Chapter Six

Agent VALAME returns to HQ with her prisoner in tow. She
discovers he is actually ALEXANDER MIKAELSON, DANI’s brother, who has been tracking
his sister for the last 18 months. He is a handsome, muscular young man with
dirty blonde hair that falls to his shoulders. Agent VALAME is soon joined by
Agents SWANSON and FENNICK. Together, they interrogate the young man, first
asking him why he was shooting at his sister. ALEXANDER denies the accusation
stating he was shooting at the monster that was attacking his sister, and
demands to know what the OSI wants with DANI, or ASH, as he calls her. KIDA
seems to find ALEXANDER attractive and intriguing, and doesn’t hide her
flirting very well. Over the next hour, during what appears to be a dual sided
interrogation, the three agents try and assure ALEXANDER they don’t what to
hurt DANI – she has saved all of their lives on multiple occasions. ALEXANDER
doesn’t seem convinced. At the conclusion, the agents decide to release
ALEXANDER from custody.

On the other side of town, DANI dutifully watches over the young
Uratha until he awakes from his post-Kuruth slumber, bandaging his wounds to
the best of her ability. Fortunately, he ended up in the center of a thick
copse of trees in a less developed section of *Golden Gate Park*, shielding the two of them from prying eyes. DANI
senses another supernatural presence that claims the park, but it doesn’t seem to
mind their intrusion. DANI is only marginally surprised that the Uratha is
actually DOM. He wakes up disoriented but soon registers where he is at. He
looks at DANI, seemingly unabashed at his nakedness before her, and somewhat
playfully asks her why she has him naked in the middle of *Golden Gate Park*. Even though she is still somewhat annoyed, DANI
can’t help but smile a little as she states that their first order of business
should be to find him some clothes. She offers to go and retrieve some for him
as long as he agrees to stay hidden amongst the trees until her return, but DOM
insists he can have some delivered right to them via Amazon drone in a very
short amount of time. DANI skeptically agrees and lets DOM borrow her phone to
place the order. Then DANI settles in for their serious conversation.

Upon returning from crash course in what it means to be an *Iron* Master from the *Harbingers*, DR. JASON SPHYNX learns
there is apparently another newly changed Uratha in San Francisco that recently
made quite a mess in a local hospital. Intrigued, JASON tracks the Uratha to *Golden Gate Park*, and discovers him in a
copse of trees conversing with a female Uratha he recognizes as DANI
WINCHESTER, the *Bone Shadow* that
helped him with his initiation. JASON approaches silently and settles into the
nearby brush to listen to their conversation. DANI calls the new Uratha DOM, and
he is currently telling her that he underwent is First Change a couple of weeks
ago, and has been training with LEIDECKER. DANI seems briefly confused by the
fact DOM claims to have changed two weeks ago, but manages to shake it off
after a moment. DANI is very interested in what this LEIDECKER has told DOM of
Uratha society. DOM seems to know and trust DANI, and doesn’t appear to hold
anything back from her. JASON can tell DANI is preparing to give DOM the “what
it *really* means to be an Uratha”
speech, which is fine with JASON since he is so new to this world himself.
Maybe he’ll learn something.

Shortly after launching into her spiel, DANI realizes DOM’s
attention is suddenly drawn to the bushes behind her. DOM insists there is
something or someone there, but DANI doesn’t hear or see anything. She is about
to continue her lesson, when DOM growls and bolts into the bushes behind her.
After a brief scuffle, DOM emerges from the bushes with JASON in tow. “Told
you!” Exasperated, DANI orders both pups to sit down and shut up. She scolds
JASON for lurking in the bushes unannounced. DOM asks how she knows JASON and
she explains they worked a case together during the week DOM was in the
hospital. Though not inclined to trust JASON, DOM respects the fact that DANI
seems to and reluctantly agrees to let him join the conversation.

Back at HQ, Agent SWANSON cringes as she and her team are
ordered into LEIDECKER’s office. She is sure they are about to get reprimanded
for allowing their prisoner to walk. Instead they are told they have another
case – a missing person case at a local hospital that has a prominent
psychiatric ward. Three patients recently disappeared from the psych ward.
Normally the FBI wouldn’t be involved in a missing person case, but one of the
patients is a 12-year old little girl. The team is told they will be working
with the SFPD on this case, and the detective in charge is LAURA HOUSTON. They
equip themselves and head out, wondering if they will ever get a good night’s
sleep again.

