The past few weeks had been uncomfortable for Sylar. He had grown used to his unusual life with Roach and Megan, though he still felt somewhat uncomfortable and fearful of just how dark their lives might be behind the scenes. Sylar was a criminal, and a skilled thief, but he'd always stolen and destroyed out of necessity, never for the love of chaos or greed. But that life was starting to make him grow bold, his stomach far heavier than it had ever been during his years alone, and when that base line of needs was met, suddenly new desires began to grow in his mind, and those thoughts only served to stress him out of his norm.

Though he didn't need to come down here into the sewers anymore, he still often found himself scampering around down here in the dark. People grow accustomed to their daily routines, the monotonous repeats of their daily lives giving them security and comfort, but Sylar had spent years living a completely abnormal life. When his life with Roach felt weird or stressful, Sylar found himself down here in the cold darkness, the heavy aroma of mold and moist stone giving him the same comfort a hobby might for a normal person. As he walked down a familiar tunnel, he stuck his arm out, letting his claws drag against the stone, the sound and feel calming him down. Was it animal instinct that drove him to do these behaviors? Or was it the fact that as a blind person, touch was his primary sense, and he missed that feeling?

The stress and the confusion of his new life was getting to him, even if he was happy with the change. But Sylar had no idea that the itching sensations he'd been getting on his body, and those pains in his gut had been symbols not of stress, but signs of something he'd forgotten about. Every teenage boy dealt with stress, dealt with those growing pains of puberty as his body changed. But Sylar wasn't a normal boy, and his growing pains weren't anything natural. No, these pains were the calling cards of the Predator, his monstrous mutant nature preparing to ruin his life further. Without realizing it, Sylar had returned to the same place repeatedly, each day spreading more and more of a chemical he had no idea existed.

Sylar's latest growth spurt, ready to burst through his skin had also had an effect within his body. A new organ had been cultured within his gut, spreading out it's own network of veins like a monstrous second heart. But there was no blood pumping through those veins, rather an entirely unique substance, a toxin. Sylar's body had begun to produce a terrible venom, and his natural instincts were spreading it around his home, creating a zone of safety around his original nest. Like a nightmarish spider he'd been crafting a web protect himself and catch prey to feed his monstrous taboo.

However, Sylar's mind had no time to try and learn about this secondary mutation, as his thoughts were occupied with that terrible pain in his skin. Standing a midst the ruins of his last lair, destroyed in a fight with another sewer monster and then partly restored by the humans from the city. It was a mixture of both worlds, a perfect scene of what he was capable of, and here was where he'd shed more of his human persona. Howling into the darkness, a horrible alien scream Sylar pulled at his flesh. It had been stretched taught around his new exoskeleton, and the pain had finally caused him to cast it off. The iron scent of blood mixed into the night air, and the only sound to be heard was that of tearing and the flop of discarded skin onto the stone.

He fell to a knee, breathing deeply as he finished casting off part of himself. Plates had grown out of his hips, and his other shoulder found itself cast beneath that horrible armor as well. But what frightened him the most was that itching he'd felt on his face. He brought his hand to his face, and scratched himself, feeling his claw grate against a piece of armor that had grown over part of his cheek. He'd always worried about his face, once it was gone he'd truly no longer be human, and now at least part of it was gone. "I guess I've only got another year left." He whispered into the dark as he stood up once more, the Predator now fifty percent complete. He cast away a piece of his face, the symbolic loss of part of his humanity as his stomach began to rumble. "Guess I'll have to eat before heading home tonight." Sylar said, staring up towards the open ceiling that had yet to be repaired, the moonlight and the sounds of the city washing away the remnants of his pain.

It was a late night at work, and Evelyn was exhausted by the time she stepped out onto the dimly lit street. It felt like life had been almost robotic lately. Work, go home, work some more. Without her parents constant support, Evelyn was feeling more pressed to come up with money to supply her basic needs. Sure, food and shelter was taken care of, but things like clothes and hygiene products didn't just buy themselves. She knew the mansion could probably help out if she needed it, but it already wounded her pride to live there. It was a struggle being on her own, but she was hungry for the desire to be independent.

With her budget tight, Evelyn had resisted calling for a cab. Instead, she called in a favor, and was waiting around for Jensen to give her a ride home. He couldn't make it right away, however, so she opted to walking back to her apartment to wait there. Even the short walk felt draining, and Evelyn's mind was buzzing with an unusual amount of activity.

