*Beep* "Well, this something I thought i'd never do, I'm not one for audio journals or anything but i'm being paid for this, also something i didn't expect but i'll just roll with it." A sigh followed, causing a burst of static  for a few seconds. "I whould start with my youngest memories but they only want the part where things go crazy..."

Saturday, Febuary 1
I wake to the sound of the A/C turning on with my face buried in my pillow like usual. I push myself up and over to the left side of the bed, I just sit there for a few minutes trying not to fall back to sleep, shaking my head, i reach over and grab my phone turning it on and checking the time " 4:59?" i mumble as I set it back down and stand up. Stretching, I look around my bedroom. In front of me was the walk in closet... nothing interesting there,  behind me sat a lovely window that would shine light into my face each morning if i slept in to long, right to the left of it was "the center" a jumbled mass containing a 21" hdtv, my ps3,  two computers one of which was over halfway disasembled, and a sound system of 2 subwoofers and 4 speakers. I walk out of my room and head downstairs, turning the light on as I enter the kitchen. I wince at the bright light and proceed to the coffee machine, I turn it on for my parents and head over to the fruit and muffin bowl on the dining table. As I reach for a muffin i get a stabbing pain that rips through my heart area causing me to gasp in pain and nearly fall over. "What the h**l?" I say through gritted teeth, I lean on the table for about a minute till the pain fades away. "Well i guess that means fruit." I grab a bannana and devour it as I watch the coffe pot fill. As the coffee pot reached the twocup mark I snap out of my early morning haze and head over to the fridge to pull out a rockstar punched energy drink, I pop the top and take a long draught from the can and feel my mind come back online, I had started drinking these after it became apparent that i needed something in the morning to wake me up, and since I hated the bitter taste of coffee and... well anyrthing else I decided to go with Rockstar.

Now that I'm beginning to wake up fully my mind starts to pick out and remember details, like the fridge sitting next to the electric stove,  how the living room and kitchen meet at the back door and stairs to the basement that sat across from it and ran under the regular stairs. The entire house was a awsome deal we never could have bought, but the owner was desprate for some reason and was selling the house dirt cheap. I still remember walking up to the white paint house, which was first on the block and having our jaw's drop as he told us the price.  I head back upstairs and hear my dad's snoring, marking him as still asleep, I enter and shut the door to my room and turn the light on. I sigh and say, "This is going to be a long, boring day." I grab my phone, turn it on and set the stopwatch for 2minute intervals and start my daily situps and push ups. I had asked for a weight machine or at least a punching bag but they had said that It wasn't needed which led to me doing this for the past two years for exercise. after 4 intervals I stop the timer and get up, rubbing my sore arms I head over to the closet and grab a navy blue sleeveless and a pair of jeans that were badly ripped at the knees and a towel and head to the shower.

After a good, long shower I head downstairs to find my dad sitting in the recliner with a fresh cup of coffee, the 32" tv was set to on the news as they were going through the weekly weather forecast.

"Your up early" I say as I sit on the end of the couch. " So are you." he shot back after taking a drink from his mug.

"Anything interesting?" I asked while I picked up the remote. " Just clouds, clouds, and more clouds until tuesday... but then again, they usually are wrong."  
As they switched back to the main set the woman put a finger to her earpice and was about to say something when I started channel surfing.

"You realize that she was going to say something important, right?" he didn't even look at me when he said it, which meant he didn't care. "It was probably something  that happens every day somewhere in the U.S, someone gets shot,  banks and conveinence stores get robbed, there might even be the occasional major car wreck or plane crash, all of which wouldn't affect us." he just grunts and mumbles "Better not be robbing our bank." That pretty much signals the end of the conversation even though he could have started dropping technicalities and proved me wrong and yeah, he's pretty much in zombie mode like I was earlier.

I end the surf on Scifi as it had just started their monster movie, after about an hour I hear my mom get up and head into the kitchen for some coffee.

"Hey, mom?" I ask as I walk into the kitchen. "yes, Shane?" she said after finishing a sip from her mug. "We have anymore of those potassium pills left?" She gets the worried look on her face that she is known for."It happened again didn't it?" I just nodded my head."They should still be in the medicine cabnet." I say my thanks and head up to the bathroom. The first time I had that pain happen to me my mom had told me it had something to do with not having enough potassium since my mom had been a nurse for a long time I wouldn't argue on it, since then I had not had the pain until 2 years ago, while watching a movie, now I had it happened again. I find the bottle easily, I open it to find that there are only three pills left, I dry swallow one and put the bottle back then I head over to my room to work on the computers.

If you just looked at them you whould think the black, modern looking one on the left whould be the one I was trying to fix, but I had given up on it and had disassembled most of it, The one on the right  however looked ancient with the windows 98 era tower, in it's faded white glory I had upgraded virtually every aspect from the motherboard to the powersupply, only problem was that it whould run but i couldn't get picture. Ever since my dad had brought that systemax home from work I had been trying to get either to working condition. I had given up on the black systemax and decided to strip it. I sit down in the office chair and start to finish the disassembly, I take out the last RAM card and put it in the other, I remove both cooling fans and place one in the back of the other tower and plug it in,last to go was the video card, I take it out a stare at it trying to figure out the make, There wasn't a label or anything on it...I look at the slot where it should go on my tower. "This wouldn't fit..." It looked like it wouldn't but I wanted to try it anyway. I was suprised when it did but that changed into excitement at the possability of it working, I flip the switch on the back and watch the green light on the motherboard wink on. Turning on the tv and switching it's input to pc right as I hit the power button and hear the computer whir to life. Expecting to see a BIOS screen pop up I sit there for a full minute waiting, dissapointment hits my face as I hold down the power button. "D*****t why won't you wor... oh" I look back and see the VGA cable lying there unplugged, I facepalm and then try again, but with the VGA plugged into the new graphics card. A grin lights up my face as the screen goes to startup, entering setup I mess with a few things, put a windows 7 cd into the drive and start loading the OS.

As the install moves along I roll over to the window, weather was at its best for me today as it was cloudy, around 80oF with no rain. Looking down at the street I see a mail delivery truck roll up to the house across the street, an alarm went of in my head when I saw this because the mail NEVER came this early, I watch the guy get out of the truck and grab a package out of the back, it wasn't very big maybe a foot long and wide and about 7 inch thick, the box was standard brown with something stamped on it's side. Unease still chilled my mind like i was missing something, he rings the doorbell and a teenage girl opens the door. I didn't know her name even though i've seen her around the school... but i guees i can't blame myself, since I'm not the type of person who goes out and chats with everyone. After a short exchange of words she takes the box with a confused look on her face and goes inside, delivery guy gets in the truck and starts to drive off... and stops at the next house, he get's out again... and grabs an exact duplicate of the first box! My mind doubles the "this is wrong!" alarm, and it plays out just like before except a guy in his early twenties opens the door, takes the package, and leaves things on a bad note by slamming the door in the guys face. By now my paranoia has started, and I was betting the truck would stop at the next house, and he would grab another one of those boxes. I was tense as the truck started to go... and passed the next house, Sighing I turn away from the window and check the computer's progress, still had a long time to go and I smelled breakfast cooking downstairs.

Walking into the kitchen I see dad unleashing his inner chef, the waffle iron was out and going, something was in cooking in the oven... probably those storebought hashbrown patties, all the while he manages the skillets filled with bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Which army are you feeding today dad?" I asked as I headed over to the fridge."The one that pays for and appreciates my food, of course." I pull a code red mountain dew  out of the fridge." I Appreciate the food, but i'm not payin' for it... also the cook doesn't order more pizzas than needed." I had to bring it up, even if it is just rag on him about it.

"Already told you it was buy two get one free." He knew what I was doing and was playing along, I sit at the table and start drinking my soda." Then why did you get six? Why not three and call it a day? We have four pizzas sitting in the fridge right now." He turns around and looks at me. "I got them because i know how you love pizza, and also because of how you devour everything when your hungry." Whoa, that last part was new and he gets a cheapshot win because of how true it was, I may have one of the best metabolism types with being able to eat ungodly amounts of food and not gain a pound, downside was that i get hungry faster than anyone else.

"Okay, you win...this round anyway."  I down the rest of my soda as he smiles and gets back to cooking. A few minutes later we were all at the table eating when the doorbell rang."I got it." Putting the last strip of bacon in my mouth i put the empty plate in the dishwasher and head for the door. I open the door expecting my friend Tyler at the the door, instead I end up seeing Mr.deliveryman! And he had a package...you guessed it, another one of those generic boxes that I saw being delivered.

"Shane Smith?" He asked with a look on his face that said he hated his job right now. "Yea."I reply and he starts to hand me the box I decided I needed to ask. "How many of these boxes are there? He looks confused fo a second till it dawns on him that i must have seen him deliver the others. "I don't know, but I think it's way to many. I got pulled into work at 5 to start delivering all of em'." he hands me the box, noting the words on the side read fragile as I take it inside.

Walking back into the the kitchen, I set the package on the counter and head over to the fridge to get another code red. Mom looks over at the package curiously and asks " what'd you get?" "Don't know... but i feel like i'm in the twilight zone right now, cause packages just like the one right there has been delivered to a lot of other people in the neighborhood an a lot more that just them."

They look at the package as if it was a bomb, and I couldn't blame em' cause I felt the same way. I walk over to and grab a knife and grab the package and start to cut of the tape. "You can't seriously... why whould you open it? For all you know there is a bomb in that thing!" my dad gets up and walks over to me and we lock eyes. I start feel like an idiot as I lay the knife down and break eye contact."Y ok, I feel stupid now... I'll put this in my room and see if I can't find something about this on the net." He grabs the knife and puts it back. "Alright I'll search the news for anything, You DO NOT open that box, even if you find out what's in it, got it?" I nod my head and go upstairs to my room and set the box on the edge of the table and walk over to my computer. Waking the tv I see the finalize install screen, after taking care of that I plug the ethernet cable in and head online to see what chaos this box has whrought. I check the news feeds and find nothing, feeling like this is way too out of place I decide on checking social places like facebook and twitter, I head to DA to start searching there, after I log in I see a ton of watch alerts... and one message, I start with the art getting rid of most, faving or commenting a few, then I get to that one message from FiRStdrAgon01368 who also seemed to have joined today. "wierd..." I sit staring at the screen rereading the message over... If you received a brown box, and you don't know where it came from or who sent it click one of these [link][link][link]. I think "Aw hell, what's the worst that could happen?" and click on the first link.

A chat room popped up , and the list of people in there was massive!

-darkdrake0 has joined
A wave of questions came my way from everyone, most of the whom i didn't know, I ingore most of the questions until i found one from a friend...

-Hey drake! how's it goin'?

-It's weird man, Know anything bout' these boxes?
Most of the questions to me dropped at the line and people went back to chatting or simply left, and i end up having to hunt for his reply.

-Just as much as you do, Which is ta say dat i don't know what the liquid does.

Liquid? i snap my head over to the box and start thinking about what a liquid can do,explosive? Still a possibility, but i won't know until I see it,Bio? again it can work but why use a liquid? Gas whould work much better for spreading viruses and the like, Chemical? I drew a blank on it and figured it couldn't be that. I turn my attention back to the chat...

-Thanks for the info on it being a liquid, but i need mor details before i pop open the box...

-There's nothin much, just styrofoam box held together with tape and inside there is a capped plastic test tube with a note sayin " drink this"... Freaky isn't it?

-Yea, But whats the point of this? Why hasn't anyone found out what it does and told us yet?

-Don't know... but i got wind that these are bein' shipped all over da world.

-FiRStdrAgon01368 has joined
It came in a flurry of messages so I almost missed it, But everyone else soon saw it and started a barrage of questions.

-FiRStdrAgon01368QUIET! I'll tell you What you need to know about the vial... but only if you give me undivided attention as I will only say this once!
All the chatter died instantly, I was glad for it but I wondered how he knew about what it does.

-FiRStdrAgon01368The vial does not have ANY harmful agents in it, it won't kill you, drug you, or cripple you. So it's okay to drink it.
My paranoia Jumps to red alert when he said the last part, There wasn't a single question about it so I decide to jump in...

-darkdrake0How do we know we can trust ya? For all we know you sent out these Boxes yourself!

-FiRStdrAgon01368Actually... I did, I had help of course but I did.
My jaw hits the the table when i read the reply,This guy sent out these things?

-darkdrake0 If you sent these out... what do they do? And WHY should I drink it?

-FiRStdrAgon01368 I'm not going to tell you what it does, as for why? Answer this question, If that liquid in that vial was the ONLY way to save your life... whould you drink it?

I just sit there, staring at the screen with gears grinding in my head as everyone else
replied with yes. I had already made my decision but it was the question that unerved
me,  because people only bring that up if it was possible. I type my reply and hit enter.

-darkdrake0 *sigh* Yes, but only if i don't end up with something worse than death.

-FiRStdrAgon01368Good, because if you don't take it you WILL end up with something worse than death.

-FiRStdrAgon01368 has left

Exiting IE8 I lean back in the chair and run both my hands through my short hair. "Worse than death eh?" I grab the box and head down to the living room. "anything?" I ask as they both turn and look at me. "No, but remember this morning? Well turns out that there was a mass shooting an airport in the city south of here." I set the package down on the coffee table " I told you something like that whould happen didn't i?" He shakes his head and looks at me. "Nothing like this i bet, Some Psycho took an ak47 to most of the people in the airport, over sixty people dead including the killer himself, cops say that he took fifteen rounds before going down." He was right, they were still covering it. "Listen, I uh, found out some interesting stuff about that."I say while pointing at it. They motion for me to continue.

"How do i put this? I found out everything except what it does. I ended up in a chat room with the guy who sent these out and..." Mom stops me and goes..."Wait, you talked to this guy, and he just told you what you wanted to know?" I sigh and make a quick decision. "Yes and no, He told me everything except what it does,He said it whould not kill me, drug me, or anything around those lines. And also I'm going to open it before i continue." My dad looks at me as he pulls out his pocketknife. "you sure? Cause if he lied..." I cut him off with "If he lied, all three of us could die. However something he said makes me think that he doesn't want us dead."

He slits the tape on the box and I slowly open it to find styrofoam, carefully flipping it upside down and slip the styrofoam out of the box, so far so good. We slit the tape off of the sides and back and ease the top off..."Just like he said, a tube and note." only thing he didn't mention was that the liquid was blood red, I take out the tube and look at it closer, It was about half full, it also felt a cold like it had been in a fridge for a while. I jerk out of anaylisis mode once I hear my mom start to rant. "A note saying Drink this? They expect someone to do that just by putting it on a peice of paper? No explanation, no reason, not even a list of possable sideeffects? Are they that Go..."
I had to stop her before she got on full steam. "Alright mom please! Yes, it seems a little stupid to put only that on it... The guy gave me a reason, even if it is a bit uh... obscure." Both of them were looking at me for a few seconds before my mom speaks up " And just what reason whould make you drink a potentially toxic liquid?" I just felt like I was going to catch hell for this..."As he put it? Saving me from a fate worse than death."

The stare me down with the "Thats it?" look on their faces. "and?" my dad asks. Suddenly my mind finds a way to put all the pieces together and then some. "Yeah, but i just thought about how these things are being sent all over the world right? You whouldn't do that unless you know people won't die from it because news travels fast nowadays. He even went so far to go to a chat page on DA, and that's not the first place i'd go if i was telling people that this was safe. Besides that i'm starting to get curious of what this can do if they went to such lengths."

Both mom and dad look at each other, look back at me and I could tell they were processing what I said. My mom gets it first and tells me..."Three things, one:Why would they do this, two: Your not drinking that till i'm a hundred percent sure it won't kill you, and three: Whats DA?"

I mental facepalm at the last one, I never told them about DA and my dragon fandom."Um... for the first one i could think of a few reasons, mainly involving a cure to a viral outbreak and such. The second one? I'll get back to that one, as for three... DA is an art,chat, and story site that i go to."

My dad stares at the tube and asks... "Alright, now back to two... how are you going to prove to us that its safe?" I was stumped. "I honestly do..." Just then my phone rings, cutting me off.

Pulling out the touchscreen i check the caller id and find out it's Tyler, when I read his name I realize i had completely forgoten about him and it dawns on me that he could have gotten one of the vials shipped to him.

"Hey Tyler, how's it goin'?"

"Hi Shane it's going alright, listen I got a question for you..."

"You DID get one of those boxes!"

"And I guess you got one too huh?"

"Did you take it?"

"F*** no! But guess what? My sis also got one..."

Quick rundown his older sister, She's 23, manages the Hot topic in the mall, Oh and she's a pothead, so she probably ended up being stoned when she got the package, which also means she probably took it, figures.

"Ooooookay, She dead?" I forgot to mention that she really doesn't like me.

"Nope still very much alive *Loud thud followed by crashing sound and cursing*...yeah it didn't kill her, um... listen can i come over for a while?"

"...Sure, but first what whould happen if I did take it?"

There was silence for at least a minute, he must really be thinking hard on it.
"Well, You would never believe me if I told you... but if you do decide to take it, There will be a serious life shakeup if you do. I'll be there in about half an hour." And he disconected.

I set my phone on the end table and relay our conversation to my parents, and my perferred choice of action.

"So you want to drink this, even with a quote "life shakeup"?" my dad has a worried look on his face as he says it, knowing he couldn't change my mind.
"i'm sure...besides life needs a shakeup now and then otherwise it beecomes dull and not worth the effort."
My mom was even worse with the worry face,"Shane I love you."She was preparing for the worst case scenario, me dead.

"Love you too mom." As I pop open the lid with my thumb. I had a feeling it wouldn't taste good and decide to drink it shots style. As I swallow it all i get a coppery taste...wait coppery? Theres only one... oh god. This is blood! I hurl the tube away from me as the newsguy says "We have an important announcement to make..." I spit as we all look at the tv.

"Reports confirm millions of unmarked boxes have been shipped to people all across the world, Statements by the CDC and government officials report that the contents of these boxes are confirmed to hold hazardous agents inside, They advise extreme caution and to not under any circumstances handle the materiel inside, more on this as it becomes available."

"Awwwwwww ****ing ****it!" Figures some **** like this would happen. Made worse with father making an ***hole remark.

"well, still whishin' for that "exciting" shakeup?" Yep, he's mad.

"I'm still alive, so shut up!" as I start pacing behind the couch and chairs.

"Yeah well you might not be in a few minutes! I knew it was a bad idea letting you drink that ****! We should have destroyed it, but no! you had to "find out what it does." This is what happ..."

And thats when a Scream ripped through the air, causing every one to stop and try to find where it was coming from. It was a guy screaming from the tone of it, but before I  could figure out the exact direction it was coming from it stopped just as fast as it began.

"That's not a good sign." My dad just looks at me "Ya think?"
Mom decides to thankfully break in before we go at it again...

"We should call 911 instead of waiting for something to happen!"

He grabs my phone and started to tried to dial, but encountered my screenlock
he started to ask but I didn't wait for him. "bottom left, all the way right and up, across and down to center." he gets it on the second try and was about to start dialing when my ears started to ring.

It was subtle at first, barely noticed it... until it started getting louder and a migrane started up. To me migranes a rarity, but when they hit man do they mess me up, I've only had 3 of them in my entire life, but each one left me in agony for hours. And this one was hitting me quick and fast, making me cradle my head in my hands... and it was being made ten times worse by the ringing in my ears which had gone even louder and had started to distort my hearing. By now mom and dad had noticed...

"Shane!?"

The voice was warped now and I couldn't tell who had said it, my eyes were being lanced by the light, near blinding me... and now I felt my skin prickle as if everything had fallen asleep. I fell to my knees, head still in my hands and breathing heavily, one clear thought came through before being snatched away by the pain, what is happening!?
All I could hear was the ringing in my ears now, cutting off my parent's panicked words. Thats when I was greeted by what felt like lava going through my veins and the absolute joy of having my pressure points get pushed... every single one of them.
"AAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!" The scream ripped out of me as I fell on my side writhing in pain. The pressure on my joints and almost everywhere else kept growing. By all rights I should have passed put from the pain but I'm still hanging on... barely. The pressure keeps building to where I felt like my body would disintigrate, and still went even higher until...

