Kate took a moment to look down at Allison's hands, "What happened to your bow and arrows?" referring to the fact that Allison came in with a firearm in hands, instead of her usual weapon of choice, "Are you even truly Allison Argent?" she added.
up until Kate had uttered those words, Chris hadn't really thought of that as a possibility. They'd all questioned the process that made the resurrections a reality but... None of them thought to question if the people that rose back from the dead were the ones they once knew. Then again, there was no reason to. At least there wasn't any with the others. Allison's case, however, was peculiar. The whole time he'd been around her, Chris had carried that lingering feeling along; that strange unfamiliarity, that distance between him and his daughter that seemed so unconquerable... But he thought that time would mend it all, that time was all she needed in order to come back to her old self. Not once did he think of the eventuality that the body of his beloved daughter harbored someone other than... Well, his daughter.
"Argent! What the hell are you doing?" yelled Daniel. Furious that he'd had to call Chris back into action whilst trying to survive it.
Plunged in the bottomless pit of doubts that Kate's words had instilled in him, he'd completely missed the fact that the fight had already begun. He turned to his side just in time to shoot at a berserker that was coming his way. In vain, of course, berserkers were such durable creatures that the group was struggling to leave the smallest of scratches on their bodies. Allison was fully focused on Kate and as it seemed; Kate wanted it to be that way, since none of her berserkers were going after Allison either. Which left Isaac and Alec, running, jumping and ducking around to avoid any incoming hits. At the same time, the two werewolves were making sure that berserkers went nowhere near Chris and Daniel by attracting their attention towards themselves. It was not an imperviable plan however, since some of them slipped through the cracks and still went after one of the two humans anyway.
"Can we even kill these things?" asked Daniel as he kept on firing on the berserkers.
"Yeah, but we need a lot of fire power," said Chris, but then he added, "Either that or a werejaguar to stop them,"
"Well, I don't think the werejaguar is gonna ask them to stop anytime soon. So, I vote for the fire power. What do you have in mind?"
"Something big. But we're gonna have to swap roles with the werewolves for a while. Think you'll hold on?" asked Chris.
"Whatever it takes. We won't hold on like this much longer anyways," said Daniel.
Chris shoved his hand in one of the barely visible pockets of his pants and pulled what looked like a small, black box out of it, "Issac!" he called for Isaac, "I need you to get as close as possible to one of them and stick this some place on their body they can't reach easily. This side here is adhesive. Make sure it sticks!" he told Isaac once he got his attention.
"What was that?" quizzed Daniel, his eyes glued on Isaac's hand.
"You'll see. Now, keep firing on them until you get their attention," said Chris.
Isaac on the other hand, did not seem to be in need for any pointers. He communicated to Alec what was expected of them, and they went from there. Both werewolves toned it down with their acrobatics which led the berserkers to gravitate towards the second loudest thing in the room. The gunshots.
The berserkers kept on advancing towards Daniel and Chris while Isaac did his best to sneakily get closer to one of them behind its back. Once he'd managed to stick the box on the berserkers's back, he immediately skedaddled away from it. Knowing Chris's style, whatever was in that box, had to be loud and burn hot.
"Get down!" screamed Chris for everyone to hear, including Allison and by the same occasion, Kate.
The moment they'd all touched the ground, he pushed a red button on an even smaller device than the box and from there, the berserkers that had the item on its back, went up in flames, in the loudest, most deafening boom they'd all heard in a while. It turned out, the small box was a bomb and a very effective one at that.
Once everything had calmed down, and they all rose back to their feet. They'd noticed that the only thing remaining of the berserker was a body of ashes. To their greatest solace, the exploding berserker had taken with it the other berserkers that were standing the closest to it at the moment of the explosion.
"Clever... I must say," said Kate without a trace of annoyance, "I recognize your genius there, Chris," she moved a strand of her hair that'd been dangling in front of her eyes away from sight, "Too bad, there's more where those came from,"
She let out a growl that reverberated gradually louder from the depths of her voice box. And just like that, the four berserkers that had remained after the explosion, became ten, then twenty, then thirty... Chris lost count at forty.
"How many bombs do you still have?" Daniel leaned in closer towards Chris.
"Not even close to enough," said Chris as his eyes moved from left to right, not knowing where to set his attention at.
Kate pushed a second growl to which the berserkers responded to by advancing towards the group, "I told you Chris, or didn't I?" Kate snickered as she spoke, "I told you that being my enemy could cost you your life. I just didn't know you were ready to wager other people's lives. I gave you so many outs, yet you kept on coming after me... And look where that has led you to. I am afraid I can't hide behind the fact that you're my brother to justify me letting you live anymore... I am afraid this time is the one too many and this time, I really have to pull the trigger on you," she took her time and strolled closer towards them. But along the way, she stopped in her tracks. Chris noted that her demeanor had shifted. He followed her gaze towards Isaac and Alec who... Were smiling. She was no longer smiling, she seemed confused.
