Blessed by Night

Malachi couldn't look at himself at the moment, but if he could, he would find himself totally jarring.

His lean, muscular build had developed a thin grey coat of fur.

The same color as his sister's hair. The same as his was now.

Bold, bright red stripes appeared on his body, beginning down his neck and back, but spreading all the way across his arms and torso.

A familiar hissing sound could be heard from within the detention center.

Malachi's hair lifted itself up as his dreads turned into a writhing mass of venomous, agitated snakes.

His teeth were growing too big for his mouth. His claws almost too big for his fingers.

The only other occupant in the room with him to witness this frightening undertaking was a cybernetic being far and above the rest.

His body from the neck down was covered in a sleek, white metal.

Only his face was that of a slack jawed older man with dreamlike brown hair and sky blue eyes.

Malachi recognized him immediately.

This was the cybernetic blessed designed to suppress Morgan.

"Major Felix Bucannon of the United States Air Force. What's a big fish like you doing in this little pond?"

Felix looked rightly horrified. Malachi's face was still human, but he looked so… feral.

"God, almighty… You are everything that they say and more, ain't you?"

Malachi was only mildly aware of the fact that he was 'different'.

His blood flowed through his body more violently. He was processing the world around him at a far faster rate than before.

But more than that, there was an immense desire to rip this man apart.

Malachi didn't know if that was because he was stabbed with a demon horn, or…

"Leave that… freaky state of yours and surrender." Felix didn't even bother to hide his disgust. "If you don't, I am ordered to dispose of all research materials in short order."

Malachi was wrong. The reason he wanted to kill this man so badly had almost nothing to do with the new addition to his body.

Major Felix was standing over a control panel- his thumb hovering just above a rather sinister looking red button.

Mal hardly had to ask him what the button did to get the gist of the threat.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Here was a man so willing to use the lives of others as a bargaining chip that he didn't even look like he would lose sleep over the prospect of everyone here dying because of him.

It was hard to imagine anything more despicable.

"...Huh..?"

Felix didnt know how, but somehow, his body was starting to disobey him.

Despite his persistence, his hand was going from the intended target to the communicator on his opposing wrist.

"Y-You! You're doing this, aren't you!?" he accused Malachi.

Unfortunately, even if he knew what was happening, that didn't mean that he had developed a way to stop it.

His finger came down on his keypad and he punched in the dreaded command.

Recognized.

There was an audible hissing noise and the sound of electronic locks sliding open filled the room.

The prisoners warily stood by their doors. Clearly too afraid to come out.

Shadows welled up from the ground in front of them.

They took the form of small, harmless looking cats, dogs, squirrels, and just about every other small critter one could think of.

They hopped closer to the captives and placed their past on them gently- and both the animals, and the captors were allowed to leave the place freely.

"No!"

Major Felix was incensed.

All these months of planning, strict security protocols, and late night meetings, and for what? A room full of hostages was now gone, just like that??

How was he supposed to explain that to his superiors?!

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Major Felix finally realized that he was not alone as he thought.

Malachi was walking towards him with his hands locked behind his head.

The sound of his clawed feet echoing off the cold stone floor was as grating as nails on a chalkboard.

And even though Malachi did not seem to be in a rush to get to him, Felix was so intimidated that he felt as if he was being charged at.

His eyes finally noticed something odd about Malachi, and not the fact that his hair was literally alive.

His shadow was abnormally long... and as Felix followed it with his eyes, he realized that it was literally connected to his own.

"...I thought dogs were supposed to be the only ones good for learning new tricks."

If Malachi found his joke funny, he didn't laugh.

He stood directly in front of Major Felix and stared him down without saying a word.

"Not man enough to fight me fairly? I guess you really were more alien than human all along." Felix spat.

Malachi finally cracked a small smile.

Felix couldn't explain it, but he knew something had changed.

His body that was formerly encumbered, now felt free once again. Felix didn't waste time questioning his good fortune.

In the span of just a short millisecond, Felix drew back his newly freed arm and balled up his fist.

He threw out a punch that was specifically designed to send Morgan, or those of equal strength, flying with holes in their heads.

Naturally, the expectation was that Malachi would be no different.

Expectations are not reality.
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Everything happened in slow motion for Malachi.

He lifted one arm and blocked Felix's strike without so much as a change in expression.

He kept a firm grip on Felix's arm to hold him in place and struck him three times over in the chest; leaving dents in his supposedly impenetrable metal.

Felix doubled over, and as a result his nose sailed right into Malachi's knee. The force of the strike actually lifted his body off the ground.

His vision temporarily went white. Various alarm signals played from the electronic voice connected to his nervous system.

But Malachi was far from done. Since the prisoners were unable to collect on the debts that this man owed them, he would happily do so on their behalf.

Malachi caught the man by the back of the neck. He whirled him around like a ragdoll before sending him hurtling up towards the ceiling.

A set of dark, feathery wings burst from Malachi's back, and he flew after his prey.