"CRRACKK" I felt it to my very core a.k.a my spine, and I would have screamed again... but my throat had closed and was burning as if i had eaten a handfull of chili powder. I felt something start to come out of my skin, I couldn't see what was happening because I had shut my eyes tight to keep from having the light sting them, but they were still hurting. Trying to move, I found out that all my muscles had locked up...but it also felt like they were growing, shifting, changing...That's when I took notice that the pain had dulled some, allowing me to feel everything that was happening. My clothes had become tight and were close to ripping, something was pushing it's way out of my fingers, toes, and head, and I felt a build up of something in my back and tailbone... and thats when I feel my chest seize. I couldn't breathe as something pushed it's massive way out of my front, from just above my sternum to all the way between my legs, I figure all my clothes decided to rip at the moment, as I felt a lot less constricted. After a bit I feel several cracks in my chest and abs I get to be able to breathe again and the burning had stopped, even the muscles had loosend some, alowing me to roll onto my hands and knees.I thought the worst was over, until my bones start breaking. I screamed again as I felt my skull and legs break apart and reform. Having your skull break apart and reform is one of the most insanityinducing things i've ever felt, it pushed out and formed a muzzle as new teeth popped in and old ones sharpened, my eyes fell back a little on my head and stop stinging, my ears rotate back and expand some... and with a pop I could hear again. As for my legs? My five toes blended to three, the legs shift up into digigrade stance, a spike comes out of what used to be my heel as muscle shifted to take the new structure. Pressure builds in my spine and I let out a small roar as a tail and wings rip free, collapsing on the ground I end up hearing someone's breathing, it was slow and unsteady... a mark of fear.

With my eyes still closed, I use my mental map of the house to crawl over to the wall under the stairs, leaning my back against the wall with my new wings spread out and try to calm my heavy breathing. I felt weak, like I had been running for days, a thick haze clouded my thoughts and emotions, not only that but I was thirsty to the point of my mouth being sandpaper and beyond even that... hungry.

I hear footsteps as my breathing returned to normal, They kept going until they were right in front of me and that is when I hear the click of a safety on a gun. I open my eyes to see dad pointing his sig p250 pistol at my face... his hand was shaking badly as we locked eyes...I couldn't remember clearly of what happened in the next few minutes and I had to get my dad to tell me what happened... his side starts as I scream.

"Ohh to hell with this!" as I toss the phone into the couch and start running for the stairs, the emergency call had been met with a busy tone... apparently  everyone else who drank this had the idea to call as well. "where are you going!?" Janey shouted after me, stopping halfway up the stairs I reply with "Better he have his misery ended by me than for him to suffer like this!" Her eyes widen at the words, she knew I would go through with it. She looks away and runs toward the basement, her training as a CNA kicked in and she was going for the medical kit down there. As she reaches the basement stairs I snap my attention back to Shane, he was curled up facing away from me in utter agony... how stupid It was of me to let him drink it, my gut had to told me to go with it and this is the result. Breaking my gaze, I run up to our bedroom and bash the door open.  Grabbing the gun box out from under the bed and slide it onto the dresser, I pull out my keys and try to locate the red grip for the gun box key... it wasn't here! I throw the keys down and try to think, where did i put the key after the firing range? We had just finished test firing the sig after buying it when shane asks "Where are you going to put the key?".

"I'm going to keep it right here on my keychain."

"That's a bad idea, keychains can be lost and stolen, and what if I was home alone and needed it... Hang it on a nail somewhere just out of sight."

"And where might that be?"

"Just inside your closet on the left side, that should do it." he said with a smile of confidence that he got when he shares his ideas.

I remember the suggestion and run over to the closet... it was there, I was halfway to the box when... "Ryan! GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Stopping I was hit by the realization that shane should have screamed again... I make the obvious guess that's why she called me, because he died. I put the key into my pocket and head downstairs, better to face it now than to hold back. I keep my gaze away from where shane would be, and see Janey standing  by the stairs she went down just a minute ago, the med kit was laying dropped next to her. I finaly look at her eyes and see she wasn't sad, they were instead filled with shock... and horror. Following her gaze to shane I find the reason why.

"My god..." His skin had turned as black as oil. Horns were growing out of his head along with claws out of his fingers and some of his toes. My mind just gets overloaded by this surreal scene in front of me and all I could do was stand and watch. As I hear his bones crack and start to shift my mind reboots and I get the questions "What the hell is he turning into!? And what happens when he's done?" This get's my body to move and I run up the stairs to the bedroom. Unlocking the case i pull out the gun and clip and start loading from the small box of 9mm bullets. once the clip is full I slam the clip in and pull the slide back, chambering a round. Just then a roar comes from downstairs. "I hope Janey had the sense to hide." Walking downstairs with the gun at the ready hearing heavy breathing coming from right below the stairs, I make my way around and almost shoot him right there. Shane, or what used to be him was laying against the wall, eyes closed but the wings and tail had put me even further of balance "What the **** are you?" I thought. Walking over, I stand about two feet away and realize I had kept the saftey on. Flicking it off I see a pair of orange eyes open... and stare right into mine. His eyes were off though, they looked glazed... similar to someone who is on the verge of death.
He opens his muzzle slowly as if he was going to say something... and he did.

"P...Pleasssse...don't." The hiss had sent a chill running down my spine, but his words had also sent me to war with myself. If he could speak there was a chance he could still be the son I knew, on the other hand... look at him! He could kill you and anyone else nearby. I hear Janey walk up beside me, I guess she had been sitting in the recliner trying to decide on what to do, and I knew what she went with.

"Ryan, don't do it." Our eyes meet and even though it was a calm voice I heard, she looked far from it. She was close to crying, and truth be told... so was I. Feeling something give I instantly knew I couldn't do it. I lower the sig and walk to the couch, sit down and went to eying the gun in my hands. A low growl caused me to jump and turn around, Shane had tried to say something again but another growl came out... he stopped and cleared his throat and tried again, all that came out was a mumble. Both me and Janey edge closer as he tried again and croaked out "Water...food...help."

We both heard his words and looked at each other. "I'll get the some food." Janey said as she ran into the kitchen. I glance back at Shane and see his eyes droop almost all the way shut. I Run down and grab a gallon jug of water from the basement emergency stash and walk over to him, ripping the seal off I still feel cautious about going near him so I slide the jug the last foot over to him. He glances over to it and his eyes snap open and too fast for my eyes to follow he slices the neck of the jug clean off and starts chugging it. He just keeps going till about 3/4 of the jug is empty and then he slams the jug on the carpet, and looks at me while he gets his breath back. His eyes were alot less glazed now and they were much more alert, we hear the microwave signal that it was done and see Janey come out with a plate full of hot pizza. I turn back and see Shane's eyes light up like a kid in a candy store, but he didn't move he just held out his hand waiting for the plate. She sets it carefully onto his hand he takes a deep smell of the food and justs starts tearing into them. I mean he just picks up a slice, takes most of it out with a single bite then throws the crust away... he took out the entire plate which must have been a whole pizza, finishes the jug of water then leans back and closes his eyes...

And now back to me------

"Ugghhh, what happened?" I reach up to hold my head and find out I had claws, which had bumped into a muzzle which I happened to find out was mine as well.

"The ****?" as I open my eyes to see a tail and clawed toes.

My dad speaks first "What happened? I'm pretty sure thats not first thing that whould come to my mind."

"All I remember is you pointing a gun into my face, everything before that, and nothing after..." Dad looks away and fills me in on what happened.

Now he starts pacing. "Now comes the question of what the **** are we going to do now that your a... a..."

"Dragon?" I said, finishing his sentence for him.

He stops and stares like an eagle."Aren't dragons quadropeds and also I don't know... burn villages and stuff? Also your taking this way too calmly."

"Dad? Your stereotyping so stop, and I'm taking this well because of the fact I'm still alive, I'm not the only one who took this, and also because I like dragons." He and my mom give the "how come I didn't know about this?" look as I try to stand. It wasn't as hard as some people write about on DA, it just felt natural to stand on the balls of my feet. As I stood I could tell that I was taller, originally I was 5 foot 4, now I just barely cleared 7 feet. They had to look up to make eye contact. The wings were a bit harder to do, imagine having arms upside down your back and that's what I felt except with really long fingers. Folding them up they fit snugly on my back as I get used to having a tail. More or less like an arm without an elbow and with one finger, the tail was maybe 5-6 feet as I moved it up in front of my muzzle and examine it... no spikes or anything just plain black with a lighter shade of it on the underside. I was able to see scales on the tail, they were small... would be impossible to see from 5 feet away, they locked tight together and didn't reveal any skin as my tail flexed and twisted, giving complete coverage but I doubt it would stop a bullet... though maybe a knife could be deflected away. I stretch and felt a lot of bones pop and felt ten-times better.

My mom decides to make an suggestion right then. "Maybe you should find a pair of pants." Looking down I didn't see any thing showing, it was all coverd by the plates that had formed on my chest and went all the way down.

"Nothings showing... but I guess I could find something before Tyler sho...wait, speaking of him how long till he gets here?"

Mom checked my phone"you've got ten minutes."

I head up to my room knowing that any of my regular clothes wouldn't fit at all, but maybe there was some pants in the box of clothes an old friend had given me before he moved away when I was 12... Still don't know why he gave me them in the first place but since I had never gotten rid of it, I might as well see what's in it. The box was found easily in the back of my closet, Dragging it out and slitting the tape with one of my claws, I open it to find a pair of black jeans with a little note on it. The note read "Hope these fit ya a few years from now. Your friend, Montana" I smile as I held up the jeans, not only were they the right size, but it also had an awsome tribal design on the sides of the legs. I manage to cut a hole for my tail (Denim is tough stuff people!) I get them on and head to the bathroom to get a good look at how I'd changed.

The first thing I noticed was the plates, they were dark grey in color and really let my new muscle definition show. The plates were heavily segmented allowing ease of movement, but giving full coverage just like the scales, and looked like it could block a bullet from a 44 magnum. My eyes were a vibrant orange with slitted pupils like a reptile's, except mine weren't  razor thin, just a bit thicker. Moving up i find my hair is gone, didn't care much for it anyway. My horns drew back along my head until they dip halfway then curve up into points at the back. I finaly notice something and hold out my hand, five black ultra-sharp claws that started just after the final knuckle allowing full dexterity, but what got my attention was the scales... they didn't reflect light! No matter which way I turned it was the same dark black. I chalk it up to night camouflage and move on to my wings. I stretch it out and feel a few bones pop and felt a little less stiff, The membrane was solid pitch black that was even darker than my scales. A spike facing outwards came out of the "wrist" of the wings. I step sideways so that the mirror can show the rest of the wing, thats when I see the wingtips. The top two had formed into razor edges with the membrane receded back so that they can be used as a weapon, and I got a flashback of how I would picture myself as a anthro dragon... it was an exact match! I had spent hours searching the web for images that screamed "that's me!" or at least to a part it was. Chalking it down to coincidence I head downstairs and wait for Tyler to arrive...

 

Normal days, just go out of control sometimes.

Dallas, Texas; Local Time; 3:41pm, Friday, 13th of May, 2033

*Knock Knock*

"Ughhhhhh, just another 12 hours please."

"Get up before I grab an air horn, Shane...Shane?"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZ..."

"Huh... guess he'll miss the breakfast wraps the-"

"NOOOOO! I'm up! I'm up!"

I hop out of bed at the mention of breakfast wraps...I was starving. Unfortunately when I hopped out of bed my foot gets into a wrong position and slip.

Thump

"Ow." I see my mom trying not to laugh as I pick myself up.

"How long?"

"Five minutes" It's then I notice something...

"Where's bullet?"

"She's downstairs staring down Ryan... That dog has to have been trained by someone, or be extremely intelligent because she actually let us know when she wanted to go out, she wiped her paws before going back inside and even turned the tv on."

"Creepy...but dogs have more intelligence than some people think, it how they're raised   that really determines how they act... And I honestly think Bullet is a one-of-a-kind find."

"I think so too, see you downstairs." As she heads out of my room to the kitchen. I take my time and stretch, feeling my wings brush the wall behind me along with a series of pops in my neck and tail. I walk over and take my computer off standby mode, type my password in and start updating, I notice that my claws left little peck marks on the keyboard and sigh... this keyboards going to go fast, good thing it was cheap. The little progress bar moves agonizingly slow so I turn off the monitor and head to the bathroom.

I take care of buisness, say "hell no" to trying to shower, and wash my claws, which I can say that I am glad we don't use bar soap. I head downstairs to find dad setting a dozen of the wraps onto the counter then evil eyeing Bullet, who was sitting in a chair at the table staring at the plate... freaky.

"Yeah... she's been doing that for the last ten minutes."

"Three words, creepy...unexpected...and again creepy."

Bullet looks at me and wags her tail a little. I decide to try something... "Bullet, off the chair." I say it in a causual tone and she does it, she just looked at the wraps and back to me. I grab one of the wraps of the plate and take a bite, which meant half the wrap. I remember the way that my dad made them, just like a burrito, except with eggs,sliced bacon, diced onions, and chopped sausage plus a hit of shredded mozzerella... Delicious. Must be pure agony for that dog to watch me eat this...what if? I crouch down near bullet and say, "Bullet, I'll give you a two whole wraps if you go upstairs into my room, grab my wallet off the end table, place it on the coffee table then grab the tv remote and bring it to me." She huffed then went and did exactly as I said! I take the remote out of her mouth as my parents sat there staring.

"Yep, she's a genius." I say that and feed her a reward wraps. I eat another 5 wraps before dad said something I didn't expect.

"Hope your feeling social today."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to the mall for some clothes shopping, and also to buy everything Bullet needs from walmart."

"I don't think they have dragon-friendly shirts and pants." I'd be suprised if they did.
"You didn't see how fast the world reacted, There's already a company called Dragonwares that formed literaly overnight, and so we thought, can't have Shane running around in one set of pants forever... so why not go today? They have a shop that just opened up in the mall. Also that's not the only thing we caught on tv."

Consider me suprised. I use the remote and flick the tv on... sure enough there is a commercial for Dragonwares going on. You know how commercials seem overly stupid or weird? Well this one didn't have any of that, just one dragon saying to the audience that if they just turned and needed clothes and accessories to come on by... Simply the most tame commercial ever, i'd bet there being swarmed right now because of it. Other things included a global man-hunt for the person who did this, something about corperations like Apple calling for "volunteers", and a little "debate" over whether or not we were human any more, the discussion involved a shrink, a psychologist and a doctor... I flick the tv off before they could get a chance to speak, I hated it when people tried to "classify" someone or something and having three people that probably had completely different views argue of whether or not we were human was something I wasn't going to watch... besides, I already knew we weren't human anymore except in mind. I turn to my dad and say...

"When are we leaving?"

"The moment you finish your shower" No way... guess skipping a shower just doesn't work anymore.

"Serious?"

"Yeah." he makes a go do it gesture and I reluctantly head back to the bathroom. I take a look at the shower, only a tiny bit of room to stretch my wings... but then they would hit the bottles on the shelf, glad I wasn't claustrophobic. I get the shower warmed up and step inside, I barely fit, I just stand there letting lukewarm water pound my head and roll down my body for a few minutes. I grab the shower head and hold it above my folded wings... it would have to do, I wasn't going to try and use bodywash on these. I do use bodywash on my body... only half way through did I breathe through my nose and realize the mistake I made...

"RAAGH!"

I quickly wash my claws off and cover my snout, it felt as if my nostrils were on fire! This stuff was strong for a human's sense of smell, but now it was too powerful for my enhanced senses. I quickly wash off then stagger out of the shower gagging and snorting. My god... I wasn't going to do that again anytime soon, virtually all the water didn't get past my scales so I was dry in just over a minute. It takes another full minute for my senses to clear, the reek of the bodywash still clung to me... I hoped it would fade soon as I get dressed and head to the front door where my parents were waiting.

"Have fun?" my dad asked.

I put on my best sarcastic tone... "Oh, yes. I about fried my nose from using the body wash, it was absolutely wonderfull!"

"well then, today's off to a good start... ready?"

I facepalm and say "No... i need my wallet." I head into the living room and grab it off the coffee table along with my phone and see bullet leap up on the couch with the remote.
"Wanna watch tv while we're gone huh?" She yips and i turn the tv onto cartoon network, and leave the back door open a little so she could get out... before I head back outside I take out my wallet and add the twenties from Psycho to the $120 I already had, making it $180. I walk out side and see my parents already in the silver honda accord, I stand beside them waiting for them to pull out... They don't and dad rolls down his window and says...

"Why aren't you getting in?" Oh, they think I was going to ride with them.

"I thought I was going to fly there."

"Not a chance, get in the car." I sigh and get in the back, it didn't leave much room for my wings so I scoot over to the center, curl my tail so it runs with my leg down onto the floor and move my wings out to my sides so I could lay my back comfortably against the seat... it did not help much.

"Alright, cars are now obsolete to me as this is the most uncomfortable ride of my life...  and just why did I have to ride with you?" I say as we close in on the mall.

He just laughs and says "I just wanted to see if you'd actually would get in."
I mutter "***hole." under my breath.

Thats when my mom says "Language!" How does she always manage to hear me when I cuss? I end up saying...

"Which is foul yet there's a certain expression with it that you can't get anywhere else, if you like I can learn another language and cuss in it instead." I was suprised the words came out of my muzzle, but sh*t happens right?

"I don't want you cussing at all!"

"If that's the case get dad to stop cussing too, cause he was using it before me." Dad tenses because he knows he's going to be nagged about it now... All I needed was a bag of popcorn to make the scene complete as I watched the gripe-out.

We pull into the parking lot to find almost all the spaces taken. We manage to get a space near the back as someone in a ford fusion left. I get out as fast as I could and stretch heavily, a dozen or so pops later I stop and take a look at the entrance. There was many a dragon going about, some were alone while many had a parent with them... very few had both parents with them, guess being a dragon can cause families to break apart. I remember Tyler when I think this... I hope he's alright, but for now I have a lot to do, I guess I can go over there and check on him after this shopping trip. We head inside and see a shop off at the far end being ravaged by dragons, looks like I was right about that commercial... this is going to suck...

"Um... maybe you two should just give me some money for clothes then head over to walmart because I think this is going to take awhile." I look over at their faces and see that they didn't expect for it to be this busy, the store would probably be out of stock soon, maybe in about another 3 hours from the way dragons are coming and going.

"You sure? It looks a little..." Mom motions in the general direction of the store.

"I'll be fine, you just get the stuff from walmart. You can call me afterwords alright?"

What I didn't tell them was that I didn't want them to get caught up in the store, there was enough claws, spikes, and wings in there to make it a torture room, I didn't want my parent's going in there and getting impaled by some careless dragon, sadly some dragons had brought their parents in with them.

My dad sighs and says "Alright, but try not to get caught in that horde over there okay?"
He pulls out $250 and hands it to me and they leave obviously concerned about me going in there... but at least I had scales and plates to keep me alive. I walk over to the Dragonwares entrance and take a closer look, the sign was black with sky blue letters, a tribal dragon came off the bottom of the s and flew under like an underline. there weren't any mannequins nor did I expect any, most of the room was devoted to racks upon racks of clothes of every variety but most were gone. A large group leaves with tons of clothes being carried in their arms, I figure this is my only chance so I duck inside before things speed up again.

I could now get a good look at the counter and most of the store. A maroon dragon was manning the register, he had 3 horns in a "trident" on his head and his eyes were a cold blue in contrast to his scales, he had on a black shirt saying "haters gonna hate so i'll hate you right back you d**n human" he was dealing with a trio of teenage dragons and looked like this day was his personal nightmare. I take a quick look for clothes that I liked, it was hard finding anything that fit, there was a lot of clothes that I liked but again nothing fit, shirts weren't open enough for my wings or had spike rings and jeans were to long or short. A brown drake with two tails and four horns comes out of the backroom with a large stack of boxes of what I guessed was clothes and planted them on the counter...

