no more hatches; backing up Moonraker matched his steps knowing what he could do. Riptide’s confidence started to shake a bit at that moment and he backed up; tried to get away.

“Be a real shark for once or act like the beta you are!” Freezing up at Ronan’s words, Riptide acted and threw his hands forward a tidal wave of water passing threw in and in front of him, all of it taken from the toxic waste. He froze it, and in front of him a twenty foot layer of ice from the top of the tunnel to the bottom had formed.

Below him the toxic waste would probably be more of a mess now, that it was just a soild stain on the metal. Knowing that he made it worse didn’t help him, as he walked forward he quickly saw Nightshifter pass through the ice and on to the other side.

“Well this is happening, ok they should have at least twenty two minutes or so until they realize that they can break through will a simple dog pile.” Riptide said as he knocked on the ice and felt it, how much they already were forcing against it was still doing nothing.

“Heh, look at that dog pile.” Nightshifter said as he looked at the ice and tried to figure out what Riptide could see in the water, what he felt. “Get it dog pile; they’re werewolves, no okay.”

Looking at Riptide, he fell against the wall and started to depressingly look off into the distance. Lowering himself to Riptide’s eyes he looked at the shark and could tell something was wrong; he could feel it and knew he had to act about it.

“Ah, what’s wrong Riptide? What happened to you out there, that was amazing a wall of pure ice and you took it from this already pretty soild stuff, you did that imagine that. I didn’t tell you to do that and you did it on your own.” Nightshifter said putting away his ego for a second.

“Would a true shark have done that, a true shark would have fought; I’m just a beta.” Riptide said as he somehow managed to sink further into the ground and looked more grump. Nightshifter took a breath and looked away from Riptide and pushed his hair back, taking a breath too organize his thoughts.

“There is no such thing as a real shark, a real shark is something idiotic that someone made up and who ever that is I don’t want you to listen to that person; they are the bigger idiot and you should be yourself, now do what you think is right.” Nightshifter said as he bent down on one knee and patted Riptide’s back, helping the shark stand up and calmly collect.

“Now then you’re the boss now, you lead me what do you think is the best thing to do.” Nightshifter said as he hid his ego down and handed over the control to Riptide. He watched as the shark stood up and started to think.

“Good, now then first we start with a question; how does Moonraker control the werewolves.” Riptide said as he knocked on the ice, he heard the howls and nodded at Nightshifter who got the clue. “Now maybe there might be a vocal turn off to the DNA switch, something that will detransform them, you got me?”

“Ok, don’t say that it only works if I say that. So we’d need something that could transmit a large sound, such as this.” Nightshifter said as he brought out his phone and with the touch of a few buttons; suddenly the tunnel shook as a large “Deep Note” was played on his phone.

“Perfect, let’s just not deafen the audience now.” Riptide said as he heard the howling. “Now it might be some basic variation, I can make a hole in the ice and you send the waves through there, then we see how they react and modify.” Riptide said as he saw Nightshifter hit the record button on his phone and once again he knocked the wall, the werewolves released their howls again and Nightshifter nodded.

“Ok, let’s try this.” Nightshifter said as Riptide formed a hole and then a phone shaped dock for him. Nightshifter adjusted the sound accordantly as he held it up to the ice and then played the signal. The louder howl reverberated through the tunnel and Riptide doubted that there’d be no way it had to have been with in an earshot of the werewolves.

Beyond the wall, the wolves backed up as they covered their ears they were going in the right direction and they had managed to buy themselves time. Adjusting the signal again Nightshifter looked at the werewolves as he held his phone up and blasted the next signal.

Through the ice the werewolves backed up and they stood still as if waiting for another howl. It came and they continued to push forward, he knew that this wasn’t going to work; they couldn’t guess at a time like this and they needed something else.

“Turn invisible and make sure you’re recording.” Riptide said as he took a breath in and ignored every single thing to turn away, he ignored the self-doubt in his mind, every logic telling him how it wouldn’t work and most of all he ignored Ronan’s voice.

“What are you going to do?” Nightshifter said as he looked at his partner, trying to figure out what in logic was breaking in Riptide’s mind.

“I’m doing what I think is right, prepare for a wave; I am Outsider, I don’t give a damn hell what logic says, I am an Outsider and logic bows the hell down to me.” Riptide said confidently as he touched the ice wall, he seemingly absorbed its power and he felt strong.

