Hi everyone. I just read Exposure, OH MY GOD! If you haven't read it, do so or the world will probably end. I'll say this: it's almost as bad a cliffhanger as the one at the end of Mark of Athena from the Heroes of Olympus series. That was painful.

I've been looking through Virals fanfics and although some were excellent quality, some were cliche, and not written as well. Most of them were BenxTory, which is fine, but repetitive after you read a whole page of them. That said, this may contain some Ben x Tory but it's not based on romance, like many of my other stories. It's also disappointing how few fanfics there are devoted to Virals. I've decided I want to extend the range of Virals fics, and here is the result.

This is what I figure could have happened in Exposure. Spoilers, and you won't understand if you didn't read all of the books first. Enjoy!

"What are you?" Hawfield's voice shook as he stared up at the golden-eyed girl.

She smiled icily. "Your worst nightmare."

The group of four - five, if you counted the mutt - circled Hawfield, removing his weapons, fastening his hands. The older one, Benjamin, fixed the crooked detective with a death glare, then kicked him hard in the stomach.

The air expelled from Hawfield's lungs all in a rush. Blue had a hard kick. Hawfield took the opportunity to curl into a ball, stretching his arm down towards his foot. Hawfield grunted from the uncomfortableness of the stretch. Almost... there...

"Ben." The girl's voice was hard with contempt, but not for Hawfield's assailant. "Leave the snake for now."

Benjamin backed off the detective a little, still glaring. Hawfield curled his feet up a little higher, reaching discreetly into his boot.

The girl turned away from him, just a little, to address the other two - the black kid and the chubby one. Hawfield took his chance and whipped the knife out of the thin case in his boot. The blade spun through the air towards the girl, positioned to slit between her ribs and pierce her heart. Hawfield's mouth had just begun to curl into a vengeful smirk when Blue flung himself forwards, trying to knock the girl out of harm's way.

It almost worked, too.

"Tory!" Blue shouted, crashing into her side. The knife missed it's intended target - damn- but as she fell sideways and turned her head, the blade penetrated the skin of her neck.

"Tory! Oh my god. Cooper, attack!" Blue commanded, and the humongous wolfdog barrelled into Hawfield like a freight train coming down a hill.

"Ben, calm down. It wasn't a gun. Any luck, Hi?"

Shelton was, somewhat, taking care of the situation. Ben remained frozen at Tory's side, eyes fixed on her face. Hi had carefully removed the knife and was attempting to stem the blood flow. "I think it'll be okay. The blade was on an angle. But, the bleeding should have stopped by now..."

"But it'll heal?" Tory persisted on Shelton's behalf, from her awkward kneeling/lying position on the mossy ground.

"Sure," Hi answered with false confidence. "I'm actually most worried about hiding it from your dad. Knife wounds? Gonna be hard to explain."

Tory frowned. "Hi?"

"...Yeah?" Hiram's voice was hesitant. There was something wrong, and he knew it, and he was trying not to tell Tory. But she could tell he was hiding something.

"What's up?"

"Umm..." Hi paused, and then gave up. Once Tory wanted to know, there was no telling her otherwise, even with a wound in her neck. "I think there was something on the knife."

"WHAT?!" hollered Ben. He stood up abruptly, moving towards Hawfield who cowered backwards, to no avail. Ben hoisted him upwards by his collar. "What have you done to her?" he hissed, slamming the detective up against a tree.

"Woah, Ben, calm down!" Tory cried, alarmed at her friend's behaviour. "Let's recap: Hi thinks that there might be something on the knife. So? That doesn't mean there was!"

"We can't take any chances. If there is something, who knows what sort of effect it might have on us?"

Hawfield mustered up all of his courage and spat into Benjamin's face. "Let her die. You're all... devil's imps or something like that. Evil spirits, that's what you are."

Ben's face reddened with rage, and then drained as he took in what Hawfield had said. "Die? What... what was on the knife?"

"Hydrazine," Hawfield smirked, knowing he was getting under Blue's skin.

"Shelton, Google it," Ben ordered. "Hi, wash the cut. And don't touch the knife blade."

"I don't have any water!" Hi panicked. Ben growled at him. Hi was getting as hysterical as Shelton could be.

Shelton read aloud from his phone. "Foaming agent... power plant steam cycles... rocket fuel additive... also known as diazane... highly toxic and dangerously unstable..." he trailed off, glancing at Tory.

Ben took a deep breath. 'Okay. We need to get Ella, take Tory to a hospital, and find an appropriate place for this piece of scum. I suggest a riverbed."

Tory interrupted him. "As great as that sounds, we might need to take him to the police, or they'll think ... I don't know what they'll think."

All eyes turned back to Hawfield. "Okay, worm, where's Ella?"

Sorry it's short. I was feeling slightly uninspired. I hope that gives you something to chew on other than Ben x Tory. Not such a bad cliffhanger, but not a great place to cut off. Whatever. I'm tired.