He calls out to me "Hey! If those don't fit tell me your size and I'll see what I can dig up." must be the manager... I tell him my size and he goes to head into the backroom but stops for a second and asks...

"Turn sideways and extend your wings a bit." I do so and he looks intently at my wing membrane, It stopped right about 4 inches from my waistline. he looks a few more moments before asking...

"Any colors and types you like?"

"Blue, black, grey, and crimson. As for types try for cargo pants and jeans, t-shirts and sleeveless." He nods and heads for the back. I take another look around and spot something that I missed, I walk over and hold it up, It was a sleeveless jacket that looked very close to a millitary vest with an digital ACU style camo pattern and a soft collar, I was in love at first sight. the front had four cargo pockets and was thickly padded, giving it more rigidness than normal, I turn it around to see the wing mods, the back was basicaly a belt with only a two inch-wide strip that widened out at the bottom and top leaving plenty of room for my wings to move. I try it on, it was tricky to put on but I manage by going wings first, I zip up the front and gauge the feeling, the fit was great and I was loving the freedom my wings still had.

A massive amount of dragons begin to stream the store at that moment and I was glad I found this before someone else could loot it. The manager comes back out with a stack of pants in his arms.

"Found ya somethin' eh? Take a look at these." I pick out two pairs of grey cargo pants, several pairs of blue jeans, and another two cargos but this time they were olive drab. He turns and calls out to someone in the back.

"Jess hurry up we got another wave coming in!" A golden flammie comes out of the back carrying large boxes, she sets them on the counter next to the earlier stack and slits the tape on them with her claws before taking out clothes and rushing to get them onto the now empty racks. The manager goes back inside for a few seconds before coming back outside with stacks of shirts in his arms. Most were plain but a few had common dragon-esque images, I grab three midnight blue, and four grey sleevless shirts, many black, red, and grey t-shirts later I finaly think I have enough. The manager had went off to help Jess get the new stock out, I head over to the register with all the clothes in my arms, the dragon lightened up considerably since what I had gotten was a light load compared to others heaping stacks. He starts with the jacket that I was still wearing... D*** this was expensive compared to the other clothes, a good $150 but I wanted this badly, I look around and see the other stuff that was being sold, sunglasses, fingerless gloves, hats, and even a claw "sharpener" that looked a lot like an expensive knife sharpener, I would've gotten some gloves but there weren't any in black and didn't have much style. I end up paying all of the money my parents gave me plus $45 out of my own wallet. He pulls out some large bags and stuffs the clothes into two of them.

"Here you go." He says as he hands me the bags, He gets a horrified look on his face as a group of five dragons advance towards the register, I don't think he's cut out for this. I walk out side and slip one bag over to my other arm, whip out my phone and call my parents.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mom, where did you guys park?"

"You made it out alive?"

"Without a single scratch i might add."

"We are parked at the last row on the left, near the front."

"Thanks... can you unlock it too?"

"Don't you have the keys?"

"*sigh* No... one thing I forget out of everything are my keys."

"Ryan'll meet you out there."

"Why can't he just use th-"

"Because he want's to know how much money of his you just spent and what you spent it on."

"Uh-oh"

"You spent it all didn't you?"

"Um, yeah."

"On more than just clothes?"

"No, it's just clothes and this epic jacket I now have. Are you guys just about done?"

"Yeah I'm in the checkout line right now."

"Alright, Love ya."

"Love you to shane."

"Bye."

I hang up and fly over to the car... Dad was standing there looking for me on the ground. Heh, didn't expect me to be flying, guess I'm gonna have to change that.
I pull out into a wide circle and use the lane as a runway, no cars so I decend and that d**n glitch of fear tries to f**k up my perfect landing... it worked. I tipped to the side and my wing edge keys the trunk of a 1970 dodge charger, s***t... glad nobody saw that, I end up in a run as I touchdown, dad finaly sees me after I land and advance toward him, he looks at the jacket...

"Nice... how much?" I tell him, he didn't like it.

"That f***ing much?"

"Language! Anyway I paid with some of my cash so back off."

"He... nevermind, just put your crap in the trunk" He pops the lid and I throw them into the trunk. Mom comes out a minute later and we get the stuff loaded.

"Alright you can head home without me. I've got stuff to do."

"What?" dad seemed a little confused at this.

"I've got stuff to do, aka I haven't been up here in while and I thought I might see what"s new..." I strech my wings a bit "Plus I don't need a car to get around anymore."
"You be careful." My mom is always concerned about me like I was going to die if I went off somewhere without her knowing.

"I'm 18, I''m not irresponsible."

Dad just snorts and gets into the car, my mom lingers a bit with a worried look she usually has on her face before getting into the car. They leave and I see a buff guy start freaking out about a scratch... ohh ****, I duck out of the way and start weaving through the lines till I was sure that I was out of his sight, I check the lane and don't see any cars going so I get a running take off and go into a loose circle. My stomach signals it's hunger, wow it's only been an hour and half since I ate and now I'm hungry again... I remember the food shops back at the mall, of course I could just head ovder to BK and eat there, but for some reason I felt more comfortable around dragons and the mall was swarming with them.

A few minutes later I land at the entrance and head to the food court. The place was packed, only a few tables left and guess what? About 80% of everyone there was a dragon of some kind.  I head over to the pizza store and get a duo of medium pepperoni pizzas, I pay and head over to the last empty table. It was on the outer edge of the court and the only table nearby was one full of draconic skaters decked out in new gear, I recongized some voices coming from friends that I had among their group. I didn't feel social so I just take out my phone and go to my music and start a playlist, "Natrual born killer" by A7X starts playing as I devour the pizza.

I was just starting my second pizza when I hear the click of talons behind me.

"Mind if I sit here?"

"No." Where have I heard that voice before?

A white dragon with black scutes sits across from me with two bags from McDonalds holding several double quarter-pounders. He had webbed ears and no horns, was around 7 foot 9 and his eyes were a dark grey in color along with his ear membrane, he has a short black mane as well. It finaly dawns on me who that voice belonged to.

"Alex!?" His head snaps up from his food, Alex was one of Tyler's friends from school, normally I didn't hang around with them but I was around enough so that they all knew me, Alex here was a mechanical prodigy and a serious bookworm to science fiction, he didn't have his glasses anymore and all he had on was a pair of black cargo shorts.

"Ello Shane, didn't know it was you. See you also took the vial." His german accent was worse now.

"Yep... anyone else of your group take it?"

He breaks eye contact "No." I knew what must have happened... social isolation, his "friends" saw 'im like this and kicked him outta the group, bulls***t must have happened to many of the other dragons as well.

I hear the click of multiple talons again come from behind me and I turn to see a dragotaur. At first I thought it was a girl because of the scales being ametheist purple in color along with indigo scutes, but then he asked...

"Can I sssssit here?" His voice had no accent at all and the creepy hiss came from his forked tounge, which was the only one I have encountered as of late.

Alex speaks up first "Sure" He puts his forelegs on the seat while he puts down a tray full of hot dogs, fries, onion rings, and nachos. I hear the bench groan under his weight but it holds. I manage to get a better look now that he was sitting next to me, He had a whopping six horns, two short ones in the middle with larger ones flanking them, the last two curl under his jaw like tusks, spikes started just behind them and roll all the down to his waist. He had no clothes excedpt for a ozark trail backpack that he had shouldered, his eyes were blood red with a round pupil instead of the draconic slit. His tail had four rows of six short spikes near the end. His ears were pointed like mine and his claws were black... oh and his full standing height was around 9 feet.

Me and Alex look at each other... we were thinking the same thing but he asks something else first...
"So... what's it like being a taur?"

"Being a what?"

"A taur, you know? What you are now, four legs, two arms, that sort?"

"Oh... Besssidesss thissss d**n hisssss? I couldn't sssssleep on my bed because I'm now around 600 poundsss, sssssure I can breathe fire and run asss fasssst as a horsssse and fly but when you have to ssssleep on the cold hardwood floor benefitssss just go out the window. Made worssse is the fact that I'm purple!" He propably would've continued his rant had I not said something.

"Think of it this way least you can still get inside your house, unlike a full-sized dragon I know."

Alex looks over to me with interest "Really, who... oh, it's Ty insn't it?" I nod my head.

"Poor b*****d. How's he holding up?"

"He's got family trouble last I know, Sarah took the vial also, and his dad is less than happy. I'm going to go over there after this and check up on him."

"I'll head along with, must be having the worst time of his life right now."

Alex looks up and stares at something coming up behind me. I turn and see a dragoness, don't ask how I know but I do... She was 7 foot 8 and tan with a mane of spikes that that ended close to the base of the neck. The blue hoodie she was wearing was sleeveless and had abstract art going across it, she had four arms, the bottom pair were messing with a rubics cube while the top held a tray with lots of... ugh, veggies and that meat substitute, what was it called? Tofu, thats what it was called, yeah she had tofu burgers. I was a massive carnivore before I was a dragon and disliked almost all veggies, fruits were fine but never veggies. I was glad I'm not one of those people who criticized others choices... but I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.

"Yes you can sit here." I say before she has a chance to ask.

She spoke with an standard southern accent "Thanks." She thankfully sits by Alex... Looks like he's got a crush on her, heh.

Alex and the new girl start talking and we seemed to become invisible to them, so I turn to the taur and ask him...

"Never got your name."

He inhales the last of the fries and replies with "Marcussss. What'sssss yourssss?"

"Shane." I find out the the dragoness's name was Kate from their conversation which goes on for a few minutes before the one thing that I wished wouldn't happen today does happen. "war is the answer" by five finger death punch starts playing on my phone... it set the mood... aka, my mood.

A voice comes from behind me "Well well, what have we here?" Your f***ing kidding me... the one person I didn't want around me today. I don't turn around and just say...

"F*** off Steve."

"Oh that's no way to talk to someone better than you now is it?"

Steve is the resident douchebag, he was pathetic... typical evil rich kid, drinks, sells and uses drugs, ruins everyones party no matter where it was and even tries to pick fights with everyone, he lost every one. He and I had a "history" together, shortend up version? He goes to a beach party drunk off his a** and tries to pick a fight with me, I go to walk off and he tries to cheapshot me, I end up tripping and tossing him around for a few minutes while everyone else laughs and videotapes it (Note: everyone hated this guy except for his little cliche' group) It was funny... until he pulls out a butterfly knife and tries to stab me. I end up with a few cuts but I paid him back by breaking his arm and dislocating his jaw, along with giving him a pair of black eyes. ever since then he's had it out for me, he's tried everything short of shooting me to bring me down... heh, nothing has worked.

Most of the chatter dies as they realize who was around... I could imagine people getting up and leaving right about now. I didn't want to deal with whatever s*** he was going to say so I strike first.

"Steve, you don't qualify, so shut the f*** up and go back to hell... Satans missing his b****." That pissed him off and I hear him growl at... growl? I turn around to see a three headed solid green hydra staring me down with a group of five humans behind him. He didn't have any clothes or scutes and each head had the standard two horn conifiguration along with webbed ears.

I bust up laughing and everyone looks at me like I was crazy, it just served to piss Steve off more.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"Looks like your split personality disorder finaly caught up with ya." Rule one of dealing with him, piss him off, this made him reckless and he usually lost it then stormed off.

His right head growls at me some more while the middle head said...

"Your begging for death punk." Just being near him is making my blood boil.

I stand up and his left head goes wide eyed, he was maybe six foot five so I had to look down on him.

"So are you, you son of a b**** so I suggest you leave and beg daddy to get you a plane ticket out of here, 'cause I'm sure he'd oblige with a son who's now three times uglier and moronic than before." I was pissed and anyone who had a third of a brain would know back off right about now... sadly he had killed most of his three off.
-Prick needs to get beat to an inch of his life.-

-I agree, but let him get the first hit in, that way we can call self defense.-

By now his entire group had backed up and were close to breaking rank and abandoning their little "leader" my comment had pushed Steve over the edge and he tries to punch me... emphasis on "tried", he curled his fist and punched my chest. I hear the bones in his hand pop and hear his claws stab into his palm, he roars in pain and steps back several feet clutching his bleeding palm. I was about to charge when the skaters get up from their table and walk over to me before turning to Steve and saying...

"Think it's 'bout time you left, prick." His group had dissapeared... he was alone.

He shoots back with all three heads "Oh Yeah? MAKE ME!"

They look at each other, shrug and rush him. He gets knocked down while four of them pick him up and carry him to the exit before tossing him out the doors, the security guard was watching the entire time... apparently he didn't want to be involved. One of my friends of the group Jason, walks up to me.

I say "Thanks JC, shame that he didn't learn his lesson though."

"Ha! If there is anyone that can teach him some respect, I'd buy them a round. See ya man."

"See ya." Everyone back at the table looks at me as I sit down and start eating again.
"What?"

Alex starts first "That was the most PO'ed i've ever seen you."

"Because nobody gets under my scales like he does." He just shrugs, he knew Steve's rep.

Kate follows up "You just humiliated him... do you know how long I waited to see that  happen?

"Three years?" Turns out I was right.

Marcus is last "I'm sssssuprised you didn't take hissss headsss off."

"I was going to until..."

That's when I remember that tiny little conversation with myself... ****.
-You there?-

-Yep, we can talk 'bout this later 'stand?-

-No, I wan...-

I get jerked out by a shove from Marcus "You zoned out there."

"I'm fine, just thinking about what would've happened if Jason and his buddies hadn't stepped in."

-Liar.- Yep, this is going to be grade A annoying.

Alex speaks "We all know you would've kicked his a**."

I chuckled and replied with "Sure, would've been video-worthy."

We start talking about other things and I found out about the others, Marcus was 22 and going to collage to be an architect, Kate was believe it or not the girl that lived across from me and was going to go into video game design after graduating, Alex I already knew that he was going to major in engineering. After a while I tell them I was going to go check up on Tyler, we swap phone numbers before leaving, Alex came with me, a good deal happier than before. We take to the sky and head over to Tylers house, it was good deal aways almost on the other side of town.

"Hey! watch those wings! Those edges are kinda scary." Whoops.

"Sorry!" I bank away... great, I'm a flying hazard.

We circle over his backyard looking for him, his house had one of those "mega yards" because they border the edge of a forest, there was lots of tree cover so It was hard searching for him... which suprised me considering that we were looking for a 15 foot tall red dragon. HIs house was a simple one story but it had a large surface area, 4 bed 2 bath configuration with a double garage and a back office area that led outside to the patio. I didn't hear the wings until it was to late...

Whump

Something massive slams into my back before I hear...

"TAG! Your it." Tyler you clever SOB, must have been in the clouds waiting for me.

"I twist in the air and enter a hover to see Tyler laughing his head off as he landed in a small clearing in his yard. I follow and manage to land without messing up.

"Tyler! No fair..."

"Neither was it when you started with me. Who'd you bring?"

Alex lands beside me from a streight drop from a low hover. "I'm sure you didn't think you were the only one of the group who took it did you?"

"ALEX!" He would have glomped him hadn't we both dived out of the way.

"Uh-uh I'm not going to be tackled by you Ty." Alex says as he brushes the dirt and grass that was torn up in his scutes.

"So Ty, how's it going?" I say this and he seems to perk up more... what the hell happened to make him this happy? Last I saw he was at tears, so why is he so excited?

"Fine, i'm going to be leaving in an hour."

"Say WHAT!" Both of us say at the same time.

"You remember those volunteer commercials?" I get an image of a dragon strapped to table with hundreds of needles and electrodes stuck on them, I shiver at the thought.

"Shane, I know you and that's not what's going to happen, I'm heading to Microsoft to try out some dragon-sized wrist computer/phone hybrid. Their paying me a lot of money to go and do this."

"And what about the family? That's what I was wondering about when I came over." He deflates a little at this.

"Dad's trying to find a reason to get rid of me but moms not having any of it, Sarah caught hell when they found out about her drugs so I guess I got let off easy compared to her." He sighs and I catch a wiff of something on his breath.

*Sniff* *Sniff* "Is that raw meat I smell?" His eyes widen at this, what had he been doing?

"They didn't feed you raw meat did they?" I say it casualy... I already knew were it was from.

"No..."

"Bambi?"

"What?" Alex didn't know what I was implying.

"Yes." He deflates even more at it.

"So... was it they didn't feed you enough or was it they didn't feed you at all,"

Alex catches on "Oh...what the f***?"

"Not enough."

I just shrug my shoulders "Okay then."

He looks confused at my statement "Wha-"

"They misjudged your needs Ty, I got hungry after an hour from a large breakfast so don't blame your parents for not getting you enough food. Lets close this topic 'kay?"

He agrees and we talk for a while until I decide that it's time to leave, I say goodbye and Head to fly home, Alex stays behind to chat with Tyler for a while longer before he left.

"Make sure to tell me the specs of that computer when you try it."

"You can be sure of that Shane. See ya in a few days."

I fly over for a while until I was about halfway home, then my wings start burning from the strain, apparently long distance flight will need to added to my new exercise list. I settle into a lazy glide until I get close enough to the ground to land, at around 13 feet I turn to the sidewalk and backwing onto the cement, I tense as I land but nothing goes wrong. I start walking... glances and double takes come from almost all the humans and even a few drakes on the street, guess that figures since I wasn't flying like every other dragon.

I keep walking for a few blocks till I get a prickle at the back of my neck signaling that I was being followed, I turn my head slightly and check... yep three brutes at 6'o clock. They were walking shoulder to shoulder and I could feel their eyes bore into my back, more than likely the were going to jump me... idiots, I decide it would be better to take them out in a secluded area so as I near the end of the block I duck into an allyway and come face to face with a gang. S***, six people lounged against the walls and railings of the back entrances... and they were all staring at me like I was satan, which is to say that they looked ready to tear me apart.

I hear a click come from behind me as the three who followed me block the entrance and whip out their knives. The leader in front was wearing shades and pulled a glock out from behind him and aims it at my chest, only one of the punks in front didn't have sunglasses on and when I make eye contact I see something insane... his pupils were dialated to near obliteration of the iris, just like Psycho! Ohh your f***ing kidding me, one of the others twitch and I knew that they weren't here to rob or rough me up... they wanted me dead and they were just like Psycho.

I needed a way out, I could bash the thugs behind me but that meant leaving my back and wings open to the bullets from that glock, I couldn't fly out with my wings being so big, what the hell was I going to do?

-Use your claws dumba**!-
-And get stabbed in the back?-

-Not like that you stu... your claws can cut steel, so what do you think?-

One of the front group was getting ready to charge, cutting steel isn't going to help me get ou...

-Finally get it?-

-Yeah-

I knew what I had to do, I fix my gaze on the charger and beckon him to rush me. He lets out a scream and rushes me... just like I planned. He gets close and I make a palm and deliver a powerful right hook that spins him around and breaks his jaw, I wrap my left arm around his neck and voila! Instant meat shield. I hear the shots ring out and they thud into chargers body, somone comes up behind me to try a backstab so I whip both wings back and feel the edges cut into something and their scream of pain is cut off. Leader runs out off bullets so I let go of charger and before he could crumple I kick him, sending him crashing through their ranks and knocking everyone down. I turn and do a takeoff leap into the brick wall. I use my claws and they sink all the way in and I slide down some as they cut through the brick, I brace and leap to the other building, just clearing the edge. Hearing a cop siren come on I start running, leaping from one building to the next, good thing they were all single story. I hear gunshots ring out from the allyway and I double my speed. I reach the end of the block and leap down onto the concrete, cracks spread out from the impact and several people stop and stare, I was doubled over and panting heavily, A orange drake walks up and asks if i'm alright.

"I'll... be... fine." He just shrugs and walks off, I look up and see a 7/11 across the street. I sit there for a minute before staggering across the street and heading inside. The cashier stared at me when I walked in... figures, I grab a cup and fill it with strawberry fanta, and then pay for it.

"You've got something on your wings." I look up and see her staring still, she looked a little over 30, but I already knew what was on my wings...blood.
"Is it red?" She just nods her head.

