Complete arc: Here be monsters

"You were out for a little longer than we expected, but that's fine."

Katherine started to panic, unable to recall how the hell she'd gotten here, or who the guy taunting her was. She had no idea how she'd ended up in a cage or where anyone else was, and the throbbing pain in her head wasn't helping. She did the only think she could think of, screaming.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

The man kept smiling, pulling out and spinning a large pistol around his finger while speaking.

"Aw, don't you remember? You and that nosy friend of yours figured that trying to spy on me and my men was a good plan. And now you're here, still seem like a good plan?"

Clay's last sentence dripped sarcasm, and with the snap of his fingers a couple of his guards carried forth a massive rifle, bigger than anything Katherine had ever seen. Katherine attempted to move backwards as Clay grabbed the gun, grunting as he hefted it.

"Now, normally I would've just shot you in the head with a pistol and thrown you off a boat, but you got real lucky." Clay cackled, pulling back the bolt on the immense rifle. "You get to be the test dummy for this baby."

Katherine's breath caught in her throat. She had to do something, anything.

"B-but wouldn't testing it on a person be p-pointless? L-like, the bullet is jus-"

She was quickly silenced by another cackle from Clay as he beckoned an elderly man in a labcoat forwards.

"You're right actually. A person wouldn't really be a good measure for it's power. Hence why when I test this thing, you won't be a person!"

Clay laughed as the doctor drew closer, opening a briefcase and gingerly drawing some sort of injector while glancing back at Clay.

"I'm telling you Clayton." The old man said, an expression of almost concern on his face. "There are better things to test that gun on.

Clayton scowled, firing his pistol in the air and yelling.

"I DON'T PAY YOU TO SECOND GUESS ME, NOW DO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO!"

The doctor shrugged and jabbed Katherine in the arm with the injector. The injection felt like someone had pushed fire into her veins, her vision swimming as she started to go limp from the shock.

"Don't worry" Clayton said, smiling as a helicopter pulled in overhead. "I'll be back in just a few days, see ya soon!"

The last thing she saw before blacking out was Clayton laughing at her as the helicopter landed, sand blowing in her face as she slumped against the side of the cage.

When Katherine next awoke, she was slumped against a palm tree, the cage gone and the blazing pain in her arm reduced to a dull ache. She slowly got to her feet, legs feeling weak as she looked around. Clayton and his cronies were gone, and the sun was rapidly starting to set. She could feel the temperature dropping as the wind started to pick up, a few raindrops starting to fall as she tried not to panic. She had to find or make shelter and could worry about Clayton coming back later. She wasn't a survival expert, but she knew enough to build a lean-to, gathering fallen palm leaves to make a rough waterproof exterior she could lay under.

It was hours later, with the rain coming down hard, that the pain from her arm flared up again. While not as intense as before, the painful itching was still unbearable, and started to feel more like burning. She reached her other hand over and recoiled when she touched the affected area, feeling something that very obviously wasn't human skin. Slowly, she turned her head to look at the altered portion of her arm, watching as a dark indigo color slowly started spreading across her skin, followed by scales forming.

The pain finally subsided, leaving Katherine splayed on the ground, whimpering as she tried to stand. Her limbs felt like jelly, her new hands and feet barely able to support her as she grabbed at one of the palm trees nearby to steady herself. She quickly fell to the ground, however, when the tree uprooted in her grip as she landed in the mud with a loud splat. Katherine looked up, shocked to see herself casually holding the entire palm tree with one hand. She let out a quite undignified yelp, throwing the tree to the side and knocking over several others in the process. She shakily got up, alien legs feeling like they'd give out under her, and looked down at the mess she'd made. It was only then when she saw shreds of her shirt and pants in the mud, and that she was at eye level to the treetops that she realized that she was well over 10 feet tall.

It took a moment for what happened to truly sink in. She looked down at her hands, and to the damage she caused, and she started whimpering. Even if she survived whatever Clayton could throw at her, what could she even do? As she started to spiral further into panic Katherine tried to find something, anything to hold onto, and that's when she realized that Clayton still had her girlfriend. Katherine balled her fists, knowing that even if she'd been changed, that she would not let Clayton hurt anyone else, especially not someone close to her. Katherine focused everything she could onto that, the one bit of positivity she could muster after what happened. She could mourn the loss of her old body when she knew her friend wasn't in danger of losing hers.

Katherine spent the rest of the night outside, barely even noticing the rain as she curled up to try and comfort herself. Her new body still felt so alien, so clumsy as she slammed her tail into a rock, and just uncomfortable as she tried to lay down. She awoke the next morning to a light drizzle, clouds hanging low in the sky as the sound of a helicopter started to climb over the soft sound of the rain. It took a moment for her to recall the events of the day before, after that it only took a few seconds for her to realize what was happening. Clayton was coming back, and he was coming back to finish her off. Katherine started panicking, her mind racing to try and figure out a way to hide or get away or... Katherine looked down at her hands, as monstrous as they might've been, and managed to think of something as the helicopter closed in. Katherine wrapped her hands around a palm tree and in one movement tore it from the ground and hurled it towards the helicopter.

-----

"Uh, sir. Your target seems pretty mad. Should we pull out and try coming in with a boat?"

Clayton grinned as he packed a last few things into his jacket.

"Take us as high as possible, I'll parachute down."

The pilot did as told, flying up until they were directly over the island and watching as Clayton strapped on a parachute and jumped down. The cool wind and rain whipped at the arms dealer's face as he fell, dodging as Katherine lobbed another tree at him. He waited until the very last second to pull the cord to his parachute, and cut it as quickly as he could before making a hard landing on the beach. It took him only a couple seconds to draw his rifle, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves as he loaded a magazine in and pulled back the bolt.