Little did Evelyn know, underfoot her sewer monster friend's mutation was entering a new stage, while her own was slowly taking a turn. After one too many head injuries, the information in her mind was becoming hard to control, desperate for an outlet, an escape. The noise was deafening, the clamor almost tuning out the roar she heard through one of the manholes.

[Sylar.] The echoes announced, and Evelyn froze, torn in two different directions. He sounded like he was in pain, but she had promised Mirror she wouldn't go wandering around in the sewers again. This was her friend though. Surely the mirror walker would understand?

Pressing aside her doubts, she yanked the heavy covering away and started down into the tunnels. Cautiously touching one of the walls, she called into the darkness. "Sylar? Is that you?"

Sylar had been looking up, ready to raid the surface once more to fill his belly, but instead found his animal focus broken by a familiar sound. It had been some time since last he paid attention to the echoes of a human voice down here in his kingdom of darkness, but this echo was certainly familiar. A woman's voice, questioning at the dark as if it could talk back to her. Only a few human beings would actively attract the darkness like this, all of them mutants. One was Serena, a dear friend who often tried to pull Sylar out of his dark environment, but the other likely prey was Evelyn. A girl whose common sense was anything but, replaced instead with enough curiosity to kill a dozen cats.

Sylar ran off into the tunnel, heading for the source of the echo, which wasn't too far away. Nearing the source, the scent and sound of the voice clarified just who had called for the Boogeyman, it was clearly Evelyn. Sylar smiled a bit in the darkness, his face safely hidden from her view. He stood up, walking like a man, but barely looking the part with his new armor clad around his flesh and ruining his shirt. He had at least been smart enough to take his hoodie off to prevent that from tearing, meaning his face would only have his hair to mask him once he stepped into any light.

His tail stood up, swaying back and forth behind him slowly, a sign of happiness at seeing a friend. Though his stomach had been rumbling earlier, he could hold the hunger off for a bit he figured, and at least catch up with her. He stepped forward slowly, his clawed feet creating a unique noise against the brick, a sound for her to pick up on to know he was there before he just stepped into her vision and scared the poor girl. "If you were a cat, I'd be warning you about running out of lives Sherlock." Sylar said softly, his voice effeminate and alien, nothing like what a normal man's voice should be, belonging to him alone, the Boogeyman of New York.

There wasn't much light in much of the tunnels, but as you got closer to the various manholes and entry points, there were often lights present since these were the areas most likely to have workers about. What light there was would slowly wash the darkness away from Sylar, revealing his body had recently grown, his face, arm and shoulder, and even his hips now sporting the obsidian infection that was his mutation. "And to answer your question, it's still me, though I lost a bit more of myself tonight." He said, lifting up the arm that had previous been mortal and was now monstrous.

As Evelyn listened, the echoes tried to pinpoint the movement in the tunnels. They were quite certain that the roar was Sylar's, yet Evelyn was still cautious, staying close to the exit just in case. For once, she was maintaining a sense of caution, remembering how disastrous her last trip down here had gone. Then again, almost any adventure down here seemed to have taken some unfortunate turn... Shaking it off, she finally heard movement, and jumped slightly at Sylar's voice.

For being hard to sneak up on, she was feeling unnaturally jumpy tonight. "Maybe detectives have more lives than cats. Sherlock seemed to get into enough trouble and he was fine." She said with a slight smile in response. Making light of her own attraction to danger always felt better than dealing with the guilt of being so unnaturally unlucky. Or maybe unlucky was the wrong term for it, since she tended to find the trouble on her own.

She glanced at Sylar, and noted the changes that had taken place. The 'growth' of the armor was hard for her to really process emotionally. What could she say to her friend? She knew his fears in regards to the monstrous side of him, and the echoes could see the struggles he faced trying to hold onto the humanity he was gradually loosing. She tried to give a smile but it faltered. "It sounded like you were having a rough day. I know you probably don't need anyone checking up on you, but I heard... You doing okay with it?" She was bad at this small talk type stuff. She wished Serena or someone else was here. She shuffled awkwardly, trying not to stare at him.