"Don't mind it then." Again she just nods.

I walk to around the store, gratefull for the cold air, I look at my arm and notice I didn't have any sweat, I flashback to when I was panting... great, looks like saunas are obsolete and now I was going to have to pant to stay cool. I was halfway through the cup when I get a call, I see it as an unknown number... normaly I would ignore calls from people I didn't know but what the hell, what's the worst that could happen right?

"Hello?"
"Shane Smith?" What do you know, it was Ray.

"Yeah, take it you got the red tape cut?"

"Hmph, I just went under the red tape. Your best friend Psycho just kneeled over an hour ago."

"Say what? How?"

"Brain hemmoraging along with his heart exploding, most of the rookies down here are still puking from the mess."

"D***, you find out what caused it?"

"The only thing in his stomach when we pumped it was a liquid, we didn't know what it was until..."

"Until what?"

"One of the rooks brought in a vial of that stuff that turned you into a dragon." What the f***?

"Are you saying that that s*** caused him to go nuts?"

"More, I'm saying this is what killed him also."

I just stand there shocked... the blood had caused this guys insanity and death, why the hell did it turn me into a dragon yet make him go psycho? I finaly reply...

"Do you have any idea why it killed him yet did this to me?"

"The lab rats are going berserk with theories, the first one is age, they seem to think that age is the key factor for this... mind you that the gov has had these samples for a lot longer than us and probably know more, but again there's that classified BS that they have going on."

"Thanks for the info."

"We never had this conversation." He hangs up as someone in the background yelled "Ray take a look at this!"

I stand there thinking. Age... what the hell does age have to with this? I took enough science to know how biological stuff works, but this? My brain was just a blank. I snap out of my thoughts when the cashier's cell rings.

"Hey John what's-" She gets a weird look on her face as something is said to her. She listens for a full minute before...

"Your sure?" She hears a reply before saying goodbye and closing the phone, She looks up at me and asks...

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What's it like being a dragon?" Odd question coming from someone who didn't get a vial.

"Lots of benefits, flying, fire breathing, natrual abilities enhanced, along with the obvious downsides, you'll need new clothes and you will be hungry much more often... can I ask why your asking me this? I thought no one over 25 got the vials."

"Thank you for the insight. But my husband just told me that he just got a package holding those vials, and there was one adressed to me as well... he says that there are packages going out to everyone who was over that age."

Oh no, oh god no... Ray said the key factor was supposed to be age, and that psycho was in his late-thirties. My mind makes connections, death, age, vials... S*** s*** s***, I flip out my phone and speed dial my parents... no answer... No, no, no... not my f***ing parents. I trash the soda as I dash out the door, rush to the street and take a step jump off of a car stopped at the light, I snap open my wings and kick it into high gear, I step jumped higher and higher off of incoming traffic. I step jump off of a semi's trailer and get high enough to fly streight to my house,the edges of my vision blurred as I raced home at top speed. I land in a full sprint and bash the door open...
"MOM! DAD!"

I run into the livingroom to see my mom on the floor...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Shane--->

So here we are, just accomplished one of the things we sent off to do, and then we have to stop that and turn it back on. This is messed up, but at least I can ask Blake what's going on.

“So I'm going to ask the biggest question, why did you have us turn the magnetic propulsion back on Blake?” I say over the speakerphone.

"Well, turning it off would have fired us. We found the generator. Open Ion Fusion, and with this design, it doubles as the secondary propulsion." Good explanation, though I had no idea what open-
Alex meanwhile interrupts my train of thought with "I think I turned that secondary propulsion on. Meanwhile a pressing question, this ship has open ion fusion?"

"Yeah, ions being bombarded into each other into it's own personal sun. Hydrogen into Helium into Sodium ex-cetira. And it's a good thing you turned it on slowly. We only got a few flares." Miniature sun? That sent a bad feeling straight down my spine to the tip of my tail.
I ask "A few? And there's a miniature sun on this thing?"

"Artificial. And it's not sustaining itself either. Extra hydrogen must be being pumped in. I've seen bigger fusion reactors that power an entire city from just a few atoms a day. But this is impressive, and dangerous. Only way to shut this down is to vent the burning fuel down below."

I sigh "But we can't do that because it would be dumping them on earth... and I'm not eager on finding out how much damage that would cause."

"With that portal open... your going to have two roasted planets. Also, we might have another problem with shutting off the magnetic radiation source."

"I'll put that on my list of growing complications, what's said problem?"

"The portal and this ship are having a sort of tug o war with the Earth's magnetosphere. Not going to be good if either side wins. And Two Hours until both our worlds get a very nasty shock."

I note the look on Alex's face, like he had a really bad thought, but I just had the same one he probably did. "Which forces us to find yet another solution. I'm guessing the shock would send everything with a heart into cardiac arrest?"

"Full marks. And we're ill prepared for mass defibulation. And moving the ship an inch will set that off anyway. I might have something to absorb the shock away from both worlds, but the portal will stabilize permanently, and your sewers will connect with my skyscraper." A sewer connecting with a skyscraper... it'd be funny if there wasn't the immediate problem of the shock killing us and the incineration thing.

Alex speaks up "Permanently? I bet that wasn't part of your original plan. Though a permanent portal would be much better than other consequences."

Blake says through the phone "Or our current situation, just buying time for one world to throw the other under a bus."

I decide to make an optimistic comment to that "You can survive being thrown under a bus you know."
"Not everyone can." was his reply.

"You have a point there. But what's your idea for getting rid of the shock?"

"Thor's hammer. Separate the head from the hilt, and have someone hold them at either end of the portal. The portal will merge the rooms together, overlapping space, but completely stable."
Jamie pops into the conversation then "It will be hard to tell where one ends and the other starts as a result."

I try to imagine that in my head, then just state "Hard to tell where a sewer ends and an office building begins, that's something. But still, we would need to get back to the portal to do so, and right now I have no idea how to get back there."

"Gravity corridor goes two ways, but just as bad a landing." Oh goody, 'nother trip on the abduction beam. Alex was about to say something before Blake continues on with "Virus. Virus. What do we do about the virus? And my nanobots have been strangely calm, even after running into those discolored infected."

"Discolored?" Me and Alex ask within a second of each other.

"Yeah, sort of reddish skin, and their body temp wasn't feverish. It was more... normal, healthy." Now my day's expectations just got thrown out a window.

Alex is the first one to say something about that “Okay, not sure about that, the red skin I could chalk down to sunburn, but the body temp usually runs high... do you think they have a mutated strain in them?"

"Don't know, they all fell into open space when we dropped into the generator room. What do you send to a thirty foot tall dragon for saving your life?" Good thing I threw my expectations out a window. But if my Dad saved his life... hard thing to repay a life debt...

I decide and say "Not sure, there isn't exactly many ways to pay someone back for saving your life... but since it's my dad, get him a ball he can't smash with the mace on his tail."

"Got lots of those. Just need to find one that doesn't have anything inside it. Why a ball?"

"Ever tried playing baseball with him? every-time, the ball becomes dust when he hits it or it goes too far out for even a dragon to find or catch." And I meant it, Ever since my Dad's transformation he wasn't able to play in the sport, see, quadrupeds use their tail as a bat, unfortunately the super-mace that was dad's tail tip was far to strong and hit way too hard, nothing really could stand against it.

"Try a cricket ball, a lot harder to destroy or miss. Not sure if it will work with baseball."

"No, we've tried everything including that, we even tried a crushed and balled up car once, shredded upon impact. Rocks, metal, even rubber, nothing has the strength and weight to an be an actual good baseball for him." Except a wrecking ball, but that wouldn't be fair for the anthros and taurs now would it?

"Really. I'll think of something. And Kate is looking at me like I'm taking in a different lang...uage?" I hear a deep rumbling sound... with a start I realize it's Ty growling. I look back at thew corridor where it came from.... something isn't right...

"Shane, do you hear footsteps like, metal on metal?" I heard it through the phone speaker and was about to say so, but then a loud roar comes form the corridor... Ty!

"TY!." I rush out the corridor towards where Ty's roar came from.

Alex----

"Shane?" Blake asks the moment Shane gets out of earshot.
I say "He just rushed off to find Ty, that roar was one of pain, we might have to cut this short."
A loud clang echoes through the speaker "Yeah. We may have to." Blake said a second later.
A robotic voice says “Come with us now or we terminate the human." before the line goes dead.

“That didn't sound good. But we had better catch up to Shane and before he gets to far ahead for us to follow.” Jamie nods as I shut the lid on the DDA and tuck it under-arm as we head out into the corridor, it didn't take too long to find Shane, because he was on top of something big. Imagine a elephant crossed with an armadillo, give it two trunks with spikes on the tip and a set of downward pointing tusks like that on a saber tooth tiger... the second thing I noticed was Ty knocked against a wall, dizzied and confused, the thing must have quite a punch to take him out.

Shane roars as he drives his knife into the creatures back, I hear the shell break, but then a massive amount of electricity surges from his arms into the blade... the creature jerks and roars in it's own high-pitched method that made me cringe, the thing starts bucking and twisting to get Shane off, he had nothing to really hold onto except his knife, but that slips out and he goes rolling, he recovers from it and was about to roast the thing with his built-in flamethrower, but then a streak of blue light hits the thing in the head, and it abruptly falls over, alive, but KO at the same time... We all look to see where the shot came from and see an person there... correction, an alien. She was blue skinned and had hooves for feet, a futuristic pistol in her hands. The first thing Shane does after seeing her is put his knife up and checking on Ty.
“Hey, you alright?” He says to Tyler as the alien lowers her pistol and starts walking down the corridor towards us. Ty shakes his head and groans “That hurt like hell, but i'm okay... I guess.” He rolls onto his feet and gets up, flaring his wings to get any kinks that happened when he hit the wall. I walk up and hand him his DDA “Here, I don't need it anymore.” He thanks me and straps it around his forearm.

By now the alien had gotten within talking distance. She says a few words that we couldn't understand... except for Jamie who seemed to understand perfectly since she translates for us “Her name is Mid'ana, and she's going to put us into the psychic web.
First thing I think when I hear that is psychic web?
-Yes, it's a far easier way to communicate without language barriers.- I hear the feminine voice in my head and realize it's Mid'ana's.

-Well this is new- Comes from out of nowhere, it sounded like Shane, but had a deeper edge to it... Zael.- Shane mentally tells Zael to shut it, but apparently he wasn't having any of it... did Shane really have to deal with this guy for twenty years?

“Yes I have Alex.” Shane says with an annoyed look on his face.

A small zapping sound later I hear a mental roar, something happened to Zael, the source obviously being Mid'ana when she scolds him with -You will speak only when spoken to, do you understand parasite?- And it's above a scold... I hear Zael mentally say -Why does everyone have to be hating on m- RAGGGH!- Another zapping sound and Mid'ana gets out the punishment threat -Or would you prefer to sit locked in the ship's computer for the rest of your existence?- He stays silent after that.

-Now since that has been dealt with, May I welcome you aboard the Elipisis?- she 'says' suddenly all the hate directed at Zael leaving her mind... must have big issues with split personality stuff.
Jamie is the one who responds with a kind -Thank you Mid'ana, I believe you know why we are here?-

-Yes, or most of it, the anomaly on the planet is fighting with the magnetic propulsion over the magnetosphere, that will end with disaster if it's not stopped... However things here a more complicated than you might have seen. If you follow me I can tell you on the way.- More complications? Just my day. She starts leading us through the corridors, explaining that there was a pirate on board, which Blake and the others had run into... the story she told wasn't a happy one.

-This Price... he came onto this ship for slaves. Almost everyone was in cryo-sleep at the time and there was almost nothing to stop him. As it went on the crew died one by one, not one submitting to him... until one managed to activate the emergency system, he diead in the process, but he was able to get me and.... others awake.- The word 'others' was fraught with emotion... the way it sounded was like she was very close to them.
After a few turns we end up back at the cargo bay... I don't remember going up any stairs or anything... weird, but things could be odder. Though Shane realizes something...

-The others... would one of them happen to have been the captain?- She stops dead and turns toward him -You have seen my mother?- Her joy was barely hidden... I saw both Jamie and Shane's expression darken... oh, not good.

Jamie breaks the news -Mid'ana... She is gone.- I see her eye twitch, and feel a wave of sadness that is quickly drawn in

-Please tell me how.- Was her almost silent words... Jamie recounts the story, Mid'ana didn't take the story well, but it was better than some others would have taken it... something was scratching in the back of my mind, like I was forgetting something.

-At least she didn't fall to that monster Price.- She hadn't cried yet, but you could tell she was close to it... Then Ty, even though he seemed depressed to hear what happened, suddenly brightened like he had the greatest idea.

-If you're the captain’s daughter...- He reaches into the bag tied to his shoulder and pulls out the control crystal... how could I not remember that?

-Would this help?- He says holding out for her to see. The moment she sees it her eyes widen -Where did you find this?- She asks while taking it out of his hand.

-Oh I found it on top of a pile of crates, thrown up there by your mom I guess to keep Price from getting his hands on it.-

-That sounds like her alright.- She gets a look of concentration on her face and the crystal lets out a loud chime and a small glow -Let's see about getting your friends here.- And the crystal lets of a smaller chime, as a trapdoor in the ceiling opens...

I keep replaying the scene in my mind, with his words and his actions. The people were milling around, ignorant to the tense scene several seconds ago, something about him was off, and it was more than just the fact that he's a shifter like me, or that he's my age... maybe actually younger.

The chill hadn't left my spine since he had said the last sentence and made that creepy departure tactic of blending into the crowd.

I still had time left.... maybe just under three hours, until I could get a look at all those files that I took off their servers. I lean away from the table and keep watch at the crowds in my vision, his words had made me paranoid, just them knowing that I was alive was bad enough, but to know where I was and have someone like that keep watch? Damn nightmare was what it was.

I sigh and stand, no point in being here for now, but... I was going to go buy something before I left for "home" so that if certain issues arise they'll be taken care of. I advance up the levels of the mall until I find that one shop that had sported  the EVO modified clothing, it looked like it was a combo store, it sold about half of what I was going to buy, but the other half had regular clothes that I had seen just about everybody in here wearing, The manager was sitting behind the counter with his IAP out, watching something on it.

There was already a few people in the store, maybe five, six? with only one of them in the EVO section, his hood pulled up over his head with his back turned to me... though I couldn't see his face, his wings gave away what he was, with maybe a peregrine falcon from the the coloring of the primary and secondary feathers, have to see his face to be sure... but I wasn't here to figure that out, I just need one shirt and a pair of pants.
I get a odd look when I step into the section from the EVO, but no one else noticed me. Ever conscious of his gaze... he was a hawk by the way, I work quick, luckily I had checked and know my size, and grab a set of black cargos with a black zipper set on the legs and one running up the back for a tail to fit through if it's opened, it blended in well enough to not be noticed on first glance, which was good enough for me, I forget about the shirt and realize that the jacket back at the house would do fine, considering I have no wings when I shift into draconic form. I had to go past the hawk EVO to get to the counter, and just when I thought he wasn't going to say anything...

"You have a stalker you know." his voice suffered badly from the beak, but his vocal cords worked fine enough for me to hear exactly what he said... and I know full well who the stalker was.

"Sleeveless black trenchcoat with armor underneath?" I ask to him, not turning toward the window where the guy obviously was lounging.

He makes a short nod his brown eyes not even making eye contact "Who did you piss off to have him sent after you?"

"Someone persistent and annoying." I say as I head for the counter again. I was sure the EVO was still wondering about me as the guy on the counter set the IAP down, it still projecting a movie. He makes a small motion with his hand, and I scan the tag on the counter, the price shows up and I pay, he wasn't even really paying attention, just did a quick glance and he okay's the purchase, I kept expecting him to say something about it or such... but no. I just grab the folded pants and keep them tucked under arm as I turn back and see the guy still there, leaning backwards against the railing, acting like he was engrossed by something going on his IAP.    

I walk up to him, and look out over the railing "You know, you are really starting to grind on my nerves and making me paranoid."
He chuckles "I have that effect on people, except for the paranoid part, you're just getting paranoid because you thought you were free and clear... though we government experiments tend to be paranoid anyway." And I score a hit, he's an experiment too, though I wonder why he's helping them.
"Speaking of government experiments... what terrible horrors did they inflict on you?" I see something twitch in his cheek and know that he didn't exactly sign up for this.
"Ah, something must have happened, otherwise you would have just answered." his neck tenses like he wants to say something, and I notice the scar on the back of his neck, it was well healed, barely noticeable, but alas it was there and I take a mental picture, might come in handy later.

"Maybe, maybe not. But then again you wouldn't need to know... oh look, entertainment." I look at him, then around at the surroundings, I hear several people running and look toward the sound. I see someone in a black hoodie, which had the hood up, obscuring the kids face, must have been ten or so, the others chasing them however, were in their teens, maybe sixteen at most. The kids were shouting after the one kid, complete with hooting and the word EVO, I draw conclusions and know that the kid hadn't done a damn thing wrong, but the others were after him just the same. They were getting closer by the second, and the kid was losing ground quickly.   I glance over to the guy and see he wasn't smiling at all, he was stone faced, punctuated by his mirrored sunglasses. They had only a few seconds before they passed, I make a quick decision that might have some serious consequences, and trip the lead teen with a casually outstretched foot.

He goes sprawling across the polished tile floor, tripping one of his buddies close behind him. It was funny to see them sliding across the ground, his friends leap over them and stop, turning to help them up, the leader waves them off, he gets up, pissed.

"Watch were you stick your feet next time!" The EVO had stopped too, he looked back and I could see the fear in his eyes... he was a EVO, cat species if I was right, he realizes that he should be running right now and takes off... I needed to keep their attention so I say...

"Watch were you're running next time." I note that the guy had mysteriously disappeared, need to find a name for him, because calling him guy all the time isn't going to work. I note the pissed of reaction from the kid, who get's up in my face, I resisted the urge to knock him out...

"Who the hell do you think you are? Can't you see we were trying to teach that EVO a lesson?" Hate suddenly boils into the back of my mind, this kid was seriously asking for a painful lesson himself. I realize that my hand was starting to crush the railing so I let go.

I lean up close, he takes a step back, slowly, my stone gaze meeting his suddenly nervous eyes. "Lesson? All I saw was a young kid running from a bunch of people who don't know what they're dealing with."

"And just what are we dealing with?" He says angrily, i could see his friends bristle, ready to back up the punk if tried to fight me, which case they would also get the living tar beaten out of them.

"Hey guys I found the..." I knew that voice, I turn and look, and it was the kid from McDonald’s, standing there holding the EVO by the collar at his side, the moment he say me, he immediately let go, but neither of the kids ran.
"You..." I start, let out a small and cold laugh "These are your friends? Didn't I give you advice to pick new ones?" I look back at the surprise on the leader of the groups face, good moment to remember.

"Abe, you know this guy?" He says over to him and I see "Abe" face start to go chalky white "Guys, you don't know who he is."

"He look back to me "Really? And just who would be stupid eno..." At that moment, the dog-tags around my neck decided to fall the rest of the way out of my shirt and dangle in-front of them. I see all the kids faces turn white, which is kind of odd considering the dark tan that some of them had.

The lead kid starts stumbling over his words "I ah, we... so sorry sir." Sir? The moment they find out I used to be in the military they get all respectful? What the hell, might as well use it to my advantage and get a point across.

"Oh, so it's sir now, a second ago you were about to try and take a swing at me, now you look like your going to run away screaming...  know' what? Let me just make my point the you can do that." I take a slow breath to calm down and continue "Listen, leave EVO's alone, hurting them will always come back to bite you in the ass, metaphorically and possibly literally, the only EVOs you should be hateful of are the ones fighting in the middle of this war, they are the worst of the EVOs and would kill you in a second if they had the chance." I thought i had screwed up in the middle of it, but i think I did good enough.

