The little thing continued to squirm, and Maks was ashamed. Ever since the MRC had discovered his storage room and cleared it, he had been panicking. As much as he wanted to deny it, the involvement of the police in his affairs was as disturbing as it was humbling. Though he was able to disappear without a trace into the depths of the sewers, moving from one edge of the city to the other seamlessly, he was a known threat. What good was a lion's camoflage when all the herd was alerted to its presence?

Only moments ago, he had been slinking topside, his entire body yearning for proteins. Despite the proximity of his other food stores in the sewers, a hunger and a distant feeling of anger had made him want to lash out, to grab something fresh and... And what? Pay New York back? Get revenge for the discovery of his room full of corpses?

With a wet grumble, the creature tightened its grip over the child's mouth. He had kidnapped the living before, but never a child. He had forgotten the level of importance humans placed on their children... had forgotten that even animals were known to fly into frenzies when their offspring was in danger. Maks had never been a father, or a brother, or even an older cousin. In his hungry, mutation-addled delirium, he figured that a missing child would get no more notice than the hundreds of homeless and dozens of seedy drug dealers and criminals he had snatched off the streets since he had come out of the darkness.

He knew he had left one child alive. Hopefully, the parent would be glad that at least one had lived. Hopefully, no one would come down here to claim their spawn...

Locke found it odd that Kendra had been ok with him staying in New York City, and even odder that she had decided to visit him in New York. The relationship between the two had always been shaky to say the least. He appreciated the effort that she was making though, and was glad that she had brought the twins with her. They were staying in a hotel of course. Locke wasn’t sure on the rules for company at the mansion, and Kendra was just starting to come around to his being a mutant. Maybe the twins would be excited to stay at the mansion, but she wouldn’t be.

With his step-mother recovering from jet lag and the twins hungry Locke had offered to go get them pizza. Chris and Mai didn’t have the same exhaustion that their mother did, and they wanted to go with him anyways. Locke would blame himself for what happened. He insisted that his brother and sister would be safe with him. Although he wouldn’t tell Kendra half of the things that he had gone through on his trips into the city, he was sure that nothing bad was going to happen.

“Locke!” Mai cried, doubling back and grabbing onto her big brother’s arm. Her face was pale and her hands were trembling. Locke, his hands full with pizza and breadsticks, had been keeping track of their movements through his earth sense. As far as he knew Chris had just stumbled and fallen, but that look of panic on Mai’s face was unmistakable. Something had happened, and it wasn’t going to be fixed with something as simple as a bandage.

”Ok, what happened,” he asked, switching instantly to big brother mode. Mai simply pulled him towards where her twin had last been, her eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

“This thing grabbed Chris and went down there,” she bawled, and pointed to a manhole. Locke stared at it, his mind racing. On the inside he was panicking. The twins were the most important thing in the world to him, and it was looking like something big was going to happen to one of them. His face didn’t betray his worry though, and he forced his thought process to slow down. He couldn’t take Mai down there, and he wasn’t dragging the pizza down either. ”Alright,” he said, startled by how calm his voice sounded, ”Alright. Mai, I’m going to bring you to that store. We’re going to call the police and have them take you back to the hotel. You can have as much pizza and breadsticks as you want while you wait. I’m going to go get Chris. Stay in the store until the police come ok?” Mai stared at him with a mournful look. Locke handed the breadsticks to her and took her hand.


After leaving her at the customer service center of the JC Penny with clear instructions to shout if anyone tried to take her away other than a police officer, Locke went back to the manhole and dropped his way in. Who knew how far away Chris was, but Locke trusted himself to find Chris faster underground than the police. Eyes closed he felt out for the weight of his brother, and ran down the sewer, the muck splashing up, and the concrete groaning in warning.