Evelyn hadn't delved too deeply into the tunnels, their meeting near one of the entry points, so maybe the girl was learning. Though this thought was so secondary in Sylar's head he didn't pay it much mind as he began conversing with his friend. Sylar saw the girl jump, an appropriate reaction to the monstrous boy, though it didn't feel as enjoyable when it was someone he didn't want to scare. "Sherlock had backup and didn't deal with predatory monsters, you're still pushing what little luck you have Evelyn." Sylar said, though he lacked a smile his tone was friendly, Evelyn one of the few people he still felt comfortable to interact with.

She'd heard him, which wasn't too surprising considering the volume of his earlier screams. The shedding process was painful, but it also forced him to tear his own body apart, a far more mentally damaging process than the physical aspect. Though somewhere inside it made the boy happy that someone would care to check up on him, well someone besides Roach. "I shed today, it hurts...a lot." He said grimly, leaving her imagination to cover the definition of shedding in terms of a human being turning into a creature. Sylar couldn't see the difficult smile on her face, or read the concern in her eyes, but her voice told Sylar that Evelyn was worried but confused about him.

"It's getting stronger...that voice this skin gives me, harder to suppress. But I also found someone who knows how to control something similar, so maybe I'll be able to keep it in check this time." Sylar spoke with a bit of confidence that he lacked before, garnered from his time with Roach, though he was unaware that this control wasn't so much suppression as embracing a darker side of life. It didn't mean much when you controlled your cannibal instincts simply by eating people who deserved it, or weren't mutants. But Evelyn didn't need to know that, no one needed to know that.

If Sylar was going to give into this monster, he'd at least keep up a mask for those people he did like.

Luck... Evelyn momentarily wondered if she had any lukc to begin with. Whatever luck she had seemed to be counteracted by her innate ability to place herself in danger. Then again, maybe she was lucky in an unlucky way... unlucky to get beat up, but lucky to live. Unlucky to get into trouble but lucky to get out of it? She shrugged, and brushed her hair from her face, trying not to look like a guilty child caught doing something she shouldn't.

"I'm sorry about the shedding..." She said empathetically. Even in the darkness she could hear the slight pain in his voice, and the echoes weren't fooled by the tough exterior Sylar tended to project. He was having trouble today, and she was somewhat glad, at least for the moment, she had come. Maybe she wasn't good with people, but she felt better at least trying to be there for him. It wasn't perfect, but it was an effort.

"I'm glad you found someone who can help.. My sort of ability dealing with voices is certainly a different type of experience..." She remarked slightly. She felt glad Sylar was having more control, but she was still a little concerned. The longer she stayed here, the longer she worried.

There was also the feeling that something else wasn't quite right... The echoes couldn't quite understand it, but they buzzed with warning. Sylar didn't seem to be in a monsterous mood tonight, so she couldn't quite understand it. But something was there... a faint concern... Almost...fear?

Trying to put on a front against some one like Evelyn though, was foolish on Sylar's part. He was basically hiding some of his pain and thoughts for no ones sake but his own, since this girl more than anyone could see all the signs of a lie, or more accurately a friendly untruth. His vision watched the girl's thermal image, a blur of colors he couldn't comprehend though his gut understood what he was looking at, his friend...but also the exact shape of what his inner monster wanted to eat.

She tried to comfort him about the pain he was in, which he appreciated though words did little to alleviate the pain of ripping your own skin off. "Don't worry about it. It was just time for it, just like it will be next year." He ended that sentence rather sadly as well, foreshadowing that this wasn't the last time he'd change, and that he'd change for the worse once again considering what he looked like now, more than 50% monster rather than man.

Sylar was factually happy about having a friend and mentor for his unique condition. "Yeah, Roach is just like me...except he's a giant bug. But you know, he's a monster on the outside, he used to have inhuman thoughts too, but he's...uh better now. And he's helping me learn how to manage." That managing amounted to Sylar basically being trained as an enforcer for the mutant criminal world, but Sylar kept that part to himself as he didn't even believe it himself. Or at least refused to. Evelyn's power was entirely different than Sylar's, but they both seemed to deal with uncontrollable urges, her's curiosity and his hunger, so in a way they did suffer a similar curse at times.