"Now go, before I decide to break something... except you." I point a finger in Abe’s direction, and i could have sworn he died on the spot, the way his skin went pale, and how still he went. His friends were still scared but left past Abe, i could hear one of them say "Nice knowing you." before they left him alone, and the EVO, who was looking at me wide-eyed. The kid steps up nervously, and I decide to say something...

"Mind telling me why you hang out with that crowd? Wait, forget that, What the hell do you have against that EVO?"

"I... I-"
Cut him off with "Nothing. That's what I thought, listen very closely to what I say next. You find new friends, leave EVOs alone unless you making fiends with them,  and get rid of that straggly punk look, now get out of my sight." He all but runs in the opposite direction of his friends." I have to take another slow breath to keep the anger surge in check. I place the music back on and start hearing instrumental music play in the background, still able to hear all that's going on.

"Thanks." I look and see the EVO standing there, looked somewhat happy that I kept those kids away from him.
"No problem, we share a little plight it seems." I turn one of my eyes draconic when I make sure that no one but him was watching, the eye turns back as his widen "Also, did you actually do anything to them?"
"Um, when they cornered me i kind of made a few cuts on one of their arms and knocked one down before running."

"Self defense then, why are you around here alone?" He looks around "I'm not." I see someone come out of the crowd a few dozen meters off, his T-shirt and jeans letting everyone see that he was an EVO, though I could barely tell what kind. He was like a combo of an insect and a lizard, and I mean that in every sense, his snout was oddly split into four sections, and was hardened looking and such, dark green in color with scales running up his neck and arms, clawed hands, and what looked like dreadlocks of long, spines which I think were antennae, i think that's what caused people to edge away from him. Other details like his eyes were hidden behind modified sunglasses.

"Always finding trouble aren't we Mo?" He says with a small series of clicks, which somewhat annoyed and creeped me out.
"Not my fault." he says in his defense
"You're right, but specists are everywhere, you know that, that's why I tell you to stay with one of the others, every time you didn't, something like this happens, you're lucky enough to have someone stood up for you." He looks to me "Thanks for that, it's rare to find someone willing to go out of their way for us, especially if they're military."

"No problem." The kid gets the attention of the guy and whispers something to him, The most I hear is "EVO" out of the sentence, the his facial expression was hard to read, partly because of the mandibles, and because I couldn't see his eyes. He nods after "Mo" was finished, and straightens up before addressing me...

"Sorry to cut this short, but we have to go and get his sisters." I nod and they walk off... wonder what was going through his head? I leave the mall and enter the parking garage, I find my bike still there and i grab the helmet out, get an idea at the last second and put the pants in the compartment. I remember how i messed with the settings and deliver a swift kick to the side, and the kinetic force causes the mobius generator to come online.

Soon enough I arrive home, taking a mixed route to hopefully keep him from following me if he tried, and enter my floor. The door to the actual flat didn't take nearly as long to open this time, sliding open after barely a seconds contact. I toss the pants into the drawer and check the decryption progress... still a hour and a half to go.  This is going to be agonizing waiting for it to finish. With nothing better to do... I sit on the couch and start the next journal that Shane had put in... placed several months after the one before.

"The acronym S.S.D.D takes a new meaning after a while, fight these people, take this city, fall back after city comes under attack, reclaim it... just a bunch of definitive bullshit, exactly zero progress on any side for winning this."

Several explosions and gunfire erupt in the distance, then Shane continues "And there it starts again, we've been shoved into a defensive position in Bangkok for a few days now, suffering attacks from the Alterists, each time they get closer and closer to getting here, tomorrow i'm going to talk sense into the CO, and hopefully save our lives, because no reinforcements are coming to save our ass." The gunfire and explosions, now accompanied by roars and screams start getting farther away.

"On another sad note, i found out my uncle died Monday, heart failure they say. He always worked hard in a demanding job, so it goes to figure, same thing happened to my grandfather. With my uncle gone the only family i have left are the people i barely know."

A snarl sounds over in the recording, before Shane curses and a gunshot rings out, followed by the thump of something big hitting the ground "My day just keeps getting worse, EVO's are starting to get past the lines, and this one ruined my reflective moment..." He sighs and continues "Seems like i've stepped into the worst situation a soldier can ask for... but i intend to survive this."

Personal Journal of Shane Smith entry four

END OF RECORDING.

That was interesting... yet sad, he's fighting in a war he obviously doesn't approve of, but circumstance does that to us. I turn on the TV with a mental thought and switch it through channels, until I come across a TV series involving aliens and some group of soldiers called Spartans. The show was really interesting, they obviously hated each other at points, but still managed to work together enough to stop a thermonuclear bomb from destroying a important interplanetary space station. After it was over I check the decryption... finally it was done. The moment I open up the files, there was way too much to fit on Aurora's projection, so I wipe the TV's projection and put it up there, barely a fourth of the file clusters showed up on it anyway.

"Let's see what they've been doing..." I select a file labeled [C-V-127] which was the first in the entire lineup. A series of logs and photos show up, I see a picture of a cell... the odd thing was that it had two nuclei... I listen to the audio log for it.

"The idea always existed for EVO cells to have a second nucleus, holding the DNA of the desired animal inside..." I realize Darwin is the one saying this.
"However whenever a cell is modified with the draconic genes and planted into a host, there is complete lack of control on the host, rapid multiplication of both forms of DNA caused horrific mutation and eventually expiration of the host. "The photo was actually a video, and I see a second slide pop up, showing what he described, it was like cancer, splitting into dozens into seconds, but that wasn't it, the cells were deformed looking, and some had problems dividing, leaving them like a tumor on the other cell...

"However, one of my colleagues gave the thought of giving time for the cells to adapt, or rather, let the cells grow into a host. We've decided to begin cloning and place the human DNA within these modified cells, along with sets of slightly altered dragon's DNA... hopefully this will produce the first ever dragon hybrids, or even possibly shifters."

The file ends and I have to go to the next, this one had a date, several months later, this time it shows nothing, but is just a audio recording...

"It is either luck or fate this project has made it so far, out of one-hundred and fifty clones, only twenty survived to this stage, and of those half are showing signs of exceptional adaptation to the cells, however mental stability is a big concern at this point. We have begun the finer points of cloning technology and are modifying the hosts to be a physically original to the cell donors, through muscle stimulation and more... even when put to a fingerprint or DNA scanner they show no signs of difference. I have begun monitoring one particular subject, subject 102-V is the most promising along with three others close behinds, whom are being monitored by other scientists, though their methods are extreme, they get results."

END OF LOG.

I sit there and look and the files with a stone expression... out of a hundred and fifty? And three others? Wonder what it will be next... the third log starts, labeled a month later.

"And now only five are left, when the tanks open they showed signs of insanity and the feral instincts dominant in all base dragon EVO's, and the two still showing promise are the V duo, and their dragon DNA, we've decided to crack 102's tank today and i handed the project to Bryer, I have doubts about him taking lead on this one, but i'm going to monitor the sole survivor of the VI batch, and see what can be done about him, today he
took out several guards in an attempt to escape."

It shows a video of a particular person, and he knew what he was doing, a guard get's chopped in the throat and another gets tossed into the ceiling, he picks up a gun and was about to take off when someone I knew ends his attempt, Locke clamps an arm around EVO's neck and does a prime choke-hold, he fights for a good minute before going still, and thrown into his... cell? They were using cells on him? I remember the look on the kid, because I saw him that one day a long time ago, back when the first ran tests on me.

END OF RECORDING

I look at the video again, it was him, only younger, and he was helping them now? I Keep looking through files, the one i was looking through held much of my life inside the facility, and most of it went through what I already knew or had guessed correctly at... then I got to subject 101-V's files, the first one was of him being brought from the tank, the moment he fell out the same scene from my time happened, only the guard happened to be an EVO, which promptly slung him over his shoulder and almost curb-stomped him before the scientist activates something and the EVO gets a powerful shock and drops to the floor beside him, then the tranq gas comes in,  and the feed goes blank, the narrative follows, giving a basic mental assessment, this time given by somebody else.

"Basic defensive and predatory instincts, though subject shows no signs of the draconic savagery present in the others, i'm not going to take chances." And that was it, cut out. I lean back, When I saw the kid's face, because it belonged to the one EVO that had been sitting across from me not four hours ago.

I keep going through the files, he had it a lot, lot worse than I did. I saw videos of him being forced to fight several EVO's at once, shock floors, days without food, even having to recover from some serious wounds... what I saw made me shudder, but then I come across something interesting...

"Subjects shifting abilities are far better than we hoped for, the same as subject 102's system, he can control the mitosis of the dragon DNA embedded in the second nucleus, however we've found out that it can be pushed to the entirety of dragon." It shows him in a fight with three wolf EVOs but i see him, and about become rigid, he looked exactly like me, except for the eyes, which were red. he takes several blows and goes flying by a tag team attack from two that acted like they were twins or something, he gets pissed and let's out a roar... then something loud cracks and he falls to all fours, I could see something change drasticly, mainly his size, but then out came a pair of avian like wings just as black as his scales, they ripped from his back, fully formed, and he had a massive look of surprise on his face, the exact same goes on the faces of the EVOs he was fighting. He concentrates and his size grew drastically, becoming the giant in the room, needless to say, bad things happened to the EVOs... I listen to the rest of the recording.
"It is presumable that subject 102 can also perform this change, however Darwin has prevented the proper stimulus from being applied. We will continue to monitor the subject in hopes of finding the limits to his shifting ability."

Then came the last recording... done like all the others by the unknown person...

"As per request of the board, they have decided to start the use of subject 101 in enforcement, however he has proven to be resourceful, and so far has disabled seven con-collars, i've had the techs working on a solution, so far they have given a good failsaife, a neuro-capsule has been implanted into the back of his neck by the spinal column, if he tries to dig for it he will end up severing his spinal cord, and if he doesn't follow our orders the capsule can shock or even detonate, and that's that... we've even added a connection, we can see what he sees and hear what he hears, giving us a good control method."

END OF RECORDING

I flashback and remember the little scar on his neck, that must be where it was put in, and now I know he isn't doing this willingly, though he seemed to enjoy what he was doing... though it was going to take some though on how to solve this problems... I quickly scroll down to see the rest of the files "Subject cell control details" "losses tally" "EVO combat analysis"  "Overview" Overview... that might have something good in it, I click on the file, and get a report...

OVERALL SUCCESS RATE: 1.5 PERCENT

SURVIVOR GENES 100% COMPATIBLE

Though the death rate was high the overall goal of the project has been achieved, a successful pairing has been achieved, all three subjects have been marked, and the pairs can be sent along to project Chimaera for further use. It is recommended using some form of control as the subjects are more than likely to exhibit the strong free-will of any human individual.

Surviving subjects have all been placed in desired testing scenarios, 101 is performing enforcement and termination duty, 102 is holding in the militarized command, and subject 70 has begun integration into an Alterist controlled city.

As per your request we have begun procedures to obtain more viable dragon DNA combinations.

END OF REPORT

The report had several holograms attached to it, each of our physical appearance both human and dragon, the third one was of a girl, dark skinned, light build, wearing street clothes with long black hair in a ponytail, she wasn't as scarred as we both were, but then I look at her draconic form, vibrant orange scales with a red edges on the scales running up the back, along with wings... bat like with a solid white membrane. Four claws on each hand and foot, the tail had spikes running from the tip pointing outward all the way up to the front of her head, ending like a small mohawk above her hair, which had remained.

And now there was a third one, only 101 had his quadruped picture up there. This was bringing more questions... what was project Chimaera? And what did it have to do with dragon/human DNA pairs? I sigh and shut off the display, I could get to figuring that out, after I've dealt with 101, but to do that, I was going to need a surgeon.

I get up off the couch and start pacing around the room, flicking through aurora's menus until I find search queries... surgeons... only one left, and he was out of practice, everything involving surgery was handled remotely or automatically by machines... let's see, a human could keep a secret, where's his address?  I pull it up, he was living in the suburban district.

Just as i was about to leave my stomach decides to say "I'm hungry!" I sigh, better eat now, because I might not have a chance later once i start this. I raid the fridge and see what i could make, one thing i didn't know was how to cook, maybe if I tried recall might decide to pop in and help, but not risking trial and error right now, so a few devoured pizzas later I almost walk out into the garage, until I remember the pants, might be worth taking them if 101 guesses at what i'm about to do, I change into them and fit the jacket over my shirt and zip it up all the way, good thing it was November, otherwise it might be odd wearing it around.

I start the bike and get out onto the street, the GPS steering me to the suburbs... the area was much more extravagant looking than the apartment blocks, they actually had yards, filled with trimmed green grass... most of the time anyway, a few had foreclosed signs and others look like they had collapsed from a fire or explosion. I arrive at the house of the guy... halfway decent, though the grass is in need of a chainsaw. I stow the helmet and walk up to the door, I had a bad feeling but oh well. I hit the doorbell and find out it didn't work, because I didn't hear anything, so I knock on the door... and get a less than friendly greeting.

"What is it?" He says as he yanks open the door, mid-forties with graying hair and bad stubble, I could smell the alcohol, though he definitely didn't seem drunk right now.

"Terry Keys?" I ask, trying to act unfazed, don't think it worked.

"Of course I am, now again, what do you want?" I think he was on the verge of slamming the door in my face.

"Someone who can do surgery."  He gets taken back by the blunt statement, then he recovers with a angry glint in his eye.

"Then go to the hospital." And he tries to shut the door, good thing to have steel-toed shoes.

"Not for what I want done." This get's his attention... he huffs and says "Fine then, come in." And that's when I’m surprised, just like that?

I step inside and see his house actually was in moderate shape, just like the yard, it wasn't spotless, but it wasn't exactly dirty either, he shuts the door behind me, three locks that I didn't notice before are solidly put into place and he asks...

"So where is the tracer located?" Ah, makes sense, can't work publicly so he does the private jobs, tracers are placed on certain people, mainly used by law enforcement to keep a hold on criminals should they decide to be around a particular crime scene at one point in time... kind of sad when advances in technology rob you of your job and force you to do things you'd rather not do.

"My job isn't a tracer, though it's close to that, well, how good are you when it comes to taking something out of a person's neck?"

"Not a tracer? What is it that's being taken out then? And I can take it out if it isn't in too deep."

"How about an explosive, small capsule lightly tuned to the nervous system, planted almost in-between the vertebrae?"

He gets a look on his face that clearly said "Who'd you piss off?" But he decides to say "I don't know about it, head into the living room." A TV, couple chairs and a coffee table with several bottles of vodka on it, I sit on the lone chair farthest from the other two. He keeps standing and fixes me with a glare.

"I ran a scan the moment you went through the door, you don't have what you're talking about on or in your person, so tell me what the hell you are doing before you drag me into it." And I think that  this is going to be much harder than I thought.

“You want me to be blunt or should I sugar-coat it?”

“The former.” He says coldly, arms crossed.

“I'll probably end up bringing an unconscious EVO into your home to have the capsule surgically removed from his neck, possibly bringing the wrath of the government down upon  you in the process.”

He doesn't even act surprised “That's it? I have people bringing in unconscious persons all the time, EVOs are just a little more iffy, because of all that anatomy changes that are present.”

“So this isn't a problem for you?” I ask

“Actually no, but you'd better be able to pay.”

“What would be the price?”

“All costs considered... maybe around a good fifty thousand creds, give or take a hundred or so.” I lean back in the chair, I expected it to cost a good deal more.

“Done. You want it now? Or-”

He shakes his head “You're new to this aren't you? Small payments will be withdrawn from your account over the course of several months, making sure it doesn't attract the wrong kind of attention.” New to it I was, but it figured, score one stupid question on my part.

“Well, how long will it take you to get set up?”

“Ten minutes, maybe less if I had incentive to work faster, but safety comes first, I take it you're going to use my services?” He had is arms uncrossed now, clasped behind his back like a businessman.

“That I am, will you take the payment after you get the capsule out?”

“Obviously not, though you can pay before the operation begins, also, no refunds, no exceptions.”

“Fine with me... you had better get set up, I’ll be coming in with the patient soon.”

“You're going to go and get him now? Forget I asked, i'll be ready.” He hits a slide hidden on the wall as a floor-to-ceiling mirror and it slides open to show a small room and a operating table and cabinets of supplies used in operations, morphine and such. “I'll leave the front door unlocked, bring him in here when you get inside... and try not to let anyone see you drag the guy into the house, have enough rumors going around as is.” He walks into the little operation room and the mirror slides shut behind him. I stand up and head outside, hopefully it won't be hard to find 101, since he's supposed to be monitoring me, I walk up to my bike and kick-start it, I was about to get on when I hear a click and feel the cold presence of a gun being pointed at my head... then the person speaks.

“And just what are you up to?” And I couldn't believe my luck, it was 101, I glance back and see the handgun and him, not a foot away, the gun aimed straight for my head... he continues speaking “Because, it's safe to say that you're up to no good, also by the way? The board want's you brought back... and i'm going to take you there alive... or mostly dead.”

Tylers transformation continues as scales had started rippling across his skin as he fell on his side. The scales were thick, too big for a "normal" anthro dragon, his clothes had already started to rip and his shoes were already decimated. That's when something unexpected happened.

He stares at me from amber eyes flecked with gold near the pupil, which had begun to shift as his muscles started to grow... and his bones broke and reformed. His clothes shredded within seconds as his size doubled, and his body grew wings and a  tail. I look and see that his hands had lost their thumb and wicked looking claws grew from the rest of his fingers. It suddenly dawns on me what's happening... he's becoming a full dragon. Then I think "OH  **** he's becoming a full dragon!" I back away more as his tail finishes into a two tip style with a spike out of each end, and his body stops lenghtening and the muzzle finishes. I look back at his eye, it was tearing badly... and he now had a draconic pupil. With a final CRACK the bones finish the quadroped skeletal structure and he slumps and goes still.

At first I thought the transformation had killed him but then I see his chest rise and fall slowly. I walk around to the head and see that his eyes were closed, "not dead, just KO'ed" I thought. I figure it's a good time to measure and start from his tail and pace him out at around 19 feet long, and if his head size is anything to go by he was around 14 to 15 feet high. His first set of horns grew back and then curled into tusks, which were buried in the dirt. The second set of horns grew straight and true along his skull before ending at the neck. The ears were like mine, elongated and rotated to a 45 degree angle. A double row of spikes started on his spine right between the wings and went all the way down where they stopped at the beginning of his tail. The wing membrane was amber just like his new eyes.

I suddenly realize how I was when I had finished, tired, starving, and thirsty. "Oh this is going to turn up badly" I say as i run into the kitchen and open the pantry. After raiding it and finding 3 giant-sized cans of fruit, which were mandarin oranges, sliced pinapple, and pear halves... How does my dad get these things? I run outside hoping he was an omnivore like me. Finding him still out cold I saw the cans lids open with my claws and set them down. "Better wake him now rather than wait" I think while approaching his head. I would have just snapped my fingers near his ears but my claws got rid of that option, so I crouch near his ear and do the stupidest thing in my life... Shout WAKE UP into his ear.

His eye snaps open, staring right into mine... his were glassy, with an almost wild look in it, All i could think was "Uh oh" before...

WHUMP

He backhands me, sending me flying backwards across the ground, I end up rolling several times, feeling the bones in my wings pop with each revolution until i plant my claws in the dirt and skid the last few meters on my plates. I was really hurting from that, There was several cuts along my body from the roll but i was lucky that my wings weren't broke or torn, i try to get up and end up falling on one knee, i was still reeling from the hit. I hear a growl and look up to see tyler advancing towards me in predator stance, front half lowered almost to the ground with the other end tensed and ready. I think about my options... if i run for the house he'll pounce and tear me to shreds, if i charge he pounce and use his weight to crush me, if I stay where I was he might not jump, but could just slash at me with his claws... I was royally screwed.

He kept advancing... 5 meters... 3 meters... I knew I was gonna die. Suddenly he stops and starts sniffing the air, his head snaps to the opened cans of food... and suddenly i'm no longer there to him. He walks over to the cans and picks one up in his maw, downs the contents, drops the now empty can and does the same with the other two. He belched, which had more of an growl to it and shakes his head some before turning to me.