-----

Katherine's heart raced as Jaeger's parachute disappeared beneath the treeline. It wasn't even a minute before a shot rang out, the deafening blast of the rifle followed by the loud thud of the massive round against a rock face. She froze for a moment, contemplating what she could even do. She was way too big a target to run away, and there wasn't anywhere she could really run to. She turned back to where the gunshot had come from, barely able to see the glint of a rifle's scope, and sprinted with all her strength towards it. As she crashed through the trees all she heard was a brief shout of profanity and another gunshot, this one clipping her shoulder.

Clayton barely got a shot off before having to leap out of the way as splinters and bits of tree rained down around him. He hit the ground hard, barely getting off another shot before rolling out of the way as Katherine uprooted a tree and smashed it into the ground next to him. He got back up and let off another shot, one which missed by over a foot. Katherine finally got another look at her pursuer, seeing the panic in his eyes and the sweat running down his face as he made a break for it while yelling to his pilot.

"NEED A PICK UP, NOW! GET IN HERE WITH AN ARMED HELI, RIGHT F*$KING NOW!"

"Affirmative, coming in for interception."

-----

Katherine sat, momentarily catching her breath after losing Clayton when she heard the familiar swishing of a helicopter's blades, and turned to see a much bigger helicopter closing on on the island. The bit of confidence she'd had, and any hopes of controlling the situation, rapidly started melting away as she saw a blast of smoke from one side of the helicopter as a missile streaked across the sky and slammed into the ground less than a dozen meters from her. She yelped and jumped away from the impact site, narrowly dodging a second shot as the helicopter started laying down autocannon fire. Much to her relief, and confusion, the helicopter quickly backed off as she saw a small boat skipping across the water, with the vague silhouette' of a man with a rifle across his back piloting it. With the helicopter no longer a threat and Clayton on the run, Katherine sprinted after him and leaped into the cold ocean waters to give chase.

Katherine barely reached the shoreline before another shot rang out, managing to clip her shoulder as she yelped in pain but not stop her. She kept up her pursuit, the sting of salt water on her wounded shoulder doing little to deter her. With each stroke or kick in the water she gained on Clayton's boat, his rifle shots doing little as she dove underwater. She got closer to slashing his boat and having her hands on him with every second, closing in, until

THUNK

A collision with something huge and heavy sent her tumbling, landing against the seafloor as she tried to regain her bearings. When she finally was able to right herself she looked up to see a much larger ship sitting above her. She hesitated for a moment before surfacing, but with no other choices she pushed herself from the seabed and breached the surface with a splash. After a moment of coughing up water she'd inhaled from the impact she looked up to see dozens of thugs pointing rifles at her, and Clayton standing among them, with a high caliber pistol pointed directly at a hostage, Katherine's fiancé.

"Y'know, I gotta commend you on just how much you fought back. Most times I do this, it's a half hour adventure counting the helicopter rides in and out. I wasn't expect a damn waitress to put up this much of a fight, but you've reached the end of my goddamn patience. OPEN FIRE!"

It took less than a second for bullets to start flying and individual gunshots to turn into a thunderous roar as Katherine dove again, now trying to remain directly underneath Clayton's yacht. She racked her brain for ideas as she tried not to panic, bullets still flying through the water to either side of her. As she put her hands to the sides of her head to try and drown out the gunshots above she accidentally bumped her clawed hand against the boat's keel, scraping away a small chunk of metal. She floated, momentarily awestruck at what she'd been able to do without even trying to, and finally realized a way she could bring down the boat without getting shot. She slammed her fist against the chunk of hull nearest to the ship's motors, and with a single strike punched straight through the luxury vessel's rather weak hull.

The ship's engines sputtered to a halt as seawater flooded the maintenance room, the boat's lights shutting down as Clayton started to panic.

"COME ON YOU F*#$ING IDIOTS" He yelled, a slight bit of panic starting to creep into his voice as the situation spiraled further out of control. "HOW HARD IS IT TO HIT ONE GODDAMN MONSTER? IT'S 10 F#*$ING FEET TALL, HOW F$(#ING HARD IS IT?"

The gangster pocketed his pistol and ran downstairs to see what had gone wrong with the engines, only to step into waist deep water and a hallway with chunks ripped out of its walls. Clayton ran back up to the main deck, radioing for a helicopter evacuation as the ship was starting to sink. Clayton took out his pistol once again as the escape helicopter started to close in. He grabbed his hostage once again and gestured wildly to the sea.

"C'MON OUT B$*CH, OR I'M GONNA BLOW YOUR FRIEND'S HEAD CLEAN THE F$*# OFF." He screamed, sweat pouring down his face from the stress of the situation.

He sat silently for a moment, the sea oddly still as his ship continued to slowly sink beneath the waves. Then, without any time for him to react, Katherine surfaced and swung her fist at him, sending Clayton flying backwards through a windshield with a crash. Katherine paused for a moment, looking down at her hands in disbelief. She'd just done that, she'd sent a full grown man flying backwards with a single slap.

"K-Kath?"

Katherine looked down at her friend, her arms still tied and her face a mix between fear and confusion.

"Yeah... It's me." Katherine said, gingerly breaking her friend's restraints as one of the goons dragged a maimed Clayton out of the control room.

"What, what the hell did they do to you? How..."

"I'll tell you when we get to shore, I promise."

Katherine put her comparatively huge hand on her friend's and smiled, doing her best to look comforting as she flinched from a couple of rifle rounds hitting her.

"We need to go, now." Katherine said, panic edging into her voice as the gangsters' evacuation helicopter kept closing in.

Her friend nodded in acknowledgement as she started the lifeboat's engine while Katherine dove underwater, the both of them heading towards the shore.