Ozzy leapt to the side as the purple, tentacled monster barreled towards him. He turned in midair and fired a burst of paint-arrows, almost like a shotgun blast, aimed at the creature's legs, hoping to hamstring it. He hated to use such methods from the start, but he REALLY didn't think his paint could hold the thing, and he didn't have time to waste. Not with the other one running loose.

In reply to Truth (msg # 775):

Leo got up and went towards the boy and placed his hands calmly on the youths shoulders.

"take me to them...I shall stop this."

  It snarled, and SPAT something green and gooey at him.  The werewolfy one was almost down to Clarissa's parents' house.  And then Clarissa's Mom stepped out, dragging a trash can, and unaware of the monster pounding toward her.

Ozzy had to focus on Clarissa's Mom. He charged an arrow with a bit of excess mana, given that he had more to burn now, hoping to REALLY get the 'werewolf's' attention with a bang like a firecracker. He was trying some crazy shit indeed.

  The one on it's side with the arrows through it's legs was snarling, trying to hoist itself back onto it's feet.  The gooey stuff hit his armor, and he heard it sizzling on his armor.

  The werewolfy one stopped when the arrow exploded against it's back, and it turned, and howled again, making Clarissa's Mom scream and fall over from fright, a little blood leaking from her ears, and a terrified expression on her face.

Ozzy shucked his armor like there was no tomorrow, hoping that none of the acid had gotten on his skin. He then formed a new suit of Mark 1 armor, hoping that he could dodge anything else.

Seeing Clarissa's Mom screaming, he started to run over, shouting, "Don't worry, Mrs. Clemmons! I'm comin'!"

His ears were ringing painfully, and his heart was pounding, but he knew he HAD to protect Mrs. Clemmons. She was an innocent bystander getting mixed up in this, and Clarissa would likely be devastated if her Mom died on his watch.

As he got close enough to the werewolfy one, he leaped at it with a flying kick, hoping to at least keep its attention focused on him.

  Mrs Clemmons spotted him, and looked rather glad to see him, even as she was trying to scrabble AWAY from the werewolfy thing.  Which, yes, he DID have it's attention.  It's FULL attention.  And it tried to take a bite out of him, fangs bared and pinkish saliva in strings between the teeth.

  The purple tentacled one snarled, and a tentacle shot something small at him.  It whizzed by his ear, and sank into the wall of the house, a quivering white dartlike item, even as the wood trim it was embedded in growing a wet stain.

  The police were rounding up the parahumans squatting in the building and bundling them into a bus to transport them somewhere.

Ozzy stepped back away from the snapping fangs, not wanting to know what happened if that pink shit got in HIS veins. He formed a sword and shield, and bashed at the thing's head with the shield before slashing downward with the sword, hoping to carve a chunk out of the beast's neck. He needed to end this quick before the tentacled one could shoot at him again!

  The tentacled one shot another dart thing at him, but it missed again.  It snarled, and brought two more tentacles up though, clearly trying to aim for him.

  The werewolf's jaws snapped shut, missing him, but his faceplate got spattered, and his sword hit it's shoulder, producing a spurt of blood that doused him.  Then the werewolfy one snapped again.

  The purple tentacled one shot three darts at him, but they all missed.

Ozzy slashed again at the werewolf, tucking his shield behind him as he fought. This was getting dangerous, and he wanted to leave something behind him to help protect him from those bone darts that the purple one kept shooting. Who knows what they'd do if he got hit?

 The tentacled one shot three darts at him, and one of them sank into his left knee, through a crease in his armor where it flexed for him to move.  A sensation of HEAT roared through his body, and he felt like he'd just become ten feet tall and bulletproof.

  His body started by bulking up, the feeling of his muscles swelling as they STRETCHED, his frame lengthening and broadening, until he had to be about nine feet tall, lean and whipcord muscle, with horns and . . .wings???  No WONDER his back ached for a minute, although only for a minute.  It burned at the base of his spine for a minute, but then the scorpion tail that had sprouted twitched, and a drop of the pinkish stuff dripped to the ground.