The both of them were unaware though, of the other change that had taken place. Sylar's recent change was already affecting the environment around him, leftover venom left in claw marks in the bricks, and the aroma of fear slowly infesting the air Evelyn was breathing. Sylar might be in an amicable mood for the moment, but the chemical reactions taking place around and within Evelyn's body would change that soon enough if she stayed near the Boogeyman.

"I haven't checked into the Mansion for awhile, how's everyone been?" Sylar asked, though his words really only held concern for Evelyn herself and his other Mansionite friend, Serena.

While Evelyn was comforted that Sylar found a friend, something in his words sounded... off. The echoes picked up on it, humming about the slight untruths taking place. She frowned slightly, but let it go for the time being. She wasn't sure she should trust this 'Roach', but she wanted to believe someone could actually help Sylar. He needed advice and aid, especially when he was dealing with his inner monster. Evelyn couldn't exactly relate to that, as much as she wanted to.

The echoes were slowly starting to pick up on something else though... It was a hazy feeling, but the more she looked at Sylar, the more a chill ran up her spine. Her pulse was starting to pick up speed a little, and she almost felt...

Afraid?

She had no reason to be afraid of Sylar. He was in a good mood and they were just talking. She brushed it off again, convinced the fear was just nervous energy since her last fiasco here in the sewers. She glanced down the tunnels, trying to prove to herself nothing was there. But the energy kept directing her glances back towards Sylar. When she looked at him, the fear rose.

What was happening?

"How's everyone been?"

Evelyn shook her head and focused on the question. "Good, for the most part. I know Serena was having some stuff happening with her powers, we ran into each other the other day, but she seems to be doing better lately..." The echoes were chiming louder now. [Run! Run!] But for the first time, she was second guessing them. Why? Why did she want to run? It didn't make sense...The feelings were almost dizzying now. As much as she wanted to fight it, she felt afraid.

If she had pressed the boy for more information, had tried to learn about this Roach who had begun to care for and mentor Sylar, would Evelyn think him a friend? Was encouraging Sylar to give into his darker urges for violence and hunger truly the best plan for the boy? Or would she have pressed him to find help elsewhere, and tried to protect the remaining humanity left within her friend? Would it have given her any warning to that more sinister change in Sylar's mutation that was affecting her as they spoke?

The toxin had already permeated into Evelyn's blood stream, each breath she took drawing in more of the venom that was slowly altering her nervous system. It was a slow process, as the toxin was at it's weakest in the air, but as it began to pool in her amygdala it would enforce that growing sense of dread she was feeling. The boy's appearance might seem to grow more fearsome somehow, the darkness would slowly seem to creep forward with a life of it's own, but the worst was to come, as it would take time before the girl was truly envenomated.

However Sylar was unaware of the effect he was having on Evelyn, the boy entirely focused on speaking with his friend after a rough night. She did seem a tad distracted though, the girl taking a moment to answer his question, which wasn't completely unusual for Evelyn though, she was always a bit distracted he thought.

Serena was having issue with her powers? Sylar felt rather empathetic to that considering he'd just suffered his own powers tonight. Mutation was not a fun curse, or as interesting as some other people seemed to think. Being born into a life rife with fear and pain did not balance against whatever "power" you managed to get. At least not for mutants like Sylar, who were not even human enough to sneak through the day in the world above. Serena though, still looked normal, so Sylar didn't like the idea of her powers hindering her life.

"Does anything good ever come from this?" Sylar said, putting emphasis on the word this as he referred to mutation. Evelyn probably had one of the more useful powers Sylar had ever heard of, and even she always seemed to be running into streaks of bad luck with her power. Sylar said staring at Evelyn, before pulling his lips back a bit and licking his fangs.


...Did that happen? Because he hadn't actually done that, he had simply been talking. Instead Sylar began to notice something, a rise in Evelyn's temperature, the slight physical cues he'd learned to recognize since he'd become a monster. Was something bothering her? "Evelyn are you alright? You seem...off." He asked, his tail swishing a bit behind him, that serpentine appendage always giving a feeling of dread whenever it showed it's bladed head.

The clamor inside Evelyn's head was starting to become too much. The echoes could feel something was wrong. Or maybe she could sense something was wrong? Either way, the voices weren't in sync. It was like they knew whatever they were feeling wasn't real, wasn't right. What were they seeing? It was worse than when the danger room electrocuted her. Rebooting was better than sitting with the echoes sputtering like this.

