Two figures strode down the New York City street, languidly pacing through the thick, humid air. The scarlet sun dipped behind them, baking the last vestiges of its warmth into the concrete pavement and red brick buildings. Their shadows trailed behind them, already stretched and warped beyond human capability… Wait, did that shadow have a tail? And clawed hands? Horns, even?

“Target sighted,” a gruff, distorted voice whispered through the crackling walkie-talkie, “Currently heading eastbound on 35th street. Over.”

“Copy that. Stay in pursuit. We’ll meet you in two. Over.”

Elias Dougray grabbed his pack and signaled for his men to follow him with a slick, two-fingered gesture. Though his face remained steeled and grim, the corner of his mouth twitched upwards ever-so-slightly, betraying the eagerness he felt at his core. He loved the hunt, lived for the hunt. He enjoyed hunting muties most of all, his calloused hand firmly gripping the butt of his shotgun. He shuddered with anticipation.

Alice wiped the sweat off of her brow and suppressed a groan of complaint. The recent scorcher battering the East Coast was horrible and made her want to high-tail it back to San Fran where it never rose above a balmy 75°F. Hopefully, she mused, the ungodly temperature would fall as night rose, providing some relief from the unrelenting heat as she and her companion made their trek back to Xavier’s. She glanced at her friend with envy. Tessa seemed immune to the heat, not a drop of perspiration to be seen on her tough, feathered skin. One perk of being a dinosaur shifter, she supposed, was the self-cooling mechanism. That and the ability to change into any number of fantastic prehistoric creatures. That part was pretty cool.

And many agreed. Tessa had become quite the social media sensation through a video one of their sneaky friends had uploaded to the worldwide web. He had recorded her transforming into a Tyrannosaurus Rex and causing absolute mayhem in the school’s Danger Room. Giant dinosaur girl rampaging through what seemed to be a sprawling metropolis (courtesy of theDR’s realistic holograms)? Instant viral sensation.

It was no wonder she had caught the attention of the Bird Hunters.

“Buck up,” the dinosaur shifter said with a smile, “We’re almost to the bus stop.”

“Yeah but with my luck, the bus’ A/C will be broken,” Alice replied with a grimace.

“Oh, don’t be such a—”

A quiet whistling sound sliced through the air, cut off by Tessa’s pained cry. There was a bullet in her left shoulder. Blood. Alice opened her mouth to scream but a gloved hand choked it out of her, wrapping tightly around her throat.

He'd been on their trail for a while, Elias Dougray -"Protector" of the "Movement for Genetic Purity" and all-round scumbag was back. A police tip-off had warned them that he was in NYC again. For what? To "cleanse the streets of unnatural beings" or so they claimed. Their God-god given right apparently to wipe them out. Scum...not only for their disgusting theology but also for what they did.

The air had gone cold without the sun's warm blanket to keep it safe, secure. The gasps of Linely's breath were visible, like a chain smoker blowing out into the air. Slouched next to a red brick building, he kept one hand on his baton. Visibility was poor. Figures moved but quickly disappeared into the shadows.
"Cat's Eye,do your thing" Linely radioed to his lieutenant.

LT. Tyler Forsyth smiled at this through his heavy equipment, his dark brown eyes gaining slit irises, "your eyes are my eyes boys"...Linely could see better with the aid of this power, the figures coming into view.

He and his MRC division were prepared for battle, full riot gear, armor jackets underneath plain clothes in the case of Linely and two others. Each plainclothes PD headed a group of 4 heavily equipped men. This was going to be a very big bust. Linely had the privilege of dealing with Dougray himself, after all, this was personal.

PD Jasmine Selby would take out the first cell, though she could do it on her own in honesty, particularly as this was a shoot to kill. Hopefully there wouldn't be so much paperwork to fill out after the last time they put her on one of these...Linely had more to think about than paperwork though.

The figures in the shadows had come into view, two women were walking down the street. One was obviously a mutant, her feathery, dinosaur like skin was plain for all to see. Linely cursed. So THIS was who they were going after. Bloody kids on social media, while this mutant and proud stuff was all in a good cause, they did realise that ANYONE could see it on the internet right? Fans and foes alike. At least his men were in position, carefully placed in concealed locations, with him on the lookout in plain clothes.


Then came the inevitable, 6 men appeared behind them. Muscular. Leather jackets. All with guns of assorting shapes. Linely was pretty sure none of the people about to have an altercation could see him. Dougray had suffered some heavy injuries in his life, so if he was there, Linely would have him.

Then, gunshots filled the air. Blood. Screaming cut off by a gargle.
"Now!" Linely whispered loudly through his radio. More gunshots. Two at the back went down in the hail. Linely moved quickly yet carefully. Displaying his baton clearly. The women had both been grabbed from behind, the dinosaur lady now being dragged out of the street towards...a black van...what a cliche! More gunshots. One more went down.

