Volume I: The Lost Boys

"You don't understand. I HAVE to do it" a single tear rolled down her cheek "I was supposed to watch over her"

The Doctor rushed to Zuri’s side, despite Night Arrow still having him in her crosshairs. He, too, was almost close to tears, and he drew strength from clasping the teen’s hand with his own – just as she did. "Shhh…It’s alright. I’m going to bring her back. I promise. I’m going to bring them ALL back"

Harmonia would had prefer to neutralize the scientist immediately, but it seemed her new team want to reason with the mad man. With a calm expression, she flew swiftly across the room to the corridor entrance, positioning herself to prevent the boys from interfering. "Please, don't interfere," she said softly to them, her voice gentle.

"I'm not a doctor, but even I know that if someone is dead for only a few minutes before being revived that wont be ground shaking. The only way your test would work is to leave her dead until brain death occurs." She doesn't sound pleased and doesn't stop speaking. "We aren't going to let you do that. You've shown you can revive the bodies, but you can't revive minds. So all you would do with this test is kill a young girl for no purpose. You have to stop. You aren't bringing people back just bodies. Even if this works" She waves at the chair and table of equipment "That doesn't change that it's far too late for those who have already died. Their minds are already gone." She looks like she can and will keep going if nobody interrupts her.

The Doctor looked behind Blacklight’s shoulder as she talked, motioning once more for the Boys to stand down. It was starting to look like his control over the young men – who he promised wonders to, was as tenuous as his ‘control’ over the ravenous zombies. "It’s going to work" the Doctor insisted. What he was doing was already way beyond what modern science imagined to be possible. He couldn’t expect her to understand how "Zuri will be fine. You’ll see"

"This isn't about Zuri. This is about the fact that it doesn't matter if she is fine, your drug already brings the bodies back and this isn't going to change that it doesn't restore the mind, only bring it back in whatever condition it is in today, not the condition it was in before they died. The problem is that what your doing is either contagious or deadly to anyone affected by it who isn't already dead. You need to take your work and do it with proper oversight and without cutting corners that will get more people killed. Deion almost died, has anyone else been hurt by the risen?" Blacklight keeps trying to convince Dr. Harris of the danger, she's not actually sure what group would oversee his kind of research or where it could be safely done but she's sure as shootin positive that it isn't "no-one" and "in an abandoned hospital".

It seemed like trying to talk the Doctor down was handled. Mimic reached over and touched her fingers to some of the concrete. If things escalated, being what would essentially a living statue made it so you could take a lot of hits. She quietly crept over the doorway and waited off to the side. Hopefully she was out of sight, and she'd be able to get the jump on anyone who decided to force their way in.

The Ogre approaches the Harris.

"Doc, this isn't going to happen. I'm not going to let it."

"Don't care who agreed to what, but you're not killing someone just to find out all you can do is turn her into a zombie."

His eyes narrow, taking on a feral fierceness and he growls with a low guttural rumble.

"I'm making progress with each new batch of my formula. I'm going to perfect it, but I can't do it under the thumb of government bureaucrats"
The young teen was pretty oblivious to suggest he needed oversight. It wasn't like SHE was working under the authority and supervision of the government either, and from what he's seen, she was every bit as dangerous as 'the risen'. And there was another salient reason for his refusal to work with the authorities. He was sure she could relate: "I don't trust the US government with this formula. It is a secret, best kept with me"

The doctor's eyes narrowed when one of the heroes' skin turned grey, like the color of the concrete floor. Danger. He was about to do, or say something about it, before the big monster got in his face.

Switchblades and bicycle chains suddenly looked very inadequate for dealing with a monster like the Ogre. The Lost Boys were desperate, but facing the feral red giant was only going to add them to the list of people the Doctor needed to 'revivify'. The teenagers scampered away, hurrying down the hallways, with some of the more craven (or smarter) ones running out of the abandoned hospital altogether.

Save two.

Chayton and Miguel, two of the older gang members always at Dr. Harris's back, were the ones who felt the lost of their loved ones stronger than most - which made them all the more dangerous. With nothing to lose, not even their own lives, they raised their pistols and took aim. Not at the Ogre, but at the young women who accompanied him.

"Step back, or she gets a bullet through her head. I mean it" Chayton was referring to 'Night Arrow', while his friend was targeting Harmonia "Get the @#$! out of here, and no one gets hurt"

"Chayton! What are you doing?! Put the gun away, right now!" the Doctor was trembling, from anger, and fear.
All his work was at stake. He couldn't let it end this way. But could he really live with himself if people got killed over it?

"Don't sweat it Doc, we got this" Chayton kept the gun on 'Night Arrow', his finger on the trigger "Put the bow on the ground. Nice and easy"

"Guns? Really. How crude." Night Arrow says. She looks at Chayton. Trying to judge the distance between them. She never had anyone point a gun at her before. But with her mask on, she barely cared.

"A true hero never shoots to kill," she says calmly.

And with that she quickly turns to Chayton and shoots. Not at Chayton, but at the barrel of his gun.

Harmonia dashes after Chayton aiming at Night arrow, trying to crush his gun with a punch.

But if Black arrow already disabled that gun, she instead does it at Miguel who is aiming at her.

With an almost inaudible 'shit' whispered under her breath as things go to hell she steels herself and trusts her teammates new and old to handle their end of things. For her the most dangerous thing, and person in the room left unattended is Zuri and the needle. She can only trust The Ogre to handle doc, and the others to handle the gunmen.

So she hurries forward to put herself physically in between Zuri and that needle of death just in case the girl decides to do something stupid. Thankfully she's not limited to her own hands as she also reaches out with tentacles from the darkness behind the table where Dr. Harris laid the needle down to pull it and everything on it away. She can do this!

"Chayton! DON’T!!!!" the Doctor barked, immediately recognizing the danger. He rushed past the Ogre, without regard for his own safety, in a vain attempt to stop the young man. But it was already too late. The spray shooting out of the canister in a fine colorless mist quickly dissipated without any accompanying irritation or burning sensation. Whatever was in the can, was definitely not pepper spray.

"What have you done?!?" the Doctor reached the young man and grabbed him by his shoulders, shaking the dazed Chayton forcibly "What have you done?!?!"

Loud snarling and howling echoed throughout the corridors of the haunted hospital almost as soon as the odorless mist dispersed. Thundering bangs of fists hitting metal, and then a booming thud! from something heavy crushing down, were followed by the shuffle of footsteps…

Mimic moves from her spot to take Harmonia's old position in front of the door. "What did that do?" She looks around at everyone else. "Should we get the people out of here and hunt down whatever's making that noise?" Either way they're going to have to fight it. She'd bet good money letting whatever that thing is out on the streets would be a disaster.

"Raaar!"

The Ogre roars as he reaches down to grab Harris. His fist is large he can almost encircle the doctor with one of then he can certainly clamp his hands to his side.

"What did you?" He yells, shaking the doctor roughly.