"Why are you so small?" I let out a held breath and start thanking every deity that i could think of that Tyler was back. Unfortunately he soon realized that he wasn't anthro... or bipedal, and as figured for something like this he starts freaking out.

"OH MY GOD! What the hell!?" he said turrning and looking at his body.

"Exactly what i'm thinking! Calm down before you start demolishing things."

His head whips back at me "CALM DOWN!? I'm a full sized... dude your bleeding, what happened?" Most of the cuts had stopped bleeding by now as I recap what had went down. It calmed him down, but now he was depressed from finding out he attacked his best friend.
"But what if I end up like that again? I could wind up killing a lot of people, you included." My mind goes into overdrive and I start pulling together a good guess as to why it happened. I figure that since humans lose vital resouces like food and water they progresseively lose energy, eventually leading to death. But for dragons... their mind is affected first, progressively shutting down reason and complex thought and start to let base instincts take control until the needs are satisfied. It made sense, given the fact that I didn't maul my parents when my transormation was done because my needs weren't as great as Tyler's when he woke up.

I explain this to him and his mood lightens a little... until his stomach signals it's hunger. He gets a worried look and was about to say something, but i did not want him to bring himself down, so i cut him off with...

"Relax, your not going to turn feral this early. Besides your not the only one who's hungry... think you can wait a few minutes without leveling the yard?"

"Haha, very funny shane." Sarcasm thick on his voice as he lays down by the oak tree. Heading inside I grab the remaining pizzas out of the fridge, fit two whole pizzas onto a single plate and nuke it, take it out and microwave the last pizza for me. I walk out to see him carving "Tyler wuz here" onto the oak tree with his claw.
"Man... that's childish, even for you." Holding out his plate.
"Needed something to do... pizza!" He holds out his paw and I set the plate on it, he just grips the edges and flips all the slices into his maw.
"Showoff." I say before tearing into a slice.

A couple of minutes later i carry the plates back in and put them in the dishwasher, I was about to walk back outside when i look at the tv, "hmm... what if..." thinking this I sidestep outside and look over to the window that connects the living room to the backyard, it was those kind that open outward, there was no divider in the middle so someone human sized could leap through... or something draconic size can put it's head in. I walk over, stack the chairs and slide them in between the door and window. Tyler asks what I was doing but i didn't answer, just plant my talons on the grill and give it a little kick, just enough to move it out of the way. Heading back inside, i open the windows all the way out and tell tyler to try and fit his head in.

"Why?" he asks, raising an eye ridge

"So you can see the tv, what else?" I back up as he tries to fit his head in... and his tusks impale themselves on the frame. He pulls out and tries again, this time angling his head upwards to avoid hitting the bottom frame, he manages to fit his head in... barely. I pick up and move the recliner over to the wall and set it there as Tyler lays his head on the floor.

"So... what are we watching?" Tyler said with a bored tone...sadly it sounded just like the voice I always use.

"Well, news time I guess..." I check the major news channels and hit something on the second try.

"Reports confirm that the liquid contained within the vials delivered earlier today cause a drastic physical change in the recipients when ingested. A current tally indicates that  over 45 million people in the U.S. under the age of 25 and counting have recieved the vials, and least half have ingested the liquid." He gets a look on his face that he's about to make a announcement that seems impossible for him.

"We... have obtained photos of those affected and we have been given permission to display these. The following pictures have not been edited or enhanced in any way." As a slide show of dragons started of both anthro and full... but there were more, drakes, flemmies, dragotaurs, and even a photo of a hydra were shown, most look like they were taken by phones and webcams, but a few had been shot with a high res camera. The slideshow goes on for another five minutes before it switches back to the studio. The anchorman was just dead white, guess that was his first time seeing them... honestly I thought he'd be speechless from it but he recovers and continues.

"As you can see the changes... are drastic, It is recommended that caution be used around the recently changed..." Then he starts rattling off things we already knew. After a while he says "More as the situation develops." as I switch over channels and end up on the show modern marvels.

"Well the dragons out of the bag now, so what do we do?" I ask tyler

"I can think of a few things" Tyler get's an evil grin and I know he's got something fun planned, but then he remembers something.

"Why don't you go tell your mom about this before we start the fun? " As he backed his head out the window. I figure it's a good idea and head up and knock on her door.

"Come in."

"Hey mom, whatchya doing?" like i thought she was on the laptop, but she was on facebook instead of the news websites.

"Checking up on everyone." She had a lot of her people from past jobs and such as friends on facebook so it stands that she would check up on em'.

"They come out on the news about what the vials do..." she looks up at me as I said it.

"How did it go?"

"Mainly about the effects, but they showed some pictures of people who took it, and pretty much listed everything we already know... Um, can I go outside now?" I worried that she wouldn't let me outside until there was no chance of me getting shot, so I was suprised when she said...

"Alright, but don't go to any stores or scare people, also be careful, and I mean it! You come back hurt and I will lock you up in the basement till judgement day." I say thanks and head out the door, as I shut It i think "why didn't she say anything about the cuts?" I check my arms and find not a scratch on them, a smirk creeps on my face... "plus one for draconic healing!" I say as I head out back and find tyler cutting a star around the words he carved earlier.

"You've gotta stop doing that man, anyway what's on our list of things to do Ty?"
He turns to me, "Well, wees gots wings, so why not use 'em?"  as he unfolds his wings some.

"Thats the most awsome idea today!" I step out and stretch my wings with a massive draconic grin on my muzzle as I get a running start, passing him I leap, flap my wings... and get a muzzle-full of dirt. I spit out most of the dirt and groan as Tyler busts up laughing.

"EPIC FIRST FLIGHT FAIL!" He continues laughing as I pick myself up, spit the rest of the dirt out and fold my wings back.

"Like to see you try, ***hole!"

"I will!" as he turns toward the street, leaps over the fence, jumps as he gets to the street and started flying. He hovered for a few seconds before starting to climb in a loose circle. He was leaving me behind! I try a takeoff without running and fall on my tail. I get up and try again, manage to get a few beats off before falling, this time landing into a crouch and leaping up yet again, this time as hard as I could which easily cleared 13 feet and managed to get into a unsteady hover before gaining better control and started a climb after Tyler. Flying was different... but awsome at the same time, there was no feeling out there close to this, i almost was euphoric with excitement from flying. My mood starts to fade as I get to tyler, he hadn't even noticed me approach... The lightbulb above my head dings on, and I gain altitude till i was just out of sight above him, and decend like a hawk upon his head.

'TAG, YOU'RE IT!" I yell as I land, step jump off his snout and race ahead.

"Hey! That how it's gonna be eh?" As he sped after me. I had gotten a decent lead but he was gaining fast... I need a way to dodge him, he was just a few feet behind me now. I flip around and enter a dive, his claws pass inches from my feet as the rest of him roars past. I turn the dive into a climb till I was just under the clouds and enter a hover as Ty circled around and headed full speed towards me. Exiting hover mode, I start a full-on collision course with him. I could see him smile, he knew I was playing chicken, something he would win... but i expected him to, i just needed to get close enough for my plan to work. I start laughing like a maniac as we close in on each other. 50 meters... 40... 30...20... Now! I dive under him and pull up into a hard loop into the clouds, i figure he looked back to see me gone and slowed down to look for me. Using my hearing to pinpoint where he was at, I fly over to him till I was sure where his head was at and again decend like a raptor upon his neck. The way we had played tag when we were younger dictated that only feet and hands could tag... And I figured we were going by those rules again, so I land on his neck, grab a hold of his horns, and start riding.

"Hey! What the- get off!" He bucked and twisted trying to shake me off, but I had too good of a grip on his horns and neck.

"Yeehaw!" Hahaha, this would make an awsome youtube video. Apperently there's a flaw in full dragon anatomy because when tyler tried to tag my leg with his claw he ended up in a dive... and I got a clear look at the ground.

"Holy ****!" Fear hit me like a freight train, Heart tripled it's beat as my gut went to nautious mode, electricity climbed my spine as I held on for dear life. Only my parents knew of my fear of hights, Going up wasn't a problem... but going down could send me to near catatonia. Too bad Tyler loved it, cause he went into a straight nose-dive, and I locked up even worse. Something started growing in size below us, first it was a speck, now a blob... now it was a bird, maybe a hawk based on the colors.

"Still won't let go? Well, lets see if this get's you off!" He shouts and angles onto a course with the bird. When we get close he opens his maw like he was going to devour the bird... but he snaps his jaws shut way to early, angles his head and neck down... which left the bird on a collision course with my face. I didn't even have time to think before...

FWAP

It collides with my muzzle as I let go and pinwheel off tyler, D*** this bird was mean, trying to claw my face to bits! But the unexpected hit caused me to break out of my fear. Disengaging from the hawk's blitz I easily out-distance him, Tyler had already landed in my backyard and was waiting for me, As I came in for landing I saw several people out with their phones or were pointing at me... guess I'm going to be really popular soon. I keep my fear in check long enough to backwing into a landing... and fall on my tail as fear hits one last time.

"You look a liitle freaked out." He looks above me and sees something.

"Hey shane, guess what? Your number one fan has returned!" I look back and see the hawk dive at me, screeching like a demon.

"Whoa!" I roll out of the way as the hawk swooped right into where my head used to be.

The stupid bird swooped around for another attack... and it was getting annoying. I get up and wait for the bird to get close, I dodge again... and the bird heads around for another yet another strafing run. This time I decided to scare it off with a roar, I stand my ground and breath deep... here comes birdie! I tense my neck and feel something pop in my jaw, I paid no mind and let out what I expected to be a massive roar... Only instead I let out a giant streak of white-hot fire! Needless to say... that bird was kentucky fried. I close my mouth and feel another pop in my mouth as I try to comprehend that i had just breathed fire. I start laughing and turn around to see tyler with his jaw hanging wide open.

"Can't believe that i completely forgot that dragons breath fire!" I say as Tyler recovers and says...

"That...was...AWSOME! Do it again!"

I search for a target, the bird had landed a few feet away, but it was charred black from only a 3 second blast... I decide the sky would be the best place to blast because I didn't want to start an inferno in my backyard. I recall what i did, tense neck? Yep I feel something pop in my bottom jaw, more like one on each side as I tense my throat. I rear back take a breath through my nose and let loose... Huh? Instead of a spear of fire I get a jet of liquid that disperses into a yellow gas-like haze several yards away, I hear a snort and turn to see tyler covering his snout with a paw trying not to laugh...unsucessfully. Think! What did you do wrong? tensed throat...hmmm, I have a flashback of when I first breathed fire. I figure it out and tense my entire neck this time, and feel two more pops in the top of my mouth along with the ones on bottom. I look back at the cloud of gas and use it as a target. This time I breath the same white-hot fire i did before, but when it hit the gas...

BOOM

The gas explodes, sending me stumbling back from the force. I open my eyes to see some of  the grass in the yard on fire, while the area below the blast was completely charred to a crisp. That gas was more than 15 feet in the air! And it did this? Closest thing i could come up with that could do an explosion like that was a fuel-air bomb. Tyler was still slack-jawed when my mother came running out of the house.

"Shane! What is goin-" She stops and stares at tyler before turning back to me with a angry look on her face.
"Shane, explain... now." While tyler goes around stomping the fires out I "explain" to mom about tyler, while leaving the feral part out. A few minutes later when I finaly finish the recap, dad comes home and sees tyler.


"What the **** is this?" After explaining everything again he looks over to tyler and asks...


"Shouldn't you call your parents or sister about this?" Tyler then realizes that he forgot about them and his new... situation.

"Um, can somebody get my phone out of my truck?" He looked pale... and that's saying something when it's a giant red dragon.

"I got it." I head for the ford while mom and dad take groceries inside.
I grab his android phone off of the armrest and head back to tyler. He was looking at something in the sky, I follow his gaze and see groups of dragons flying around, some were by themselves while others where in large groups.

I stare a for about minute before speaking up."Looks like we kickstarted the airshow."

He glances over. "Looks like it."I ask him how to unlock the phone and he tells me, I try and find out that claws dont work with touchscreens, I use my knuckle and manage to unlock the phone and speed-dial his parents and put it on speakerphone.

His dad picks up the phone "Yes, Tyler?" I sit back and watch the conversation.

"Hey dad, did you see the news yet?"

"No, they're just starting a recap... hold on." I figure that the slideshow starts in 3...2...1.

There was silence for about fifteen seconds until he comes back with disbelief in his voice "Tyler, didn't you say that Sarah took one of these vials?"

"Um... yeah and... so did I." his head cringes when he says it.

"WHAT!" the voice was so loud it made my ears ring.

"Put your sister on the phone!" You would've had to be brain dead to think he was not PO'ed.

"She's not here, I'm over at Shane's house." Tyler looked like he wished his mom had picked up, and I couldn't blame him, his dad was akin to the hulk when he got angry.

"And you leave you sister alone? ******* in-" I will not go over the details of what happened next but there where some of the most hurtful words I've ever heard said to tyler, near the end of his rant he orders tyler to go home and or never come back. I was border-line enraged by some of the things he said, and Tyler was actually the good kid of the family! He got straight A's, never got into fights, compared to his sister who would sneak out, go to midnight parties, do drugs and worse. Tyler was on the verge of crying from the verbal abuse.


"THAT ****ing prick!" I wanted to hit something... like a brick wall, I was seriously pissed off.

I turn to Tyler "I hear him say that **** to you again and I'll rip his *** to shreds. He doesn't have the right to say that bull**** about you." I take a deep breath to calm down and continue. "Go home, try to work it out... if things go for the worst you'll always have a place here." He mutters his thanks and flies off, I see a tear glint in the light as it fell of Tylers face. I head back inside and crash on the couch on my back with my wings hanging off, I fall into a dreamless sleep in seconds.

How is it that when you think everything has settled into a routine something changes to shatter all that you know? I may never know, but things always change right? Well I wasn't expecting the change that happened today.


It was a normal day, well not normal for me, wake up, get dressed and run around the base for morning exercise, but here's the difference, it was my ninteenth birthday, and I had taken off the next few days to do things... mainly just be lazy. But I get a phone call as I'm walking out after breakfast by someone that I didn't expect.

"Incoming call from: Shyren." Shyren? Hadn't heard from him in months. I accept the call and lobby outside.

"What's up Red?"

"Nothing much Shane, but happy birthday man."

"Thanks, So how's it going with you?"

"Got my job back and got the supervisor fired at the same time, I take it you're still in the airforce?"

I get sarcastic with him "No, I'm a mailroom clerk."

He barks a short laugh "Then you have seriously downgraded my friend. So are you free today?" And there it was.

"Today, tomarrow, and the day after... what have you got planned... or are planning?"

"Talked to the old group today, thinking about getting back together and doing something... but we don't know what it is yet." Ah, so that's what it was.

"Alright, hmm... haven't played paintball in a while, how about a local outing?"

"Hold on, that got rid of Corey and ninja Cody, everybody else is good though, which field you want to go to?" I think on it, there was only one official place we could go to... unless.

"You know where Pink is right?"

"Of course, it's only ten miles away, but there's no fields there."

"You're right, there isn't any, but a few miles down highway nine is one, there's also a Sonic that we can all meet at."

"That sounds... good, still need a time to meet though."
"One o' clock should work, the chill should have lessened and all you summer bugs can stop shivering. And before I go, do you still have my old gear?"

"Sure, it's sitting in my closet, We lost Jimmy on the time thing though, he was hoping it would be in the morning."

"Are you on facebook with them?"

"Yeah, still not using yours are you?"

"Nope, I only went on facebook for one thing, and I got bored of it fast enough, try skype or something else."

"Well, besides that see you at the Sonic?"

"I'll see you first Red. So see ya." I hang up after his goodbye, a little smirk lighting up my face, it was rare for me to get out and do anything with friends... mainly due to scheduling and such. I start to walk away and something glints in the corner of my eye, I look and see it was only the window, but my reflection showed clear enough, 5" 4' with short dark brown hair and a heavy five o' clock shadow, sad green eyes stared back at me, and everything else was clothes, the black cotton jacket and blue jeans, along with black steel-toed boots. I had nothing to do so getting outside base would be good. I walk back to the dorms and my room in specific, I grab my full head helmet, black with blue lines running up the back in parallel and stop at the visor. I walk out and slide the helmet on after walking up to my bike, the old Ducotti was a 2002 model, but it still looked good, blue with a black line running in a sear pattern across the body. I hop on and start her up, I let it warm up as I check the time... 7:42. I had a lot of time to burn. I drive out and head into the city.

I stop at an intersection as the light turned red, I feel someone get very close behind me and look to see a dodge charger, I hated it when people got this close, the biggest problem about riding a motorcycle, higher chance of being run over, hit, and just general wrecks... and it was almost always the other person. Then my day get's worse when a chevy camero pulls up beside me and the guy sits there with his window down blasting some rap sh**, not only that he was looking at me and revving his engine. I couldn't help but think "Is this guy serious?" Because it's just stupid what he's trying to do. He didn't notice a cop car pull up into a parking space on the right of the intersection behind a van, I could see the guy from here, eyeing us both with that "Make my day." frown on his face, his partner was texting... typical.

The guy makes a much bigger rev this time and I get an idea. I rev my engine twice while looking staight at the punk, he grins and looks back to the road... I rev my engine once more and wait for it... wait for it... aaannddd, the light turns green and he peels out, I just sit there laughing as the cops turn on their lights and go after him, I take a left at the intersection and head towards a gas station.

I fill my tank and sit outside the store, drinking a sobe tsunami. I felt unease creep
onto the back of my neck. I look around and see no-one paying attention to me, oh well... but the feeling kept on, it was almost like I was forgetting something that I was supposed to do. I check my phone for reminders... nothing. I scratch my chin and think before I realize my uncle. I could pay him a visit, he was the second nicest person I knew, and I owed him a debt for keeping me in his house right as the bad part of my life was ending. I pick his cell number out of my contacts and call him.

"Hello?" He sounded older, but life does that to you.

"Hi Mike, how's it going?"

"Shane! I haven't heard from you in a while."

"Well that's me, keeping off the grid. But if it's any consolation I haven't heard from you either. Are you off today?"

"No work has me running all but sunday... it's your birthday today isn't it?" I sigh and say yes.

I could hear him wince "Sorry, you were wanting to visit today i bet."

"Yeah, but are you off sunday?"

"No, monday's the only day i have off for the next few weeks."

I sigh "Maybe the next time I'm off then, bye."

"Alright, bye then." I hang up the phone dissapointed, wrok ran him ragged all day and it might end up like my grandfather, working till his body was too worn out to keep going. That took care of that... but why was the uneasyness still there?

I get back on the road and start driving, only when I make a left turn do I realize that I was driving towards somewhere else than what I had in mind, I correct and soon enough I find myself making that left turn again, I note the uneasy feeling getting weaker as I keep going down that road, something was wrong and it was starting to hit upon my mind, I keep going forward and find myself driving alongside a park, it was a nice one with trees and benches, some place I could wait a few hours in. I pull into the driveway and walk up into the park, I set my helmet down on the table and sit, pulling out my phone I check messages, none on mail, so I place my phone down and start playing some music, my U2 music playlist starts up and I start listening with my arms crossed over the table and my chin tucked under them, I start to reflect silently. The playlist ends right as somone enters the park, he drew my eyes for some reason, his black trenchcoat, gray OU hat and laptop tucked under his arm, he tips his hat to me when he passes by, I couldn't see his eyes behind the ray-ban's he wore, and he sat in the bench next to me and starts typing away on his laptop, never even granting me a second glance.

I shrug and get back to my phone, the annoying uneasy feeling continuing like a parasite. I was about to head off and play my entire song playlist when I realize that I hadn't checked my DA messages. I got signal, so I could get online and soon enough my familiar page shows up, quite a lot of messages, birthday messages, mostly from people I knew, some from people I never even heard of. One catches my eye, a dragon, a birthday cake, and a little message saying "Happy birthday, make a wish." I look at the message over again, not bad... make a wish, haven't made one in a long time, always being dissapointed when I don't see it happen. I chuckle and look up at the park around me, make a wish? If I'm going to make one, why not make it as unrealistic as possible.