[Danger. Run. Run. Danger. Inner monster showing. Evade.] At the same time, she could have sworn she heard [concern] in Sylar's voice.

Are you alright?

"Actually, I'm not sure I'm feeling too great..." Evelyn said, as the tremors of fear got worse, and the chaos in her head grew louder. She stumbled slightly as a wave of dizziness hit, falling forward and reaching out to catch herself. As her hand touched Sylar's arm, the fear jolted...

And, something else happened.

For Sylar, it would be like a radio was suddenly turned on. All of the echoes and information in Evelyn's head would funnel through the contact. Mingled with the echoes would be flickers of memories as the playbacks rushed forward. Sylar chasing her in the tunnels, hungry, angry... The fear tapped into her memories, and tugged the thoughts forward, reminding her there was something to be afraid of.

Sylar.

Sylar wasn't sure if Evelyn was sick, or having an adverse reaction to being present down here in the sewer, a place she had no good memories of he was sure. He was completely unaware of the reaction his venom was having on Evelyn, coupled with her own intuitive abilities. He could hear the shakiness in her voice as the girl fell forward and caught on the boy's arm.

Sylar's flesh was coated in a sort of skin tight armor, mutated flesh fused with plates of hardened carapace, but it was still his skin. As the girl's frail human skin brushed against his alien epidermis, a lightning quick reaction took place, the girl's powers forcing a signal straight into the monster boys brain. Like a flood blasting you in the face, Sylar's brain was bombarded with information it had never processed before. Sylar tensed, his entire body freezing as his brain overloaded.

The simplest of vision concepts, shape and color were easy for everyone else to understand, something they didn't even think about as they went through their lives. But Sylar had never seen, his eyes had been broken since the day he was born, even his mutation hadn't fixed the optic nerves or the various optic cells of his eyes, instead stitching a patchwork of mutant sensory cells atop them. But now his brain was fighting to process the visual information Evelyn was feeding him, a swathe of blurry and grayed imagery, shapes Sylar couldn't even comprehend at first, until her thoughts and feelings made sense of them for him to understand.

This feeling, this memory of creeping darkness wrapped around a ferocious creature of fang and fury, this intense feeling of dread, that fearful feeling of seeing your predator about to swoop down and end your life. That monster was Sylar, for the first and possibly only time he'd seen what he truly looked like. An alien creature, crafted from terror and darkness whose sole purpose was to survive, to hunt, to kill.

Sylar saw what fear looked like, and knew that he truly was a monster, even to his friend. The boy began to freak out, trying to break free of the spell holding him in place, his clawed arms pushing forward to throw the girl away from him.  Free from her grip, he flailed about howling at the dark, his confusion unbroken. Blood dripped from the boys nose, hitting the cold stone beneath him before he fell to his knees. "That's...that's what I am?"

He questioned, trying to process those images he didn't understand. "I'm...that's a nightmare." He blinked his mutated eyes, his entire head throbbing as he tried to steady his thoughts. "What did you do to me!?" He screeched out at Evelyn, partly in rage, but mostly in confusion.

The moment Evelyn's hand touched Sylar's arm, something changed. Amidst the fear she was feeling, the echoes were picking up on other information. Beneath the monstrous images she was seeing, there was a flicker of fear that wasn't hers. Then the rage bubbled forward and Sylar's screech and shove sent her falling back into the wall, a faint clank echoes as the sai strapped under her shirt clattered. Reflexively, she yanked them free as she scuttled backwards.

"I didn't do anything! I don't know what you're talking about. Just s-stay back." She stammered, hands trembling as she tried to get her feet under her. Monster... her mind screamed, the fear starting to build inside her and overwhelm rational thinking. Reason was getting drowned by the toxins invading her body. "You're the one...angry." She whispered.

It didn't feel right. Why was he upset too? She could see the anger, the intensity of it filling the sewers, but another side of her wanted to feel concerned, wanted to help. She needed to think... but first she had to get away.

Sylar was distracted, waving his claw before his dead eyes trying to see more of that beast Evelyn had shown him. That was a creature of darkness and violence, a predator. Sylar knew, he'd always known what he could be, he was the only one who could hear it's voice after all. But to truly see himself, the physical being that the others saw, it scared the human part of Sylar senseless.