There was Dougray. He had grabbed the other women in a choke hold. Time to act. Linely lept from his concealed position. He aimed for Dougray's gaunt face as he tried to bring the baton down as hard as he could on the anti-Mutant. 

Breathe. She couldn’t breathe. The man gripping her neck had a sadistic sneer on his face as he lifted her upwards, forcing her on the tips of her toes. She thought he might crush her windpipe if he squeezed any harder, his vice grip surely leaving bruises on her skin. Her pupils were dilated with fear and her sweat ran cold, her mind blank but for sheer terror. Someone had shot her friend. Someone was choking the air out of her. Was this how she died?

Alice tried to pry Dougray’s arm off of her, but he was so strong. Her effort was laughable. In fact, he laughed at her.

“Don’t do anything stupid or you’ll end up like your unholy friend,” he threatened, his voice low and full of gleeful malice, “Say, you don’t happen to be a mut—“

The abrupt barrage of bullets cut him off. Alice screamed, her voice mingling with the howls of Dougray and his men as a few of them were struck down. She could hear the explosive din of their own guns firing back at whoever had attacked them. Dougray’s grip on her loosened slightly, enough for her to suck in a shaky gulp of air. Her heart pounded in her chest as she desperately scanned the murky periphery for Tessa. The sun was set, throwing everything under an inky shade. Alice couldn’t see her. She could hardly see anything.

Her breathing grew more rapid and shallow from the panic. She was one time signature away from full-on hyperventilating, her chest tightening from the pressure. An errant tear sprang from her aching eye. She breathed out and she knew. Her mutation had been triggered. The bad guys were about to get mouthfuls of chlorinated air.

“The MRC!” One of the wounded Bird Hunters cried out, “It’s a sting!”

A figure seemed to suddenly materialize from nowhere, bringing a baton down towards Dougray’s head. The “Protector” managed to feint to the left slightly, receiving the blow in his shoulder instead of his face. He snarled with pain and defiance, his grasp on Alice now slack enough for her to wriggle free. She staggered to the nearest wall, nearly dropping to her knees. Dougray gave another growl and tried to smash the butt of his gun against his assailant’s nose, hoping for the satisfying crunch of broken bones. His other hand reached for the knife in his belt. He wanted to make the mutant cop bleed.

Damn! Dougray successfully managed to only get a blow to the shoulder, rather than the head. Unfortunately for him, Linely had better visibility, his currently snake like eyes helping him assess Dougray's actions. It was therefore, pretty easy to dodge out from the way of the attempt to pistol whip him. Linely cleanly deflected it with his baton, striking Dougray lightly across the neck as he did so. He growled further. His next move was less expected. A knife. Blood. Linely felt a pain in his right shoulder from where the knife had struck him, the armor jacket ensured it was only a superficial wound.

His nerves lashed out at Dougray , whose shoulder felt the same pain that he had caused the mutant. This was enough time for Linely to leap out of the way as a barrage of bullets struck the anti-mutant. Shoot to kill were the orders. Shoot to kill was what they did.

The van doors had slammed shut. The two remaining men had used the "Tyrannosaurus lady" successfully as a cover. Damn! She would likely be brutalised by the time she was taken to their cell HQ, Linely just hoped that PD Selby would be able to make it in time before she was murdered.

Time to see who they'd saved...a woman, looked quite young-one of those beautiful, glamorous people that tended to hang round these youtube celebs-or so Linely thought. "Are you OK there Miss? " Linely spoke with concern as he saw the air move around her face. He backed away slightly, everything she was doing corresponded as "mutant in distress". "What's your name? Do you know what just happened?" He was half calling her now, trying to keep a safe distance just in case something went badly wrong. "I take it you're a mutant then?" He joked, trying to calm her down.

Alice choked on her own voice, unable to force it from her tightened, aching throat. But oh, how she wanted to scream. Scream as she watched Tessa get violently pushed into a van. Scream as the police officer got stabbed in the shoulder. Scream as her assailant was gunned down right in front of her, his body riddled with several bullets as he sank to the bloodied concrete. But she couldn’t. She could only manage faint gasps, her entire body rigid with terror, eyes wide.

Dougray wasn’t moving. He wasn’t… He was dead. She began to sob, each quivering breath blasting the air around her with more chlorine. It didn’t matter anymore. There was no one left to breathe it in. The Bird Hunters were either lying in their own blood or speeding away in their getaway with her friend in tow.

"Are you OK there Miss?" She realized with a start that the MRC officer was still around, backing away just outside of her mutation’s radius. Smart move. He wouldn’t be coughing up any lungs.

"What's your name? Do you know what just happened?" he asked her concernedly. Did she? Alice’s mind cut to a jarring barrage of increasingly frightening images: crushing grip, a broken horn, bullets, so much scarlet. Tessa. Gone. Her face paled.