So I just think "I wish that dragons were still around." That's when I see the mysterious stranger jerk like he'd been shocked, but that little distraction was nothing to what happened next. I watch the ground under a tree buck... I mean literaly buck as I hear the sound of thunder and deep rumbling, coming from under the tree, I stand up and keep watching, a few others around the park watched, one guy shouted "Earthquake!" and but then realized he made a stupid comment. The ground bucks again, thistime ripping some roots of the massive tree out of the ground, cracks were starting to form in the dirt, I just stand there, this was the most eventfull thing I've seen in years! Some peope started leaving, thinking the thing was going to explode, and for all I knew it would. Sad time to make that assesment, because it just-

BOOOM

I stumble back as the area explodes, fire belching into the sky as smoke cleared to show a crater, the tree had been broken and seared by the blackish fire... then I see it. A skeleton writhed in the middle of the crater, not just any skeleton mind you, this thing was massive, and the mere fact it was MOVING kind of just blew my mind. And so it was I might have really exploded when I saw muscle and sinew begin to grow on the skeleton It started at the head and worked back to the tail in seconds, "It" slammed a newly formed fist into the ground causing me to stumble backwards, now people were really running, but I was still just standing there. I see skin and scales begin to cover the new muscle, They were black, I mean midnight black, they were diamond in shape, and that's all I could take in before another blast happens, this time driving me onto my back, Now I could hear it roaring, and it was definately in pain, I hop back up to see it still writhing as the last missing bits magically appear... I couldn't beleive what I was seeing...

A dragon was sitting in a crater infront of me! Blackish fire ringed the now much bigger crater and sat burning on trees, but the fire on them goes out quickly. I stare at the dragon, four horns curved from the head, two cured outward before turning back, and the other set curve together before running back, ears were definately webbed, and I look back to the tail and see a burning black and purple fire raging on the tip Spikes ran along the spine in a 1-like shape, going all the way up to the base of the neck. The wings were being tested by the dragon, He extends them and I could see a dark red membrane... apparently satisfied he folds them back up along his body and turns his attention to me... and I finaly catch his blood-red eyes. He stalks up to me, he must have been at least three-fold of my height, and now that he was far enough stratched out I could see he must have been at least 30 feet iin length. I couldn't help but think how evil it looked, He levels his head infront of mine and I try to not fall back.

"Agrok kull?" He, as I could tell it was a he by his voice said in a accent I couldn't place, but I could tell it was european... I had no idea on what to say.

"Um... I have no idea what you are saying?" He makes a frustrated noise, and looks around, for the first time noting the buildings around, the cars, even the little fountain that sat in the center of the park. He get's wide eyed along with his jaw dropping.

"Reazal ox no jekal..." He turns back to me "Mostael ed alja no kul!" His paw comes dangerously close to me as he demands some kind of answer from me, but then he realizes I have no idea what he said, his eyes narrow, and he stares right into my eyes, and I about drop to my knees and I feel something leap into my head.

I would have screamed, but I could not even move! I could feel my memories siphoned out, ripped through, I could feel everything, my feelings... my wants, and everything I knew and even my very soul being torn out... and then get it suddenly shoved all right back. I fall to my hands and knees as what ever was in my head leaves. I was breathing heavily and the pain in my head still sat there, making me wish for a bottle of morphine. I wince as I look up at the dragon, his eyes wide, staring at the ground, I barely could think as I forced myself to stand, I couldn't hold it and I fall to one knee and hold a hand to my face...

"Relax, the pain will fade in a few minutes." What the! My eyes snap open as I look up dead at him, he had the same mild southern accent that I had!
"How the...?" He makes a tapping motion to his head, the claw pausing right before it hit each time... so he turned my head into a blender just to learn my language? I about fall over onto the ground... my head was fuzzy, I tried to focus on memories but I couldn't hold any, like ghost images, it was becoming easier to remember them, but the "headache" wasn't helping any. I groan and say "What the hell did you do?" as I try and balance onto the concrete table and bench.

"I thought it would be obvious, i-- i ah, well took out all your memories and made a copy of them, and put the originals back... I admit it was a bit uncalled for, but I was thinking along different lines a few minutes ago." He says it like he's sorry, just what did he see in my memor... oh, whole dragons not here anymore and humans dominating the planet and such... not a good thing to be resurrected in. I haul myself up onto the bench, cupping my hands together as my face fell into it... god this headache was really bad.

"What did you mean by "Along different lines" earlier?" I watch his reaction, his paw, which I note has four taloned fingers, espicially his right? index finger which was scratching a line in the ground like he was nervous.

"I wasn't exactly friendly towards humans... the time I was from, we were fighting a brutal war, and I was particularly hateful of your race."

"Why the change in heart?" I'm honestly suprised that the cops or fire department hadn't shown up by now, maybe someone was calling in about the "creature in the pit" and they were treating it like a hoax.

He thinks for several seconds and then he get's this look on his face that pretty much said that he had figured it out, followed by a "D***it." look on his face,  and I knew he wasn't going to tell me, but he had another answer ready "Your memories, they showed me that we had faded to myths and ledgends, but that we aren't as hated as we were back then, you yourself have a... fandom for dragons, plus you are somewhat more civilized than the humans I had to fight." That's it? I didn't say this but he seemed to get the message.

"You... don't really think i'm telling you everything do you?"

"Nope." He huffs, and I get a facefull of hot air.

"I might of, accidently... absorbed some of your personality along with the memories." There it was... that explains the little soul being pulled out part I felt earlier... I didn't really like that thought, and it showed.

"That doesn't reassure you does it? I shook my head, but at least the headache is beggining to go away... and my natural curiosity was returning.

"Quick question, how did you get brought back?" That was a big question, not a quick one, but it was the best thing I could think of at the moment... this question also seems to stump him, he had no idea. He turns around and looks back at the crater, he pads up closer to it and thinks before waving his right-hand claws in the air, and I see something like electricity spark in the air, but it didn't seem as random as it should have been, all the while the dragon kept looking at the sparks with interest. Finaly he just says...

"It was you."

If I had heard this a few minutes ago my jaw would've fallen off "Um, just how did I bring a long dead dragon back to life?"

"Well, not you mostly, but there was a spell already in place... as odd as that is, you were just needed to kickstart the process."

"Why me... it was the wish wasn't it." He turns his head and nods.

"Somehow you have a small bit of magic control, not enough to make any noticable effects, but it might be perceived as what you call luck." I did have good luck... for the most part anyway, but magic? Then I start going through it again, the uneasy feeling, the stranger... who has dissapeared, leaving his laptop on the table... how?

"That still doesn't explain how... you have my memories and can help me with this a bit more, why did that guy jerk when I made the wish, and how was it even able to start the-"

"I get it. I have no idea about the guy you are talking about, but the spell was made so even the smallest amount of magic directed at it could trigger the "ressurection" and bring me back to life... and no, I don't know why they made the spell and not trigger it." He seemed a little peeved about the last part, I wanted to know also.

"As completely off topic as this question is... what will you do now?" A reflective look crosses his face and he looks around, not once looking at me while I walk over to the crater "I have no idea, my race is long gone and..." His head snaps to me as something sparks on my right arm, almost like static. I look and see nothing there, but the dragon seems to think otherwise.

"Hold still, act like your life depended on it." That got my attention, he waves his claws infront of me and I see a almost transparent cloud come over... and a lot of electrical shocks followed "Ow." I keep getting shocked as the cloud dissapated.

"That clever SOB." he mutters...

"Excuse me?"

"You have no idea what's going on do you?" Oh i knew... apparently he uses that cloud to detect magic, or whatever... but the question was... what was it for?

"I do, but what did you mean by "clever SOB" a few moments ago?"

"You realize you are the subject of a spell right? Well that spell was made by someone that I know, who I know is also dead by now... and..." He raises his paw, giving a good view of the lines of the palm, then he lightly shoves me into the crater... and when I mean lightly, I mean for a dragon HIS size, so I just about flew backwards into the center of the crater.

"Agh, what the hell?" I painfully get back up on my feet.

"Stay still, do not move no matter what." That wasn't him asking... he was ordering, he sits back up on his haunches, making him much taller, but he works with both sets of claws, waving patterns in the air, then I start to see something, a burst of black fire and I see a double set of rings, one smaller than the other, soon enough he starts moving his claw like he was writing something, and I see symbols appear inside the double circle's border. They looked like a cross between egyptain hiroglyphics and some other form of writing, which was wavy and flowed like japanese symbols, but you could tell they were completely different somehow.

He finishes the first symbol and it lights up in gray, he moves onto the second one, and it turns green, unsatisfied, he continues on. The third symbol was different, it was on the dead right, and was solid black, but when he finished it it bursts out with some black tendrils a few inches long, he raises an eye ridge at this and continues. I was starting to get a picture here, each represented an element, the gray must have been air, green could have been earth, and the black one was darkness... still didn't know what the tendril thing was about, and the next one he drew was apparently fire, because it glowed red. I watch him make the sixth symbol, and it glows yellow, but this time it flares with small flashes of electricity and thunderclouds... i knew what that one must be, and I see the dragon have both eye ridges raised, this seemed to suprise him. He makes another one, ice and water based on the light blue color with swirls of darker blue, nothing there.
"What's this for?" I ask, still unsure why he was doing it.

"You'll see soon enough." He says it as he finished the third one... if I was right... yep, it was light in complete contrast to darkness, and suprisingly it lit up, showering the immediate area with rainbow rays... the dragon about drops his jaw when he sees this.

"I can't beleive it..." he mutters and finishes the next symbol, it became a multitude of metallic colors and that must have been what it represented, nothing there and his hopes seem to drop, but then he grins and that seemed to get alarm bells ringing in my head... and it was called for, because he swirls both arms together, muttering something in that old language of his, and the three that light up swirl together into the center of the circle and before I had a chance to process this he palms the orb and it shoots like a rocket towards me, before I even had a chance to dodge it smacks right into me and sends me flying back a few yards.

"Aggh!" I cough and try to get up, only to have severe pain rush through my bones, I fall back into the dirt, feeling myself go numb... what did he do to me? I found out soon enough when I see my skin turn black, and a shiny scale pops up on my forearm... so that's what he did.

He plods over infront of me while the transformation continues, I feel pops in my neck as vertabrae adjusted, causing my head to push forward on the ground, size begins to matter as I start to feel my clothes turning tight... why am I not in pain? More scales pop up on my arms and I could feel it on my neck and spine, the clothes rip as joints in my legs broke, reformed, and became quadroped in shape,  I see my thumbs dissepear as claws shoved their way out of my fingertips, the fingernails popping out before them. More bone in my neck pop and I could feel it grow longer by a few feet. I try to move and find that if I concentrated more than usual I could move, it was a bad idea during this but I try and get up, and I barely make it to the quadroped position before I lose focus, horns pop out of my head as my eyes shited backwards some and my face pushed out into a muzzle. Spitting, my teeth come out as draconic ones fill in the empty space, the numbness holds around my back and I guess what was going to happen next.

RIIIIP

It sonded like shearing paper, but I knew wings just tore their way out of my back, I turn my head and see them just out of sight, they werent draconic... they were avian! black as my acales and skin, they hung llimply on my sides. my ears start ringing as they change, I begin to get much larger than before along with tighteness on my chest, and the chain around my neck snaps, dropping the dogtags and small gem onto the dirt, my eyes burn, and I feel a tail push it's way out of my tailbone as the numbness faded and the scales finish covering my body... and I could feel an ache rock through all my bones, like I had just fallen from something high up.

"Uggh..." I sounded hoarse, I cough and see a tiny white flame burst fom my maw, I cough twice more... no flames followed them. I shift and start to get feeling back in my limbs, I note the wings on my back and try and move them off of the ground, it was like moving an arm, they bent and flexed just like a human arm, though I kind of missed the digits though. I see my tail, long and with a second tip at the end... then I notice that the dragon was still staring at me... I look at him and notice that I was bigger than him by maybe five feet in height and another ten in length along with my neck being much shorter than his. I was a dragon... the fact just decided to hit me then, and I felt like laughing, and I do.

"Glad to see that you liked the change." I stop laughing and walk up to him, and shove him and almost send him sprawling.
He growls out "What was that for?"

"Not telling me you were going to do it in the first place." My voice was even deeper than before, but you could still recognize it if you paid attention.

"I might have derserved that then." he makes eye contact.

"Alright then, halfhearted apology accepted then. So now do you mind telling me everything? Before I have to start making guesses." I hear a camera shutter go off, and look to see a guy in his early teens with his phone out, the moment the kid notices me looking at him he takes off running, and now it was probably going to go all over facebook and such.

He casts a parting glance at the teen before turning back to me "All right, there was a transformation spell on you, incomplete, and over a thousand years old... but here's the catch, it's not just you, and it's much, much bigger. The other dragons must have tried to use human numbers against them by turning enough humans into dragons to balance the war, looks like they didn't follow my advice."
Okay, that's something... but "What's this about your advice?"

"Oh that, I had... suggested that we create a plauge to wipe out all the humans, that didn't sit well with the elders... and the reason that i'm here in America, rather than europe." He was a poor liar.

"Because you said that using a plauge to beat an enemy? That's a little light for banishment isn't it?"

"Maybe we can tell that story another day?" Then it must have been alot worse than I thought.

"Then I won't push the subject, but now that leaves the question to both of us, what do we do now? I'm a dragon, was going to a paintball match, and more than likely will be shot on sight by the cops... speaking of which..." I could hear the sirens now through the sounds of the city, they were a few blocks away, my now pointed ears were really usefull.

"I'd hate to go back into old habits, we should go somewhere more peacefull." I glance at the crater, peacefull? I seem to disrupt that status alot lately.
"I take it we're just going to fly out of here?"

He holds open a palm and a ball of black fire hovered just above it :There are other ways to travel..." He curls his finger and the ball dissapears "But i don't want to use those just yet, until I can see the mess this world is in, besides, I haven't stretched my wings in many a century, and you need to break those wings in." He points at my wings, held at my sides. I had an unspoken question, but he guessed it.

"And yes you know how to fly, I have your memories remember? You always wanted to be a dragon, well those TF stories just about prepared you." The sirens were getting really close now, I see him hop forward before launching into the air, I watched his wing movements, I was sure that those movements weren't the ones I should be doing, with different wings and all. I ldo a quick check and remember everything... I knew what I had to do. I catch a glint in the corner in my eye, and a patch of black replaces my forward vision as I look over at the crater and see the gem in the ground... I wasn't leaving that behind. I run over, stumbling the first few steps, I grab the blue prism-cut opal in my left paw and keep a careful hold on it as I leap into the air and try to fly I snap out my wings, long enough to span the crater and then some and flap, it wasn't cordinated enough and I lose some height, fall to the ground and try again, this time I keep my arms fixed on the motion I was to go through and feel releived as I started to see the ground pull away, I catch a glimpse of a cop getting out of his car, phone out and trying to get a picture, I deny the camera as I get out of his sight... probably got a picture of the tail though.

"I expected better from you." I almost forget to flap when he appears beside me, flying right above me, head cocked to the side to look down on me.

"What? I was human."

"Was... and that's an excuse, I have seen... might want to bank right about now."

I look up and see a building quickly rushing at me like a giant flyswatter, I roll right and curve away, missing the building by a good yard or so. The dragon reapears on the other side and glides to my side, carefull not to hit my wings with his.

"Okay, I stand corrected, you are somewhat better than hatchlings at flying."

I decide not to respond to that but instead ask "I never found out your name."
"It's Zephyr." the name strikes something in my mind but I lost it before I could get a hold on it.

"Well Zephyr, where do we go?" He thinks on it for a second." Just follow me, Oklohoma has a lot of places." And he zooms ahead, taking the lead... this day was just beyond real, I turn my palm and take a look at the blue opal in my paw... the only thing that seemed real, but I knew everything today had actually happened, I wasn't going to wake up and think this a dream... I smile, two wishes had came true today... but onto the present. I get some more airspeed and start catching up with Zephyr, this was going to be an interesting time.

Flying to put it simply is awesome.

I had trailed 101 from the apartment to halfway across the city... the sun had just started it's decline in the sky. There was something about flying that was strangely calming and yet thrilling... so much that I didn't notice where we were headed until it was just barely in sight.

“The apartments? That isn't the place I was thinking you'd head for one-oh-one.”
He air brakes and ends up grazing up beside me “Not just any apartments, yours... or rather that of the one you were cloned from.” He says nonchalantly.

“I know, but still, why here? The gov obviously knows where this place is and are watching it.”

He smirks, showing some of those large steak-knife teeth “That's the beauty of it, that's if they didn't think you were stupid enough to come back here, they guessed if you were compromised you would run, try to get out of moderate territory or something similar.”

“Okay, but still, we're two very large dragons flying through a city, dodging air-buses and buildings, we're flying targets.” This get's him, because his eye swivels and looks directly at me in that ultimate look of surprise.

“Crap... then we need to stop being airborne and giant, land over there.” It felt good shaking his composure, the building he picked out was low to the ground, probably three stories and... actually pretty nice, painted a deep blue with a white stripe running around the edge. 101 lands without a single problem, I however, was a different story. The approach was good, but when I land I didn't realize that you have to make a hop to rid yourself of momentum... in other words I face planted.

“Hahahaha! That's a lovely trench you made there.”
I mutter a stream of painful curses and tell him to shut up, but he keeps laughing. I look up after rubbing my snout, and see he was already back in his anthro form, arms crossed and a smile on his face.

“Keep laughing and I’ll kick you off the roof.” I say as I switch up into my anthro form, the clothes and aurora luckily were undamaged. I slap aurora back and and get shocked as it connected with my nervous system again. Then I put on the clothes and switch all the way human, might still be barefoot but it's still quite a bit less noticeable than a black dragon.

“So, you're going with the human look then?” He asks in a rhetorical question-like tone.

“You should be too, but sadly someone didn't think to bring any clothes for themselves.”
He snorts “You trying to get on my nerves aren't you? Well forget it, this place has a store inside, I can get something there.”

I was wondering how he knew that, but as we take the elevator down I notice that he's right, down on the first floor was a small store called EVOlved designs. He stops me before getting anywhere near it with an arm across my chest “Okay, they've got your card tagged, so the moment you pay they'll send some soldiers here, so don't let the cashier delay you.”

I nod my head and he goes in, before I follow, the cashier was a gecko EVO, his beady black eyes keeping track of 101 as he quickly grabs a full set of clothes, a red shirt with skulls on it, and a pair of knee-length black shorts along with a pair of converses. I follow him up to the register after quickly grabbing a pair of shoes for my feet, the gecko's eyes switched over to me, though he dismisses me quickly.

“Forty credsss.” I Swipe the card and seemingly nothing goes wrong, no alarms or red flags. The Gecko looks at the facial picture, he takes his time, but if I said anything it might make him more suspicious... He okays the purchase and thanks us, the moment we're out of the store he puts on the clothes before shifting back human then adding the shoes to that, they clothes were definitely bigger on him but they didn't look any more out of place than mine.

“Let's go, we have maybe only two minutes to get out before T-SAF get's here.”
I finish tying my shoes on and ask“T-SAF?” as we head out onto the street, then run across the busy roads to the next street.

“Texas Special Armed Forces, they make the Marine Corps soldiers you trained with look like wannabe boy scouts lost in the woods.” No further explanation was needed, even though I believe he was exaggerating it was still a scary enough description to keep me moving... we had three blocks until we reached my apartment... sucks that we only got a third of the way there.

“Stop!” 101 grabs my by the collar of my shirt and hauls me backwards into a sidestreet, and shoves me to make me go into a run, I look back and see him following close behind... then I see something rumble past the street in a blur. I could only make out that it was twelve meters tall and had some kind of engine on it's back because it blew past. I stop when we reach the other street, backed up against the wall to see what was on this street, the moment 101 pulls up beside me I ask “What was that?”

