Colin felt a commotion stir on the outskirts of his confinement. He could map out the hallways around him based on the Gilberts and other, unknown humans nearby. The opposing groups converged well within the range of his senses. He paid attention and hoped that something would happen that would allow him to be set free, because he was good and trapped. Observing his surroundings was his best chance at escape. His best chance of saving his family. After everything he’d done to drag his family into this mess, it was the least he could do to try and save them. He didn’t have any delusions of being a hero, but he would put his everything into protecting his family. Colin felt that deeper now than even when he was fully human, so for his family’s sake, he observed and bided his time to escape and strike.

  All of the action was happening a floor level above Colin. The unknown human assailants and the Gilberts were throwing themselves at one another, but one side was clearly trained for battle, while the other was not. The Gilberts had the advantage in numbers, but they were losing ground and that numbers advantage was rapidly dwindling. Colin couldn’t feel inanimate objects, but he could tell by the way the group of people attacking the Gilberts moved, they were firing guns. They felt eerily focused with minimal emotions other than a set determination, so Colin had a good feeling they were here to rescue him and his family. It reminded him of his encounter with the woman who shot him, but like he was on the other side of the encounter this time. He was being saved from the monsters rather than being attacked as one.

  It was bizarre recalling recent events now that he felt fully himself again. It was like a switch flipped and normalcy was completely rearranged in his head after he felt that ‘human’ portion of himself return. The life pulses, emotional senses and his transformation capabilities all felt like an intrinsic part of him even though he knew they were not and never had been. There was a strange scramble of conflicting understanding inside of him that he felt himself drifting through in a worried, dazed fashion. It was like he had gone through growing from a year old to a thirty year old in a very short period of time and each of those stages of life were still a separate part of him that he was struggling to bring together as one cohesive Colin. Part of him still felt like that instinctual animal, but now that he had more awareness emotionally and mentally, it was harder to accept that part of him. Thinking back at his life, Colin strangely felt like he had acted more as that animal than he should have long before he had fused with the hypnosite.

  Colin shook himself out of his drifting thoughts as he realized the Gilberts that had fallen were now getting back up. They were self repairing the damage from the bullet wounds and the rescue squad, who had progressed through the hallway, passed by those Gilbets without realizing the trap they had fallen into. They were going to be flanked and they had no idea.

  Colin had to do something or the entire rescue squad would be wiped out. He remembered back to when he connected to one of those Gilberts as he escaped from the police car and decided that was his only chance to help.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Focusing on the connection to the Gilberts, Colin connected to one and as he did, that Gilbert froze in place. There was an instability inside of the Gilbert that he felt, like two warring animals fighting for control inside of its head. Colin pushed on the hypnosite side and felt the immediate result as the hypnosite inside of the Gilbert’s head consumed its entire body.

  Colin didn’t hesitate to hop to the next Gilbert and do the same thing. This was something he could do to save his family and he pressed the advantage with unyielding focus. One by one, he eliminated the Gilberts flanking the rescue team and moved onto the ones in front of them. Within minutes, there were no remaining Gilberts within his range of senses.

  The rescue squad moved further into the facility outside of Colin’s range of senses and everything went still again. He tried to send a pulse of connection to several people in the squad, but none of them reacted. He wasn’t sure what to think as they moved on, but he hoped they at least rescued Jenny and Kristy if they failed to find him.

  It felt good to have contributed to the rescue effort, but as he was left alone, Colin started to fall back into a spiral of worry and confusion. It was hard to keep his emotions at bay when he was used to unleashing them like a wild beast rather than processing them like a reasonable man. A fist fight was easy. Swing when you can, block what you can, take your lumps and dish out more than the other guy. Easy, simple, done. A fight against your own impulses, on the other hand, was a battle that Colin kept reminding himself constantly to not shy away from.

  Being alone made processing his emotions that much harder. Colin missed Kristy and Jenny. Kristy had a way of keeping him grounded and Jenny made every situation brighter with her smile.

  Suddenly, Colin’s eyes went wide and his heart started to race. He doubted it at first, but when they came even closer, there was no denying it. Jenny and Kristy were nearby. They were within his range. He excitedly sent them pulses of love and felt the connection reciprocated. Kristy’s connection seemed stronger than before even at this distance. The two of them sent pulses of love back to him.

  What surprised Colin the most though, was Jenny. Colin could feel how powerful Jenny's connection was and it shocked him; though not nearly as much as what happened next.

  “Daddy? Is that you?” Jenny said in Colin’s head with an undertone of worry.

  Colin’s heart melted at the feeling of his family being so close and somehow hearing his daughter’s voice. He sent a mental communication back along their link and it actually worked, “Hey Sweetie, it me.”

  “Daddy, are you Frankenbug?”

  Colin laughed for the first time in what felt like ages, “Yes, that was me. I wasn’t exactly myself, then. You trained me pretty well.”

  Jenny replied back and even though it was a mental response, it came through as a gentle whisper, “Mommy says to be quiet and that you need to hide and be super careful. We are coming to get you so go super small and jump in Mommy’s pocket.”

  “Okay, sweetie, let Kristy know that I’m ready,” Colin turned into his water strider form with caterpillar grip enhancements so he could cling to the metal wall and positioned himself near the door. He trusted Kristy had a plan to keep them all together and he would do everything in his power to make that happen.