LAURA HOUSTON proves to be quite the firecracker, with a
no-nonsense take charge attitude. She is less than thrilled about having to
work with the FBI and seems to have no problem ordering them around like they
are a bunch of rookie cops. She rides the team mercilessly until Special Agent DIEHARDIN
arrives with DANI and another young man the team doesn’t recognize. DANI
introduces him as DR. JASON SPHYNX. DOM meets LAURA’s fierce gaze head on as
they exchange heated words. Then, for whatever reason LAURA backs down, but not
before she playfully cup-checks DOM. She nods approvingly, “You’ve got stones…
I can respect that.” Grateful for the reprieve, the rest of the team slips away
to begin their investigation, leaving DANI and JASON with DOM as LAURA briefs
them on the case. It isn’t long before they come across a vent that has a
putrid, sickening odor wafting up from below. NEMO, being shamelessly curious,
decides to climb in and see what she can see. The vent drops off unexpectedly,
though, and NEMO disappears from view. The team calls out to her, but there is
no response. Barely hesitating, KIDA climbs into the vent after NEMO and also
disappears, leaving KILLIAN shaking his head as DOM walks up behind him with
LAURA, DANI and JASON. DOM asks where NEMO and KIDA are and KILLIAN gestures to
the vent. “Let’s get a blueprint of this place and figure out where these vents
go.” DOM barks since he knows there is no way he and KILLIAN can fit through the
small opening. “I can fit,” DANI says calmly and climbs into the vent, “Join us
when you can…”

DANI manages to control her descent into the darkness below,
landing silently on something wet and squishy. She turns on her flashlight and
beholds a gruesome sight. KIDA and NEMO lie motionless on the floor and there
is a creature of some sort covering their faces and wrapping around their
throats. She quickly crosses the room to NEMO and attempts to pry the creature
off of her still form. Unfortunately, the more she pulls, the tighter the
creature’s grip becomes around NEMO’s throat, closing in around her windpipe.
DANI’s instincts take over and she shifts to her battle form – maybe a swift,
surgical kill will release the creature’s grip. She uses the Garou claws to
rend the creature in half from top to bottom and is caught off guard as the
creature’s blood splatters over her hands, arms and chest burning her as if she
just had a vat of acid poured on her. And while the creature’s hold is broken,
it’s blood is now burning NEMO’s face and throat. Horrified, DANI hurriedly
works to brush the blood off of her friend.

NEMO’s eyes fly open and she gasps for air, bolting upright.
Her face and neck are on fire and there is a large beast in front of her,
reaching toward her with large hands and razor sharp claws. For NEMO, though,
that pales in comparison to the creature that is rising up behind the beast,
bringing back a childhood memory she had tried so hard to forget, when she
crawled under her house that one fateful night and came face to face with a
creature that lived in her worst nightmares from that day forward and
eventually resulted in her being committed to a mental asylum at the age of
thirteen. NEMO exposes her throat to the beast in front of her, hoping for a
quick and painless death before having to face her worst nightmare once again.
To her chagrin, the beast doesn’t give her such mercy. It seems to have just
become aware of the creature behind it and spins to face it, shifting down to a
large wolf and standing protectively in front of NEMO, growling. The creature
hisses in response and begins to move forward. Out of the corner of her eye,
NEMO sees DOM, KILLIAN, JASON and LAURA approaching off to her right. DOM
plants himself in the doorway of the room and levels his gun at the creature.
“GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!” he yells. The barrels of KILLIAN’s and JASON’s
guns appear from beside and between DOM’s legs and the room erupts into
gunfire, snarls and hissing.

DANI charges the creature in front of her, ripping into its
tough hide. Blood wells up as the creature’s exoskeleton is breached, and DANI
feels her mouth, nose and eyes burn from the creature’s acidic blood. At the
same time, gunfire erupts from beside her and several more splatters of the
creature’s blood shower her. It feels like her whole body is on fire. NEMO’s
electro kinesis arcs from behind DANI and lances into the creature, though it
seems to have little effect. DANI disengages, backing toward KIDA, confident in
her team’s ability to handle the threat and turns, preparing to remove the
other creature from KIDA’s face and throat. NEMO realizes what DANI is about to
do and moves to KIDA’s side, hoping to save her from the pain of having the
creature’s blood burn her. She brandishes her stun gun, waving DANI away, and discharges
it at full power into the creature. It convulses and dies, releasing its grip
on KIDA, but KIDA remains unconscious, also damaged by the stun gun. NEMO
removes the body, extracting one of its appendages from down KIDA’s throat. The
rest of the team dispatches the nightmare creature and turns to assess the
situation.