“We have to help Tessa!” the teenager half-exclaimed, half-sobbed, her legs feeling increasingly like jelly in the face of such a daunting task. The gunmen were so brutal and cruel, taking some twisted satisfaction in hurting them. Why had they attacked? Why had they taken her friend? She felt like crying even more, but she bit her tears back.

"I take it you're a mutant then?"

“Y-yeah...” Alice managed to croak out, sucking in shaky breaths in an effort to calm herself down. She needed to stop poisoning the damn air and get out of her own head. She could call the X-Men. What were the police doing? Were they going after the Bird Hunters’ escaping van? She staggered forward. She would go after them. Somehow. She would rescue Tessa before they hurt her even more. She took a few more quivering steps forward. She tried not to look at the bodies in her way. “Excuse me, I-I need to get my friend back…”

"I will be helping your friend, we have been following this group for a while. I was hoping to save both of you before they drove off... sadly that didn't work. We know where they're taking her, we have a squad there already." Hopefully this would help with her distressed state Linely thought, Selby was very capable and would likely be creating absolute havoc. He lifted his radio to his mouth.

"Forsyth, Redman, Jenner, to the car, we need to get on that black Van's trail ASAP"
"We've run the plate, registered to Dougray believe it or not, all police patrols are aware" Linely breathed a sigh of relief, this made things a little easier. Now he would be able to deal with this young lady without too many issues.

It was Samantha Redman replied who had to him , great stuff-she was always on the ball, doubtless the instructions were to block any by-roads that they could take, forcing them to go to their chapter base. If they tried to get to the person that tipped the MRC off, then the MRC were waiting there as well. Now about this civilian

"Do you want to come with us? We don't really have time to drop you off anywhere, Selby will probably need some help and I'm sure your mutation might be useful in a fight?" Selby wouldn't need much help bringing down the chapter, the question was having anyone left to arrest.

Dougray was dead, thank goodness. He deserved it thoroughly, particularly after what he had done to... Linely's trail of thought disappeared in a painful memory. At least she was still alive after that, others had been less lucky. One of the hardest cases he had been involved with. It's all withdrawn until they go after someone you... another trail lost ...the ambulences would be ready to take the corpses back in body bags soon. He turned back to the teenager  and spoke as quickly as possible  "right, so what'll it be?"

Alice tried to listen to the police officer’s explanation, but she could barely register most of what he was saying. Her body was impatient to start heading towards wherever she last saw the van. She had no plan, no strategies beyond vague outlines of what she would do to save Tessa, but something inside of her spurred her to move. It was stupid, suicidal even, to think she could take on the squad of armed terrorists. Alice was not in a rational state of mind. She was in shock and surely traumatized, but her head was void but for the sole objective of helping her friend.

She did not even feel fear anymore, not really. In truth, she didn’t feel much of anything, not even the pain from her bruised throat. All she felt was the rush of adrenaline in her veins and a terribly incredible desire to hurt those who had hurt them.

“You should have saved Tessa instead…” she trailed off, voice flat and dim. The chlorine around her began to dissipate as she got her mutation under control. It would have been better if the dinosaur-shifter was standing in Alice’s place, safe with the MRC, than in that dark van with those cruel beasts. The teenager shuddered with rage.

"Do you want to come with us? We don't really have time to drop you off anywhere, Selby will probably need some help and I'm sure your mutation might be useful in a fight?" Was the cop really asking her if she wanted to chase after the bad guys with him and his police entourage? Well, she did…but she hadn’t expected him to be okay with it. She wasn’t an X-Men, after all. She wasn’t exactly qualified to take down hostile gunmen. But it was true that she could harm people with her mutation and she was itching to dish out some pain.

Was there really anything else to consider?

“L-let’s go,” she said, waiting for the officer to lead the way.

"Look Miss, I couldn't save your friend from them... they were using her as cover, my squad did their level best. They will really regret kidnapping her when they get her to the chapter house I can garuantee you that". Selby was perfectly capable of ripping them limb from limb , Linely would be happy if he kept one alive to arrest.

>>"L-Let's go"

She was clearly nervous, but they didn't have time to waste, the more officers were there, perhaps the less paperwork Linely would have to fill in by the end of this job. "We'll meet my squad at the car, you'll like them, all mutants, all pretty keen on removing the scum that took your friend from the face of the planet." He walked towards where the car was, fortunately whatever it was that this lady was breathing out was starting to dissipate, though it did remind Linely vaguely of swimming pools.

He just hoped that this "Tessa" was alright, this particular brand of supremacists were particularly nasty. They wouldn't kill her before they got to the chapter house. These were the types that liked to perform a sick ritual before they "executed" the "impure thing" in the most unpleasant way possible.  It wouldn't come to that. Selby and her squad would manage it. He was sure of it.