Ozzy roared in pain as his body metamorphosed, a feeling of raw power running through him, threatening to send him over the brink. But Ozzy was used to getting rushes of power, now. He mastered the rush, wrestled it down, controlled it. HE was in charge, not... whatever it was that he'd become.

He snarled fiercely as his armor stretched to cover his new frame, his hands growing wicked talons copied from Andy, and his tail sprouting a mighty blade like a spear that plugged the flow of mutagen from it. He tore at the wolf in front of him with his new claws, and struck out with his bladed tail. He HAD to finish the monster before him so that Mrs. Clemmons would be safe before he could worry about himself.

  It didn't take him long at all, with claws AND a tail, to whack the werewolfy one out flat.  Mrs. Clemmons had seen it mutate him, and after a horrified cry, she'd fainted.  Mr. Clemmons belched from the living room, and took another slug of his beer.  The scent of booze hit Ozzy like a slap in the face, even from this distance.

  The tentacled one howled, and began to try scrambling away on it's tentacles, but it wasn't moving very fast, and Mr. Witness got the chance to shoot it, putting it out cold.  Leaving poor Ozzy in VERY unusual shape!

Ozzy lumbered over to Mrs. Clemmons, his claws and armor receding as he picked her up gingerly. He pondered taking her back to Mr. Clemmons, but thought better of it. If the man was happy drinking, and didn't even bother to check out what the loud noises were, or what was taking his wife so long with the garbage, then he didn't deserve to know. The smell of the beer was disgusting, and it made him snort out in an attempt to clear his nostrils.

He carried Mrs. Clemmons to Mr. Witness and asked, "Cann... you call... help? She may need... attention."

  He nodded, and flipped his phone out, answering Ozzy "I'm calling help now.  Are YOU okay, Painter?  Is this stuff permanent, or what?  And how do we explain this one to the boss?"

Ozzy shrugged, "Dunno. You're the expert. I'm just the beatstick. By the by... got anything to keep stuff in? I could get you a sample of the drug, easy. Seems we all have a way to spread it."

He then sank down and sighed, "Don't give a damn about the boss. He'll love it. I'm stronger than ever. What I'm worried about is my girlfriend... what will SHE say? Now I really am a freak... still, it was worth it. Funnily enough, this is her mom... and her dad's in their house, drunk as a skunk from the smell."

  He went to the van, and came back with two large coffee thermoses.  He dumped the coffee out, and then offered them to Ozzy.  "Hopefully it wears off, or your girlfriend may freak out on you."

Ozzy put as much of his 'venom' as he could into the thermoses. He nodded and said, "I hope so. I know she loves me, just... can she love me like this?"

He then shook his head and said, "I don't wanna think about it. Is our target still anywhere nearby?"

  He closed his eyes, and said "He's not left the house.  Apparently they didn't bother attacking him.  Good GODS is this stuff scary.  Can you keep functioning, Ozzy?  And can you fit back in the van?"

Ozzy nodded, "I can keep functioning, yeah. What do you need? And I dunno, maybe. I'm fuckin' HUGE now! Maybe I fit in the back?"

  He patted Ozzy's arm reassuringly, and said "If your girlfriend is a worthwhile woman, she'll love you even if this is permanent, Ozzy.    But you certainly DO make one hell of an imposing figure, even crouched.  That scorpion tail looks nasty."

Ozzy nodded, "Yeah. So you want I should grab our perp? Or are we gonna let him be for now?"

  He said "One, we need to analyze that chemical.  Two, we need to find out where the supply is COMING from, and three, you need to go home and hope this crap wears off.  Leave one thermos with me, I'll get it to the lab boys for analysis."  He patted Ozzy's arm, as Crystal Rose said "Holy SHIT are you huge right now!!"

Ozzy snickered, "No shit, Sherlock. I feel like I could really do some damage, to be honest. But... well, if you don't need me, I think I'll head on home. I just... kinda wanna get it over with."

Though Crystal had got a snicker out of him, he still sounded a bit gloomy. He was clearly worried about what Clarissa would think... and whether or not this was permanent. He had to wonder if this was how Andy felt when HE first transformed.