The three missing patients lay sprawled out amidst
unidentifiable gore. Two of them have their chests exploded outward, like
something ripped its way out from inside. The little girl also lies motionless
on the floor, but her chest is intact and she appears to be breathing. Her face
and neck are concealed within the shadows. Two bodies with their chest cavities
ripped open… perhaps the “face huggers” plant some kind of seed within their
victims that grows into these nightmares and rips it way out when it’s mature. That
means there is potentially still another nightmare roaming around in the bowels
of the hospital. One of the original victims, the little girl, is still alive,
but for how long?  For once, Detective
LAURA HOUSTON seems at a loss for words, processing everything she has just
witnessed. DOM, who normally would be barking orders, is still heavily injured
from his earlier altercation with DANI’s brother, not to mention his most
recent encounter with the nightmare creature. DANI approaches the little girl
and realizes she has a face-hugger attached to her. “Stun it!” she growls at
NEMO. NEMO starts to argue, fearing for the little girl’s safety, but DOM
interjects that if they don’t remove it the little girl is dead anyway. This
might at least give her a chance. NEMO obliges and the face hugger shutters and
falls away. DANI kneels down next to the little girl and tosses the creature’s
body aside, verifying the girl is still alive but unconscious. She scoops the
little girl up in her arms and turns to the door. “Let’s get out of here.”
KILLIAN picks up KIDA and follows DANI out.

The team retreats back to the upper levels of the hospital to
recover and DANI has KILLIAN order an evacuation and call the OSI in to lock
down the hospital. There is still at least one creature down below that
threatens the lives of the patients and staff. The team will have hunt it down
eventually, but for now they needed to rest. DOM makes a hasty departure out to
his car, knowing that his increased healing rate will not go unnoticed when the
OSI arrives. The evacuation of the hospital goes relatively smoothly, and there
is some discussion as to whether or not KIDA and NEMO should leave with the
patients to get treated at the other hospital. DANI ponders it for a moment,
then insists that they need to stay, along with the little girl. “We need to
make sure you’re not… infected first. We’ll have the OSI doctors take a look at
you.” While the team waits for the evacuation to complete and the OSI
containment team to arrive, KILLIAN, JASON and DANI start sifting through
patient files to see if they can find a connection between the three patients
that were abducted while DOM, NEMO and KIDA rest. There doesn’t seem to be a connection
between the three patients, but a particular case file attracts their
attention.

A DR. WAHNSINNIG, who normally only works at the hospital
three days a week, lately has been spending every day here working with a
patient known as ALEXA WOODS, who was admitted for lack of sleep and later
diagnosed with paranoid Schizophrenia. ALEXA suffers from debilitating
nightmares which began after serving as a guide for Weyland Corporation in
Antarctica. While she was there, she claims “living nightmares” erupted from
the ground and started attacking the research team. Some kind of hunter alien
helped her escape.  DANI and JASON
exchange a glance and then DANI briefly shares with KILLIAN the mission she and
JASON went on a little less than a week ago, where a doctor had managed to
bring his nightmares to life, allowing spirits to affect the real world. DANI
can confirm that the creatures at this hospital are not spirits, but could they
be dealing with a similar situation? JASON expresses a keen interest in talking
with ALEXA WOODS himself, but would have to get permission from DR. WAHNSINIG
to do so. Their discussion is interrupted as the containment team arrives and
starts setting up. After a series of radiographs, KIDA and NEMO are found to be
free of infestation. The little girl, however is not as lucky. The OSI doctors
believe they can surgically remove whatever is growing within her. DANI has
them prepare for surgery, but insists that she be present during the procedure.
KILLIAN backs her up, vouching for her authority within the OSI, and the
doctors reluctantly agree.

The Story Continues…

Current Developments - Chapter Five - Chapter Seven