My Werepanther System: Starting with Nine Lives
Chapter 67 IN

Chapter 67: 67 IN

"He wants in?!!!" Rex repeated, "Victor wants in on some fabricated plot that I’m one of the Shadowed-Seven Inheritors looking to get revenge for my forsaken family. I don’t even know my family!"

"Sure you do." Imani said. "Nechra, Syphen, Hassan and the Bastetians. If you’d like to avoid lying to him." Imani added as Victor silently stepped through a corridor full of sensing lasers that split up the Monkey-Vents lining The Box.

Rex looked at Imani as he leaned against the steel wall— his legs still felt like jelly, "What are you up to?" Rex asked. "What is this? Yea, you saved me with your quick thinking. But it feels like you almost regret it."

Imani eyed him, "I’m just trying to remind you who’s team I’m on. I was your first teammate, you know? Before Syphen and Hassan, even."

"....are you angry about something? Beyond the Mana Flux that changed the structure of the world I mean." Rex asked.

Imani kept her face only barely emotionless, "What did I tell you? Why didn’t I reveal you to the box faculty like almost anyone else would’ve? What’s my reason?"

"You’re looking for truth?" Rex remembered very vividly actually.

Imani nodded, "I help you, you help me."

"Yea."

"So in my search for the truth, you give me a lie for no reason."

Rex made a face. Too much had happened in the day— and he was too sleep deprived to pinpoint her gripe.

"You’re hiding Syphen. There’s more like him now— beyond Nechra, isn’t there?" Imani asked.

Rex swallowed. He should’ve known hiding things from her wouldn’t be so simple.

"Why?" Imani asked.

"....because it’s bigger than me now." Rex shrugged, "You’re connected to people that could erase it all in less time than I’ve known you. I’m just trying to be careful."

"Rex." Imani said, "That..... is a fair point."

Rex readied his reply in defense and then looked her way again, "Wait.... What?"

"I wish you wouldn’t ask me to say it again. Perhaps I got.... A bit emotional."

Rex side eyed Imani.

"I still don’t like being left in the dark. But I guess I understand. Responsibility is one of the heaviest non physical weights known to man. At least the good ones." Imani said.

"Does the Mana Flux affect personalities?" Rex asked.

"Ouch." Imani copied Rex’s common reply.

"Well, I’m sorry I hurt you. But I’m glad you understand." Rex said.

Imani nodded.

"Now I’ve gotta figure out Victor." Rex said as he watched the trainee walk through the lasers with his thunderous dome.

"There’s not much to figure out. He’s been radicalized by his upbringing. He understands his success is nothing more than a percentage and in every other lifetime he became a failed statistic like every other kid. He saw the truth." Imani said as she watched Victor.

Rex’s mind worked as he watched her.

Imani noticed him staring and replied, "What?"

"You....." Rex was in disbelief. But it also made perfect sense.

"What, Rex?"

"You’re behind this, aren’t you? Victor wasn’t— isnt, smart enough to find what I’m assumed is a shit load of locked information on his own."

Imani clenched her jaw and rolled her shoulders, her long braids slid across her toned back like serpents, "Yes, I helped him."

"The hell did you do?"

"I hacked his phone. Noticed he was already snooping. That was after I met him the first day."

"What?!" Rex questioned.

"All it takes is a look." Imani’s eyes flashed blue. "From there, I just weakened some firewalls and gave some data-logs disguised as viruses. He did the rest." Imani said.

"Werent you just on my ass for lying?" Rex said.

"I haven’t lied. I’m working other angles for you." Imani said.

"What angle is this?" Rex asked.

"Ally formulation. It’s a commonality among early stage militant nations. No one survives alone. It takes a village.... As many say. I was meeting a neighbor— in that sense." Imani explained.