As he breathed in and breathed out, the ice absorbed on to his body and started to cover it, however that wasn’t as far as he was going. His entire body started to turn into ice, his body turned clear and his body rugged and cover in ice. Eight tendrils of ice water formed out of his back right where his wings were hidden.

His wings appeared as his perception filter decided to let them out, as they were covered in ice they healed, their scorch marks disappearing but still remaining blunt. Healed but still damaged. Radiating with power; he walked forward and stretched his body.

“An alternative form, that’s amazing.” Nightshifter said as he disappeared into the invisibility matrix and held out his phone having a good idea on what Riptide was going to do, the right thing.

Riptide had reached equilibrium, the mutations on his DNA finally finding a balance with his shark DNA and he was better for that, he now felt better and stronger. With his DNA in equilibrium, just as in chemistry he could push both sides on his own. He could appear normal or with his DNA on the mutated side he could access his mutated form.

Flapping his wings and jumping off the ground, he managed to hover a bit; while mostly broken his wings still worked. And touching the ice wall he pushed it forward, turning it back into water. And a tidal wave rolled out, just like a music subscription service; brash, quickly and unplanned.

He looked through the crowd of werewolves and found Moonraker struggling through the wave of water. Gliding down and entrapping the werewolf, the ice shark grabbed Moonraker and lifted him off the ground as around him he simply stopped the tidal wave, freezing it and the werewolves in place.

“Now then I want a few things from you and you’d like a few things from me, mainly not dying. So if you consider your life even worth one iota more than I do, I suggest you detransform these people and start again.” Riptide said as he looked Moonraker in the eyes, he could see the unrest and fear in his eyes.

With that Moonraker opened his mouth and a howl was released, it was much more subdued and sad; and with that the werewolves in the tunnel started to shake as their fur fell off and they shrunk. Their transformations were reversed.

That was for everyone except for Moonraker; Riptide looked at him and let him go. The werewolf ran away through the tunnel, quickly disappearing into the darkness and leaving hundreds of humans. Riptides quickly pushed the water of his ice back behind him and allowed it reform with the toxic waste and wash it away.

“Quickly Tristan, get a shot of this.” Sally said as she realized that she had been detransformed and checked herself. Adjusting her and making sure she was placed in front of the camera as she got the view of Riptide behind her.

“We have returned back to our normal human forms, thanks to the brave efforts of an Outsider today; as it seems the Alpha Pack has been reduced to all but one member and he is now far north of here.” Sally said into the camera as Tristan turned the camera at Riptide and viewed his detransformation back into his normal form.

“New York, tonight you can sleep well tonight knowing that you are looked over by three groups of superheroes.” Sally Sparrow said knowing that the camera would still record her message to the Outsiders.

…

“So then I guess we’re in the big league now; let’s see Environmental Bunch and Superbeasts have settle their beef in the fairest treaty that has ever decided to grace the planet; I have an alternate form; the Alpha Pack has disappeared for now; and I say for a three week period we’ve done pretty good.” Riptide said as he overlooked the celebrating city. People were partying out in the streets and they all seemed to be happy.

“I’d say we did pretty fine, not bad for two underpaid Outsider agents.” Nightshifter said as he leaned back on the roof. Looking down on the city from the rooftop they were hanging up in was nice, seeing everything and looking down on everyone.

“So then what now, we probably going to be handed some big check. We give some to Viewfinder. Take some for ourselves and we kick ass.” Riptide said excessively as he punched the air, and looked happy thinking about their future together.

“You know his name is Colin, I don’t know how they expected to hide a blind lizard in a city but if a villain wanted to find out who he was, well lucky he doesn’t have any enemies.” Nightshifter said as he laid back against the celling.

“You know Colin too, well then I wonder who you are, might be a mystery worth solving.” Riptide said as he laughed a bit, Nightshifter did too but a bit more nervous as well, he didn’t want his identity out; he had parents to protect unlike Riptide.

“Well then I’ll be off.” Riptide said as he jumped off the side of the building and waved by. Slowing himself down with his wings, he landed in the alley and turned off his perception filter. Dustin looked out and walked out, he felt strong and he was going to take on Ronan.