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The sound of a jeep driving up to the duplexes disrupts the cool night air, bringing with it the acrid smell of diesel fumes. The tires crunch to a halt outside one particular duplex. The bat-man's. Two doors open and slam shut before the sound of boots walking around the jeep and grunts as a charge is lifted wafts it's way toward the nearby trees. Their package is carried up the stairs...a door is opened...and the packages is dropped off.

The jeep drives off toward the labs, leaving only tire tracks in its wake.

Tommy didn't move from where they left him...on the floor of his duplex, his bed long ago traded for the monolith piano. As he blinked his sleep crusted eyes around, he saw the shiny black piano mocking him...he let out a groan, wanting this nightmare to end. Everything hurt again; his arm itched where they had injected him...but most of all his hips had begun to ache.

The knock at his door went unanswered except for a groan of pain from inside.

Tommy blinked up at the moonlight streaming through the door, and the dark silhouette standing inside it. It was monstrous, large, mishapen, with something waving around its back...

Tommy let out a yell in his fever daze and tried to back up, but only managed to scoot his odd feet around. He took larged, panicked breathes, showing off his sharp teeth that were bloody...his teeth were growing.

Tommy squints as the lights came on, blinding him. He looked like he had better days, including those out in the woods. Sickly, too thin, and pale, he stared up at Richard with bloodshot eyes. His ears slowly began to grow a little longer, turning outward while his nose grew larger and flattened out even more. Blood began to dribble from his nostrils.

The bat-man skittered away from Richard into a corner of his room and stared up at his friend, shaking with what could either be the fever or fear.

Tommy shied away from Richard, still shivering. He hadn't noticed yet, his mind took numbed to feel the pain, but the skin underneath his arms had already started to grow and thin out to become webbing. His nose, teeth, and ears slowed their own growing as this occured.

He looked up at Richard, the terror fading somewhat as what could only be recognition began to light in his eyes. "Ri..." he began before blinking again and staring down at his hips, "Oh...oh GOD.....Richard..." Tommy began feeling his hips with the heels of his hands but was only able to do so for a moment before he was thrown forward with a loud crack, indicating some bone snapping horribly in the completly wrong direction. He let out a scream that started audible, but soon ran to a frequency so high that nothing could be heard.

It didn't take long, which made it seem all the more painful. In a matter of moments, his hips hand dislocated themselves, cracked, and almost completely reversed direction. All Tommy could do was lay there shuddering, letting out little groans of pain. While all this was happening, he just looked up at Richard, eyes tearing up from pain...or just the sheer horror of what was happening to him.

And then, it was over. Tommy broke out in a sweat that matted down the new, short fur over his back, indicating the breaking of his fever. He lay there panting, not speaking as of yet. His teeth stuck out a little over his bottom lip whenever he had a chance to shut his mouth.

Tommy blinks up at Richard...to the hand and then back. He didn't know what to say, really...his hips radiated pain through the rest of his body, but it was only a dull ache now...he grimaced at the thought of trying to move his legs. He glanced backwards, seeing his legs at their unnatural angle and sighed out in a shudder.

"Yeah...that looks about as bad as it ******** me...I..." he blinks and looks up at Richard, "...Richard...what...what's going on? Where am I?"

Tommy winces, "Shh...don't talk so loud..." he mutters out softly. When what Richard said registers with him though, he gives a slight shift of his eyes to look at that damned piano and then back at Richard. "What day is it? They took me to the labs, but I...I don't remember much of anything..." he says in a lower tone of voice.

That's it, just keep talking...don't think about it, just talk to your friend...your friend who has four arms, tentacles, and a cat face...JESUS CHRIST! What the ******** is going on! Oh God, my hips hurt so bad...no...NO! Don't think about it, just focus on Richard...talk to him. Think about anything else...please.