Sylar turned when he heard the stutter in Evelyn's voice, that one moment of fear pulled him back from his delusion to hers. His tail stopped swinging behind him, like a snake about to strike as the boy's focus glued in to Evelyn. Defensive, anxious, fearful. "Do I scare you Evelyn? Afraid of the monster boy too?" His words were mean, a cruelty unusual for Sylar when he was with a friend.

He looked once more at the claw before him, a swathe of colors and amorphous shape, to Sylar's eyes he was still like them, the same shape of two arms, two legs, and a body. Sure he had a tail, but other than that most humans had the same form to his eyes that he did. But he'd seen the truth now, he couldn't deny or disbelieve it anymore. "You know deep down, your instinct knows just like mine does. I'm not a man, I'm the predator that drags men into the dark." He sneered, pulling his lips back from his fangs as he spoke, each of Sylar's human features seeming to melt into this monstrous personal as he finished his monologue.

He was angry and upset, his heart confused over what he'd experienced, just like any teenage boy he was struggling to find himself. And one of his few friends couldn't think straight to help him. Whatever God presided over Sylar was a cruel one indeed. "If you're afraid of me, then why do you keep coming down here Evelyn!? Stop taunting me, just run like the rest of them!" Sylar said, his words angry and emotional, breaking his usual timid demeanor as he stamped his clawed foot forward, trying to make Evelyn jump in fear.

"Do I scare you Evelyn? Afraid of the monster boy too?"

Evelyn wanted to say no. She wanted to be his friend, be there for him. She wanted to prove he wasn't a monster. But everything seemed to feel otherwise. His tail flashed behind him, his fangs making him seem inhuman. The memories of his claws tearing through her skin brought fresh waves of fear.

"This isn't always you." She tried desperately to convince him. Tried desperately to convince herself. "Please. I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." She didn't mean what? To be afraid? To feel fear? Because that was all she seemed to sense right now, and it was getting stronger. His words hurt, but even that felt numbed as the toxin continued to spread. As he stomped his foot at her, she swiped at him with one of the weapons. "Just stay back! Something's wrong!"

The statement was thrown in, but something about it continued to echo in her mind. [Something's wrong...] She knew Sylar, and while she'd seen his monster side, it didn't feel right. Her mind was cloudy, she needed space. She wanted to think through everything, but her emotions were out of control. "Please...stay back..." She panted, trying to keep her thoughts straight, focus on the faint warnings in her head. Why did she come here? Why was she here? So afraid...

So afraid...

Sylar's anger was unstable, a boy's confused rage and not the usual monstrous control that caused him to scare people, and though it made it hard for him to think, part of him knew something was odd about this situation. He'd scared Evelyn before, hell he'd nearly assaulted and tried to eat the girl at least twice, but was he really this scary when angry? Could he be scarier shouting than when he was all claws and hunger? His mind was conflicted, trying to process anger and confusion together and just ending up with a jumble of emotion.

His tail swished back and forth angrily, like a cat fed up with it's owner, the snake like growth only making the entire situation worse as the two fought against themselves. However one action broke the haze and gave Sylar a moment of clarity, Evelyn swung something at him, some kind of weapon and she'd raised it against him. The boy hissed in surprise, she'd actually swung at him! Evelyn wouldn't do that, this girl lacked so much common sense that she kept coming back to meet Sylar, a stupid boy who was a danger to anyone and everyone around him, and yet she came back again and again.

The boy found a path through his anger, to speak as a friend for a moment. "Am I that frightening? You've never swung at me." The boy's voice was hallow, nearly as intimidating as his monstrous growls and hisses, and had a coldness too it that could send a chill down your spine. But it wasn't that Sylar didn't care or feel for Evelyn, no he was sure something was going on here. He tried to think back to that image he'd, visions of the monster Sylar wore atop his flesh as it struck out at her from the dark.

Was she reliving those moments? When the monster was in control and Sylar was lost within his own mind? His tail stopped, curling a bit as the boy stepped forward once more. "What did I do to you Evelyn, this isn't how I scare people."

Sylar wasn't sure what was going on, but he couldn't hold on to his anger anymore, because it was entirely pale in comparison to what Evelyn was feeling. She was scared, she was absolutely terrified, and Sylar doing his best monster impression didn't even elicit this level of terror.