That was when, a third growl was heard. Upon hearing it, the berserkers immediately halted advancing. Kate dropped the look of confusion she had on her face and resumed smiling like she'd never even stopped, "It's you again. I am glad we get to have a second round. So, where were we?"
All the mystery around the third growl, the berserkers stopping and Isaac's smile in such times, had disappeared the moment they laid eyes on who came into the room. Liam and Hilldon stood each on one of Hayden's sides. She'd been the one to growl at the berserkers to stop.
"You realize that all I have to do is to growl new orders at them, right? When it comes down it, they'll always listen to me over you," said Kate.
"True but... It won't come down to it. Not this time," said Hayden, a victorious smile on her face.
Chris tried his best to follow as things were unfolding before his eyes but failed miserably. He was left wondering why Kate's smile had faded, once again. Or the reason that made her head whip around from left to right like she was closely following the movements of an invisible fly. Better late than never, Chris was finally able to catch the faint but sharp swooshing of air that was soring in between and through the rows of berserkers that stood still. Before he knew it, the whirling sound grew a little louder followed by the sound of large bodies falling to the ground. Sound that came from the berserkers, dropping immobile to the floor one after the other, like empty husks.
"We'll take this side," said a familiar voice before its owner sprang into action. Ethan, who was very closely followed by Jackson behind, ran towards a specific side of the vast space that had contained all of them that whole time. They were only clearly visible for a short span of time, before both of their figures grew blurry to Chris's eyes as they ran as fast as they could. Shortly after that, gunshot sounds called for their attentions towards another side of the room. Deaton came in, firing at berserkers who were immobilized, seemingly losing all control over their bodies in less than a second.
Once the dust had settled and the room had been cleared of all berserkers, Chris was finally able to take a good look at their heroes. Deaton stood on one side. Jackson, had his kanima tail out and stood near Ethan. The closest to them were Deucalion and Aidan, who'd made it so far into the room without Chris ever noticing it. Liam, Hilldon and Hayden hadn't moved.
"Good thing we chose to come this way, it seems," said Deucalion.
"So, it seems," retorted Deaton.
"What happened? What did you do to them?" Chris was shaken out of his trance by Daniel who'd spoken to his left side.
"Kanima venom," Chris had answered before any of them had gotten the chance to, "You even made darts out of it,"
"I spent the entire day filling those viles. I am glad it wasn't all for nothing," said Jackson as he lifted his hand and rotated it in front of his own eyes.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Kate's voice arose again.
When they'd all turned to meet her eyes, their visages twisted into what could've been translated to confusion, surprise, fear. All expressions scattered unevenly between their faces. Kate had her arms around Alec's neck, holding him in front of her, shielding her body behind his. She'd pulled him to the side, completely isolating him from the rest of the group. Her hand gripping his jaw tightly, ready to snap his neck in an instant.
"That was a great plan you came up with, but you see, I can be resourceful as well," she said, a long-lasting smirk on her lips.
"Let him go!" yelled Daniel.
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen. He's coming with me," she'd begun taking small and slow steps back, dragging a visibly terrified Alec but she immediately stopped in order to reaffirm her threats when Deucalion had made a sudden movement, "I'll snap him like a twig before you get the time to call his name," she carried on walking backwards. When she saw that Deucalion had heeded her warning, her attention fell on Allison, "So, here we are, Allison. What has our family come to? It's hard to believe that we're the last standing Argents and yet... Here we are," she then turned towards Chris, "What has become of the Argents? The legacy that those who came before us spent centuries building. Our prestige! All gone... And for what? We were once able to put our own family members down to spare them from their own fates and look at you today. Look at what you've done to our family, Chris. You are corrupted to the bone. Look at you! Trembling for the fate of a creature you were brought to this world to hunt! What about you Allison? Huh?"
Chris's gaze landed on Allison. She seemed... distant. Completely disconnected. The look on her face unkind towards its onlookers. She didn't seem to have a care in the world, yet she seemed so uptight at once.
"I can't let you leave," said Allison. Her eyes went over Chris before they landed back on Kate, "He's trembling," she spoke again. In the blink of an eye, she lifted her weapon towards Kate and Chris knew what she was about to do, "But I am not,"
Without a warning and before anybody could stop her, Allison opened fire on Kate, simultaneously hitting Alec in the process.
"No!" screamed Daniel as he jumped on her.
Daniel scrambled to get on his feet and ran towards Alec who was left to bleed on the floor. By then, Kate was long gone.