Rex backed off verbally and considered her words. He thought to himself for a moment then, "So. We lied to Victor to save my ass. But in doing so, Imani also cut Victor off from being a loyal dog to a cause that would end my life. She cut him off from Remulus— who could be the Ultra-General— who both his father and every other Inheritence Ability users family answers to. In doing so, I can’t have a friend put against me. But also in doing so, I could lose a friend in the end. It all depends on how I move from here. I could have a man on the inside for the now, but an enemy forever after. There’s one other obvious move I could make though. I gotta play it cool for now. Maybe that’ll be easier now that I can’t breathe fire."

"What are you thoughts?" Imani asked.

"My decisions from this point onward will matter more." Rex said.

Imani nodded.

"But you made a good move. I don’t need to tell you that, though."

"Correct. I’m very sure of myself." Imani said.

"Yea, speaking of yourself, do you want this?" Rex asked as he looked at her.

Imani side eyed him, "Want what?"

"You know what." Rex said. As he spoke, his feline fangs extended.

Before Imani could answer, the lights cut back on and the lasers faded as Victor shut off the systems from the other side.

"Come on guys!" Victor whisper-yelled out to them.

Imani held Rex’s gaze for a moment before they headed down the vents after Victor.

The rest of the travel was pretty silent but eventually they stepped out of a back vent and ended up outside.

It was a long drop. Obviously not meant for average human survival without the use of a jungle-monkey Drift suit.

Thankfully, Victor was superhuman, Rex was a Werepanther and Imani was barely one-hundred pounds.

They hit the ground with the crunch of the leaves beneath their feet being ate up by the mechanical scream of The Box as it inched forward on massive conveyor belted wheels with dense steel spikes.

"Ok, we need a plan. To avoid genetics scans." Victor said.

Suddenly, Rex’s Snipe-Gauntlet buzzed on his wrist— it had probably been buzzing but the vents canceled internet connections.

He put the bracelet to his ear and listened to the message.

Naturally, AG Brennus wanted another meeting with his Chameleon IV unit after a world changing event.

He smiled despite his exhaustion, "I’ve got an alibi."

"You do?" Victor asked.

"Yes. I’m.... special forces." Rex said.

Victor raised an eyebrow, "Double agent?"

"Yea." Rex said, which was truthful, just not in the way Victor thought. A white lie of sorts.

"...How can I help?" Victor asked.

"You and Imani can get back to base. Get with the others. I’ll be out. But I’ll be back as usual. We’ll talk more tonight." Rex said.

Victor and Imani nodded before heading off around the front of of The Box.

Rex looked down at his hands and watched the nails darken and turn into claws. From there, he felt a presence in the soil beneath his feet. He could pull on it and feel it’s dark wetness.

The ground rumbled.

He pulled.

With a leap, the ground beneath his feet exploded with glowing waters that shot him sixty feet into the air.

He held onto the waters, focusing them into a spinning hurricane around his feet that flew him up into the monkey vent he just climbed out of.

Naturally, he was still new and hit the wall twice before flipping into the vent with enough water to drown.

He flipped and swam in the wild current before it leaked through the cracks and down the crevices to the point of emptiness.

He laid in the steel corridors breathing heavy as purple water droplets dripped.

In the silence, he raised his hand, watching the skin glimmer and shift into water. Suddenly his whole hand was formulated fluids. He focused and shaped it into a blade. He used his (Venom Infusion) skill and watched the water gain green arcs of poisonous sparks. The water bubbled and fizzed. It burned to control. It was toxic.

It was....

"Cool." Rex thought before sitting up. In the dark his eyes were slitted like a panther.

The watery transformation of his hand spread throughout his whole body.

In a blur, he lunged forward and transformed into a panther made of jungle-waters and bounded through the vents with ease.

When he reached the room of spinning high temperature lasers, he didn’t have a shield of thunder and lightning like Victor. But he was amorphous.

Casually, he flattened into a puddle and rolled beneath the rays.

Then the placement began to shift. Testing the limits of his new power. With a mind fresh off jungle living, in his puddle form, he split up into a dozen serpent shaped currents of water and slithered through the room, recollecting on the other side and rising as a Werepanther made of river flows.

"I think I can make this work....." Rex said before heading to join his special ops unit.

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