Billy jumped into the open school bus. The seven-year-old panted as quietly as he could; the doctor was still looking for him in the bus lot. He crawled down the aisle of the bus, getting dried, chewed-up bubblegum caught under one of his fingernails. He ignored the momentary disgust and continued on. As soon as he reached the middle of the bus, he crouched beneath two of the tall grey seats, clutching his tattered backpack. Billy McCormick unzipped it slowly, pulling out a Cutco steak knife.

"Dr. Hopkins won't catch me now," little Billy muttered as he sat hidden behind the seats of the bus, Cutco steak knife hidden behind his back. He had finally been able to escape from the psychiatric ward, but that one damned doctor couldn't mind his own buisness.. Billy'd have to take care of that. He heard the door to the bus swing open and steps come up and in. "Billy?" called Dr. Hopkins, "'You in here? Just come on out Billy and you won't be in any trouble." Oh, I don't think so doctor, thought Billy. The steps came closer down the aisle. Billy's fingers tightened on the knife as he put on his innocent face.

"Yes, Doctor?", Billy asked innocently.

"Oh, there you are, silly boy," Dr. Hopkins chucked mirthfully. "Where have you been? Don't you know we all worry for you? It's alright, just come here. No one's mad at you."

"Are you sure?" Billy asked, the knife still behind his back, entwined in his small, wiry fingers. I'll teach them, he thought. He came to the doctor then, now both hands behind his back, a sheepish, boyish pose. The doctor came forward, a pleasant yet obviously condescending smile on his wrinkling face. He held his arms out to Billy, and Billy entered his embrace.

The doctor leaned down and gave Billy a big warm hug that disarmed Billy for just a moment. He then stood and smiled broadly down at the boy. Billy began to squeeze the handle of the knife tightly in his hand, as he looked to the doctor puzzled.

"I have something for you Billy," Dr. Hopkins said with a chuckle.

"Really?" Billy asked, slipping the knife into the back of his britches for the time being, where he could easily get to it should the need arise.

The Doctor opened a side door in his office and motioned Billy inside. The room was pitch black and silent. Billy stepped forward cautiously, making sure to pull his shirt over the protruding knife handle. He stepped into the doorway as the doctor turned on the lights. Suddenly the Doctor's large hands were around Billy's throat as he took in the horror of the room before him.

"I have you now you little shit!" Hopkins spat.

There were naked pictures of him, everywhere. Shocked, Billy soon recognized the pictures. They were from his last physical. What did Dr. Hopkins want with him? And how did he know that he had been hiding the--

"If you don't hand me that knife, right now, I'll spread these all over the internet."

"How did you know...?" Billy whispered.

"That you had a knife? You stole it from my kitchen, you twerp."

"Oh." Billy fell silent.

Dr. Hopkins held out his hand, waiting for the knife.

Billy drew the knife and rammed it into the doctor's chest, but it only tore his uniform before stopping, hitting his rock-hard chest.

The doctor pulled open his shirt, revealing his metal abdomen. "It's steel-ziltanium. Do you really think I'd be foolish enough to face someone with YOUR power without getting cybernetic implants first?"

"I didn't--"

"I want my corafirite! Now!" yelled the doctor, grabbing Billy's wrist.

Billy gasped from the pain. He tried to will the fire to shoot out of his hand, but it was going numb. He screamed out as the doctor twisted his hand completely off, leaving the boy with only a stump. He touched the bloody, fleshy wound, and instantly jerked his left hand back from the pain. He was getting dizzy from the blood loss. Billy fell onto the cold tile floor. As everything began to black out, he saw the doctor cutting up his removed hand with a scalpel. The doctor smiled as he removed a shard of red stone from the hand. Everything disappeared.

After what seemed like several hours, Billy woke up. The doctor was still standing above him, concentrating on the red gemstone. The brown-haired boy tried to push himself up, and he was quickly reminded of his missing hand. But he couldn't feel any pain. He looked at it again and found that his entire right arm was missing. He felt a pressure mounting near his shoulder. It gave an audible SLOP as a large, purple spider-leg snapped out in place of his arm. The doctor didn't notice.

So the purple spider leg extending from Billy's once bloody stump, extending into a sort of make-shift arm. The doctor was to engrossed in his corafirite stone to notice that Billy was regenerating. Quickly, the purple goo was seeping inside of itself and human colored skin bubbled up, finally smoothing into a new arm, albeit a little discolored due to the new skin. The fresh air caused the new skin to sting slightly. Billy bit his lip and looked up at the doctor, then down to the floor.. He'd forgotten the knife. It laid there on the floor underneath the bus seat, still bloody from when the doctor amputated Billy's arm. His new hand slowly crawled towards it, grasping it and quickly slashing it across the doctor's achilles' heels. Ouch.

The spiderleg/arm thing protruding from Billy's shoulder jumped at the wash of blood that sprang free when Billy's OTHER arm slashed the doctor's heel. Bloodlust was, after all, an insectoid concept. His spidery arm joined the first, in cutting at the doctor's flesh, new blood spurting to join the already darkening and coagulating fluid on the floor. Billy himself, infected and inspired with an equally insectoid mindset, salivated and stared at the blood pooling around him. Now, in his mind, the doctor was naught but his foolhardy and hapless prey. But wasn't that how it had always been??

Dr. Hopkins rushed to the alarm by the door and slammed the large red button, just as Billy's spider-like limbs sunk deep into the doctors exposed back. The doctor began to choke up blood from his punctured lungs as he crumpled to his knees. Billy began to lash out at him with wild abandon, perforating Hopkins' body again and again. The boy squealed with wild excitement in his now twisted inhuman voice.

Just then the office door burst open, knocked off its hinges by a large black hand-held S.W.A.T. style ram. Billy looked up in amazement as he saw five heavily armed shock soldiers clad in heavy body armor and carrying armored shields with while letters that read "A.E.S.O.P.." They quickly maneuvered into the room as if they were one cohesive being. The terrified creature that was once just a normal deranged little boy, cried out and cowered in the corner. With but a word from one of the soldiers, their automatic weapons unleashed a hail of hot hellfire down upon the wretch. Billy writhed and squirmed in agony until he moved no more.

"What the fuck was that thing?" one solider asked.

"Hell if I know. I'm getting tired of working for these mad-scientist bastards though. I think it's time for a career change." Replied another as he lifted the radio on his belt to his mouth.

"Cleanup crew three here. Sector 5 is now secure,"