The cold water of the outflow pipe flushed me further into the labyrinth. My body was running on fumes, the 5% biomass I had left barely keeping my heart beating. My human brain screamed for help; my viral heart screamed for meat.
"Find it," I gasped to the System. "Find the big one."
[Target Acquired: Large Bipedal Reptilian Metahuman. Extreme Strength Class. Estimated Biomass Yield: 35-45%. Proceed with caution.]
"Caution is for humans," I spat, pushing myself up a ladder onto a wider, main sewer tunnel. The smell of decay was overwhelming, but underneath it, I smelled something else—musk, raw sewage, and a coppery scent that I identified instantly as old, stagnant blood.
I activated my Tactile Sensory Array. The entire tunnel was vibrating. The slow, heavy dragging steps of something huge coming my way. I didn't wait. I started moving toward the sound. I was starving, weak, and exhausted, but I wasn't backing down. Not for some overgrown lizard.
I found him in a massive, disused pumping station. It was huge cavern of rust and echoing dripping water. The 'King of the Sewers' was a monster ripped straight from the comics. Eight feet tall, covered in thick, dark green reptilian scales, powerful jaws, and glowing white eyes. Killer Croc.
He was tearing into the carcass of a large dog, blood staining his massive, clawed hands. He looked up when I entered, his jaws snapping shut on bone with a sickening crack.
"Dis my turf," Croc rumbled, his voice a deep, guttural sound that seemed to vibrate the very air. "You ain't welcome here, skin-bag."
He tossed the half-eaten dog aside and lunged. He wasn't a tactical genius like Batman; he was pure, primal rage and muscle.
I dodged, barely. My reflexes were still faster than a human's, but my energy reserves were shot. His massive claw slammed into the concrete wall where I had been a second before, pulverizing it into dust.
"You're big," I panted, keeping my distance. "But I'm hungry."
[Warning: Host's physical strength currently matched by target. Requires strategy.]
Yeah, no kidding.
I needed his DNA. I needed that high-grade meta-human biomass. I didn't want to kill him just to survive; I wanted to wear his strength, absorb his resistance.
I lunged back in, aiming for his knee joint. He swung a fist the size of a ham, and I put my forearm up to block.
CRACK.
The sound of my ulna and radius snapping echoed through the cavern. Pain exploded up my arm, and I dropped to my knees, gasping.
"Weak!" Croc bellowed, towering over me. He raised his massive foot to crush my chest.
Not today, you ugly bastard.
The T-Virus screamed into action. My forearm didn't stay broken for long. Tendons rewove, bone shards knitted together, all within seconds. The viral energy was cannibalizing my chest and leg muscle to do it, but the arm was functional.
I grabbed his ankle and pulled. Croc wasn't expecting me to recover instantly. He lost balance and went down hard in the fetid water.
I jumped on his back, trying to get a grip on that thick, scaly neck. His scales were like chainmail, resisting my fingers. He roared and thrashed, slamming my back into a rusty pipe.
CLANG.
My spine felt like it was liquid fire. But I held on. I needed the biomass. I needed the data.
"Syphonis! I need extraction!" I yelled in my head, grinding my teeth against his tough neck scales.
[Initiating Biomass Extraction Protocol: Mouth-to-Skin Transfer.]
The T-Virus took over my mouth. My teeth sharpened into tiny, needle-like fangs, and I bit down hard onto his thick, scaly neck.
Croc roared in agony, thrashing violently. The scales resisted, but my new teeth punctured the hide. I started drinking the blackish, thick blood.
[Biomass: 15% acquired. 20%... 25%...]
The taste was metallic and rank, but the viral energy surge was immense. It was working. I felt the familiar burn of evolution, the satisfying thrum as power flooded back into my veins. My injuries sealed instantly.
Croc, however, wasn't having it. He slammed his body against a concrete wall again. I didn't have time to dodge. The impact crushed my lower body. My legs went numb.
He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me off his back, roaring with rage. My legs hung uselessly beneath me, broken and shattered at the hip.
"You bit me!" he roared, blood dripping from his neck.
[Biomass: 42% acquired. Autophagy ceased. Physical regeneration requires immediate high yield.]
He raised a clawed hand to finish me. I had enough strength for one last move. I activated my Tactile Sensory Array to its maximum output, flooding my senses with information. The pipes, the ground, the very air.
I sensed a loose electrical junction box high above us.
"Try this on for size, lizard!"
I used my good arm to throw a heavy, rusted gear I found nearby, channeling the remaining strength into the throw. It wasn't an accurate throw; I didn't need it to be.
The gear snapped a main support chain connected to the junction box. The box sparked and fell into the massive pool of water at the center of the pumping station.
ZZZAP!
Ten thousand volts hit the water. Croc screamed as the electricity surged through his body. Water was a perfect conductor. He convulsed violently, paralyzed by the sheer power.
I used the moment. I focused the T-Virus entirely on my legs. It was agonizing, forcing the broken bones and torn muscle back together in seconds. I didn't care about the pain. I just needed to move.
I pushed myself off the ground and lunged at the paralyzed monster. My body surged with 42% biomass, a massive improvement. I was faster, stronger, denser.
I grabbed his head and forced his face into the electrified water.
Croc thrashed, the electricity frying his central nervous system. I held him there until his struggling stopped, his massive body floating lifelessly in the filth.
I pulled his body out of the water and began the full extraction protocol. The T-Virus went into overdrive.
[Biomass Acquisition: 100% Achieved. Nemesis-Type Evolution Unlocked. Commencing Cellular Restructuring. Warning: Extreme Pain.]
My world exploded into white light and searing pain. The last thing I saw was my hands twisting, elongating, my body covered in red and blue plating, just like in the lab.