“Sapient Mech.” He laughs then, A short and almost insane sounding one at that. “This means they're actually going to kill us rather than capture.” And he was excited about this? I'm starting to wonder how messed up in the head he really is. I look a5round the corner and see a blockade being set up... and I think I just caught my first sight of T-SAF. I saw black Sovereign tanks parked in a V scanning the road, they had two high-velocity round gatling cannons on the front of the turret and two missile pods mounted on-top... they could cause massive destruction if they opened fire here... the soldiers did indeed make even the toughies in my program look weak, their armor almost seemed to absorb the light, but that's the thing, it was head to toe and bulky, but they moved around like they were a gymnasts, I see one push a concrete barrier in front of the tanks without any help.

'Yep, that's T-SAF.” 101 says after sneaking a glance.” I continue my observation after ignoring captain obvious. They had much more intimidating helmets, every time they breathed steam came out of two ports on each side of where the mouth would be, the lenses in their visors a deep red, and the lights which I was surprised to see were also red, they had a few on the chest and some on the arm... I get a look of the back of one giving orders and see that he had a mobius generator on his back, which also glowed that deep red... they looked pretty freaking evil to me, but those were just the regular soldiers, others that were EVOs had fully formed armor, the helmets segmented to make up for their different shape, I note at least five, all of them wolf EVOs.... then I see the others.
“Holy mother of-” I start, but 101 finishes with “Hell, that's not good.” I see two giant full-fledged red dragon EVOs, their armor matching the soldiers down to almost every detail, they had stepped up from behind the tanks and were scanning the street, I pull back when they get around to where we are.

“Since when did they start using those EVOs?” It was meant as rhetorical, but 101 didn't take it that way. “Maybe half a year ago, they're about as rare as us, only they can't shift, it'll be another year or so before those pop up.”

“Thank you for that disturbing thought, well we can't go that way, what about the one that mech went down?”

He glances back in that direction “I'll check and make sure it's actually moved on, if it is we keep heading up that street, but if anything decides to come down this street run like hell to me.” He jogs over to the other street, while I check back down to the extremely overpowered blockade. Then I notice their guns aren't your standard run-of-the-mill military hardware, these looked like they had a lot more firepower in them, along with grenade launchers and chinsaw bayonets.

I hear a muffled yell and a crack. I look back and see one of the T-SAF troopers on the ground with his head twisted a sickening 180 degrees, 101 was standing over him, motioning me to come over there. I head over as he crouches over the fallen soldier.

“Roads clear, but it's not going to be that way for long, and the mech's on it's way back for certain, we'll have to sprint it.” I spare a glance at the soldier “Could you not have killed him?”

He stands up “Nope.” He heads right out on the street “We need to go now if we want to make it.” I stand up, feeling slightly sad for the guy, but he chose his line of work. I run up to him “Ready?”

“Set go!” He says and starts a surprisingly fast sprint up the street. I follow him, quickly gaining ground, fresh shoes pounding on the concrete, 101 makes a random turn, then another, then we find ourselves moving between tiers like a weaving snake, but nobody had shot at us yet so I figure he knows what he's doing. More than once we ducked out of sight as those sapient mechs made an appearance, I still haven't gotten a good look at them yet.

He stops short, maybe half a block from the apartments “Here we are, the best place for us to hide.” I turn and look at the glass window...

“DHS? Why are we at the department of human services?”

He chuckles “Think on it, the last place any sane EVO would go is here.” I think of it... besides the name I had no id-

“And since you aren't getting it, hardcore purists usually work here, since they don't have to deal with our kind.” That's when I remember the bombing on the news... if purists were willing to do that...

Noting the look on my face he grins “See? Now your getting it.”

“Yeah... but what I am wondering is why here? Aren't we headed to my apartment?”

“It's not your apartment, it's your original's. And we're not going there until the heat settles down, T-SAF will hunt any possible place, and look how close we started to the apartment, if that didn't tip them off nothing will.” He had a point.

He looks at the street “Let's see what purists are up to.” Then goes inside without a second glance, I almost decide to stay outside, but a APC starts rolling down the street, and that made up my mind.

The lobby itself was well decorated, carpet and expansive lounge chairs, the walls were painted a light gray, and there was only one person... what the hell is he doing here? I get a flashback, him crouching by a small girl, the wreckage of the warbird...

I catch 101 by the shoulder before he could take a step farther “Don't.” I hiss to him... maybe it was the gravity behind my words, but he stopped mid-step and looked at me with questioning eyes, wondering what I had on my mind, he no doubt would have walked right up on there and put on an act for the guy before doing something he'd later come to regret. The kid noticed us then, him just looking up from a display, showing a very long list detailing something.

I give 101 the best “don't say a word.” glare and head up to the kid... never got his name. He was maybe six-four and moderate in build, and had dusty brown hair, cold gray eyes that almost reflected the room. He was decked out in a set of blue jeans and a plain gray t-shirt with a tattoo on his arm that I didn't notice before.

“You've shown up earlier than expected.” His cold voice was still the same, monotone and almost dead somehow.

“And you have actually shown up, I thought you would disappear and me never see you again.” He gets a quick thoughtful look on his face then the display... and whatever was on it shuts down. He gets out of that look and says “The odds of that are astronomically high, and yet here we are, you running from the military with, if my memory banks are right, is the same EVO that killed Locke.” Memory banks? He sounded like a cyborg just then... not good if my paranoid mind was right.

101 decides to step up beside me but I wasn't going to let him say anything until I say “Circumstances change... and you still need to owe up for that one-oh-one.”
101 gives me this annoyed look “And you think i'm not doing that? Who do you think let you live? The board's orders were to kill, not capture you.” With that lovely revelation he turns to the kid “And you never mentioned that you knew an automaton.
“What?” I guess my mind was right.

They both look at me “You have never heard of automatons?” 101 asks, surprised. I shake my head in response and he scoffs “Can't believe they kept you that ignorant.” I felt like smacking him upside the head and telling him the truth, but then he gave the explanation “Automatons are mechanized men, while they are mostly seen in their primitive form in advantist society as soldiers and “terminators” this one however... is probably the best the Americans can churn out... and he might just be on their side.”Okay, just like my mind guessed, though if he's... this isn't good.

“Get those paranoid thoughts out of both your heads.” He says, like he's scolding us. “I'm not a government controlled bot, i am a free-agent.” He actually showed something close to emotion when he said bot... and it was one of distaste.
101, always being the undiplomatic aggressor of the conversation says “And how can we be sure of that? I don't even know where Shane met you at.” So he didn't see him on the ship before we took off? Odd...

“Even if you hacked me with that little device on his wrist you still would not hold any trust towards me, and your time is quickly running short, as the soldiers will be clearing this section in just over 1.4 minutes.” 101 lets out a vehement curse and turns to the front of the building, the APC from earlier making a squeal as it's tires skidded on the concrete, it stopping maybe ten meters past this place.

“So that leaves just two choices to you.” The automaton states “One, follow me and hide, or you can kill me and try and fight your way out, which is the worst of the two.” I was ready to take option one, but 101 apparently was on the verge of deciding differently, so I act first “Option one apparently, but if you're controlled by the gov, we're going to use option two without regrets.” He nods and knocks on door behind him twice “Ella, Cover for me.” He leads us around the desk partition as a woman in her mid-twenties with a tattoo on her arm comes in, she nods to me as our eyes make contact. The tattoo was a circular tribal swirls with a yellow glowing sunbeam coming out from behind the swirls... with a start I realize it is the same as the one on the automaton's arm. I nod back out of courtesy as the automaton led us down a different doorway into an office area, nobody in sight, and then through another door into a...

“Well i'm impressed.” was 101's comment. The room was like a cargo bay, but instead of a truck or anything, a large humanoid mech sat crouched in the bay with a good hundred of piled boxes scattered here and there, it was solid black, with red lights on it's body... just like the T-SAF troopers, there was an insignia on the shoulder, a circle with shadowy claw crushing a human skull in it, the circle was bright red, and the claw was outlined in red also. The mech could have stood a good seven meters tall if standing, it looked like a normal armored person except for the head, which consisted of four red visors, two on each side and made more like a diagonal slash... as for the other inhuman part was the right arm, at least below the elbow it was, there sat a massive minigun that could probably take out a tank in only a few seconds. The rest of the details were hard to make out, rocket pods behind the shoulders and something further down on the back.
“Like him?” the automaton asks, and I speak first with “Only if he isn't shooting at us... where did this scary guy come from?”

“T-SAF made a generous donation recently.” On that he wouldn't elaborate, probably not trusting 101 any more than 101 trusts him. He moves us to a small office where he closes the door behind us the moment we enter. “Now, we can talk seriously, there are many details I want to know, and i'm sure you want to know about me.” So now he want's to know about what happened, good thing I already had a question for this ready.

“So what happened to that girl, and the boy that I left you with, and do you have anything you call yourself by? Because automaton isn't really a good description.” I sit on the comfy office chair, 101 taking a staring view out into the bay.

“You can call me Torrent, and before you ask, no, not because of it's meaning. I found the girls family and sent her home, the boy is an clone and still at the hospital.”
“Clone?” I ask, 101 giving me an odd look. Torrent nods his head “The original is believe it or not an EVO sitting at home with his family in Connecticut.” I'd ask how he knew, but an android is probably a better hacker than Aurora. We start talking more, We find out Torrent is actually had quite a time, back during the time in the facility he was a prototype for bio-organic androids... we both stared at him when he said that but he said that he was mostly organic, with a actual beating heart (And a machine one), but his brain was computerized and bones are made of black steel... anything else he didn't describe in detail, though they were trying to create an obedient android as well, but his intelligence was apparently too great for any program, “I couldn't be controlled” were his exact words. But I guess that's what you get when you put AI and self-reasoning together. The only reason he didn't become scrap was because they were looking into better human interaction abilities, normally you might just take him as a boring person, unless he went through a metal detector.

“So we've got an organic droid running around... but why here?”

He actually makes a smirk “Because I haven't released the bombshell yet, I used to be human.” And he went on, he was basically reconstructed, but still machine built from the inside out... the thought made me shudder, human parts ripped out and replaced with steel... it's almost like a Frankenstein story, but apparently there was some residual memory somewhere in that crazy body of his and it lead him to self realization and memories of a past life, he said his “host body” used to work here... kind of an odd thought, but does that mean he was a purist? I have no idea how that worked out or even happened, but that's science and technology sometimes. I ask how he felt on the purists and he just says they have their own ideals, but he just uses them as a cover.
“I think you could make a book of that.” I say and he shook his head “Not really. But now for my questions, so let's get to know how two obvious enemies come to be allies?” And so it had to end up at this, I tell my story starting at the city limits, and pretty much go through everything that needed to be gone over.

“So you two are brothers... that's an unseen development.”

“You're telling me, and we're just half brothers, and only because of the dragon DNA.” I say before heading onto the rest of it. We get into a small argument on the motives of Alpha, but somehow Torrent is a good at argumentation, because he just easily makes us feel horrible with his words, also that calm, c0old tone can really agitate.

“So you get it? Some people believe what they are doing is right, even though others might not. It's all a matter of perception on something.” 101 holds up his hand “Enough with the lecture, we get it.”

Torrent unfolds his arms “There was a good chance you wouldn't. But now most of the T-SAF is expanding their search perimeters and should give you enough room so that you do not have to hide, but first we have travel arrangements to talk about.” Travel arrangements? The questioning look on my face said everything, because 101 laughs “Even Torrent get's it, you didn't think we would be staying in America did you?”

Torrent nods his head “He's right, spending time in another country or side will triple your survival odds... I just need to-” His head jerks up as his eyes widen “How did they-”
There was an explosion outside the office, the wide steel door used to move things in and out disappears in a cloud of smoke and shrapnel.

“So much for option one.” I say as we hear shouting and pounding footsteps...

<Shane>

Falling through a sudden hole isn't exactly a good description, it was more like being pulled down, and it sucked.

“Ahhh, Damnit!” I try and get my wings open just as I realize I was falling, but they caught at the sides, and the vacuum from the hole was pulling me down, and so I was the first down the completely random hole. The attempt to open my wings was a good one, as it still managed to slow me down... until Tyler slammed into my back.

“Oof!” I hear his wings try and mimic my trick but they were too large for the area and it only allowed whoever else who fell into the hole to hit him in the back.

Suddenly we weren't in the hole anymore, I just had time to register that fact before we all hit the ground... the breath get's knocked out of me, and the world grays a bit. Ty struggles to get up... I take a deep breath when he finally does, both Alex and Jamie land on either side of me, only mildly affected by the fall, probably cushioned by Ty's back, good thing they didn't get impaled on the spikes.

Alex gets off the ground “Shane, you alright?” I wanted to make a blunt remark right then, but I was still getting my breath back. When I finaly get enough wind back in to speak I gasp out “Two ton... dragon... landing on me... not alright.” I roll onto my hands and keep in that position while I take some more air in.

“Shane-” Ty started to apologize for it... he had a habit for doing that when he causes any kind of harm to his friends, even if it was an accident... this was no exception. I cut him off with “Not your fault Ty, just... where are we?”

Jamie had been looking around “Apparently where we needed to go.” I look up and see turbines along with the complete spaceship engine room décor.. aka lots of metal accompanied by electrical humming noise.

-We're lucky, landed at the place we needed to go, and none of our bones got broken, lucky Ty managed to get his full wingspan out just as we came out of the hole.- And of course Zael butts in. -Thank you captain obvious!- I think back to him -You didn't seem to get it.- He just doesn't shut up -You are so freaking annoying Zael, have I ever told you that?- To that he suddenly get's silent... oh well.

I stand up, the sword that was strapped to my back making an odd movement, I pull it out and see that only a third of the blade was there... yep, just what I thought, still making weak blades. I drop the blade in silence and take the rest off, the broken sheath slipping out a piece of the blade as I did so... I look back to where I had fallen, there was a nice blunt curb where the sword must have hit.

-Again, lucky, you could have snapped your spine right there.- And he was back again! I think -Shut up unless you've got critical info for me.- I enforce the edict with a tight mental vice for a second, he was quiet then.

Jamie's phone rings and she answers it “We're fine Blake. Hold on”
She takes the phone away from her ear and put's it on speakerphone... and so does Blake because the first thing I hear is my Dad yelling “Shane are you alright?” Over the speakerphone.

“Yes I'm fine Dad, winded, but okay.” I hear his slow breath of relief.

Blake gets back on “Okay, back to the situation at hand subspace has you... right where we needed to go.”

“That's old news, but do you think you all can make your way down here?”

“No, besides we need to get to plan B, and to do that we need to go through life support.”

Tyler joins in then “That doesn't sound so bad.” And I get the feeling that he was wrong... proved a few seconds later by Blake mentioning...

“Dare I say it's a fully working ecosystem?” Ty's face goes blank for a second, then resumes his slight smile that he normally had “still not too bad, just have to watch out for predators.”

Alex moves into the conversation “Ty, if it were that easy he wouldn't have said it like he did. Anyway, what controls do I need to look for Blake?”

“You need to find the one for magnetic propulsion, that's what is most likely causing the radiation, and we're reaching the forest now.”

Jamie speaks then “Be careful Blake.” And she ends the call.

“Do you have any idea what to do from here?” I ask to Alex.

“Should be a control panel of some kind, find it and i'll be able to manipulate this ship like an orchestra.” He goes off in search of said panel. I take the time to analyze where we where some more, the room was pretty good size, turbines making neat rows, the only breakup in the floor plan was at the left where a large corridor went to parts unknown, and the area on my right had a door on it, unknown writing halfway up on it and no apparent door handle.

“Shouldn't there be someone around here? Keeping an eye on things?” Tyler asks, craning his neck up to peer over the turbines.

Jamie is the one to answer “Maybe it is an automated robotic maintenance?” I think on that and decide to counter that response with “If it is, then why isn't there anything around? I would keep the robots close if something were to suddenly malfunction.” I feel a slight numbness in my right arm, just before a small spark of electricity arcs to the metal floor... nobody noticed but me... and Zael.

-Watch it bud, still need to reign that curiosity and excitement in, 'less you want to fry someone.”

Tyler looks around “Have a point there, besides wouldn't an actual maintenance guy do a better job?”

“And another point is made.” Jamie says, she might have said something else hadn't I interrupted with “Alex! Found it yet?” I hear him sound an annoyed no over the noise of the room, before he appears on the near end on the right :There's not even directions to a control panel.” He says with the same annoyed tone he used before... he doesn't like it when something isn't expected.

“There's still that door over there, might be behind it.” I suggest.

“That's a idea.” He says, with renewed faith.... then came the joykill.

Jamie points out “Hold on, the door reads authorized access only.” That stops Alex in his place, his tail making an odd twitch.

“Really now? Where's the keypad for the door? Then i'll see about that 'authorized access' BS.” Yep, he has now progressed from annoyed to ticked off... and Ty just decided to say something about that.

“You realize there isn't any keypad right?” Okay, so he wasn't pointing out Alex's mood, but he just hit a nerve I think... Alex's used to having everything on his design.

Alex's tail twitches again “Of course there is!”

Time to move in on this conversation “What makes you think that?” I say, making a show of taking out the Kross blade, notably unharmed, and flipping the blade around in my hand, never having my eyes look at it... dangerous, but I do it all the time.

He scoffs “Because i'd design it that way.” hahaha... did he actually say that? I look around, expecting Ty to say exactly what I'm about to say, but he was threading through the rows, apparently bored... so I turn back and say with a smirk...

“But you didn't design this did you? It was designed by aliens with more tech than you.” It takes a second for the words to sink in, but when it does he deflates, much of his annoyance... if you could call it that, was gone, he knew he'd made a stupid mistake and got humiliated. Ty walks up...

“Hey Alex, finally realize what you said?” he says cheerfully... so he wanted me to do it... clever. I put up the knife just as Alex replies.

“Yeah... I got worked up over it rather quick didn't I? If only I had a console to-”

Jamie sees something and says “Why is that thing on Tyler's arm blinking?” We look at him, the DDA (Draconic Data Assistant) had a red light blinking on the side. Ty opens it up and messes with the keys and the screen.

He looks up confusedly “Something's trying to access the computer.”

-Let it through.- I almost barely heard it

-Say what?- I respond to him, but then he's quiet again... damnit, looks like he's pissed. I was about to ask him again when Jamie gives what must have been the answer, though she didn't hear our silent words.

“Let it through, the ship when you think of it had responded to our needs, we needed to get here and it made a hole for us.” True about the hole... but it was still kind of odd, then again I'm still not used to the strange things that been going on.

Alex mulls it over “Tyler let me see the DDA.” Tyler unstraps it from his wrist, it resembled a wedge, with a curved bottom to fit an quadruped arm, this one had a custom finish on it like the one back home... fire with smoke heading onto the inside, like it was sucking it in. Alex takes the thing, it looking like a large laptop to him, and starts pecking away at the keyboard after sitting cross-legged against the nearest turbine..

He mutters something about Hal 3000 then saying “Alright, letting the ship in now.” And he stares at the screen. Suddenly he double checks it, disbelief in his eyes and his voice “I can't believe it.”

“What?” Ty asks, trying to get a view of the screen.

“You were right Jamie, it just gave me a control panel right here!” I get a good look when he flips the screen out of it's frame outwards so we can see, I saw options... lots of em, like apps on a phone, with English names for each one.

Alex gets that grin on his face that defined him as a happy camper as he flips the screen back and asks “Alrighty then, lets find those gravity propulsion controls.” He cracks his knuckles like a pianist and starts looking for the option for it...

A few minutes later...

“I can't find it.” He says bluntly. Confusion showing in full light, plus he had that annoyed tone in his voice again.

“What?” Tyler asks, suddenly distracted from his exploration of the room.

“I said i can't find it! I have searched through this this menu twice, it's got everything from room temp to... life support, but no gravity propulsion system. I sigh and let out a curse, the numbness building in my chest... there might be something about that, I close my eyes and focus around the numbness and force it to move to my right arm... and it did, like having a body part fall asleep and wake up suddenly, it made my arm feel like it was crawling inside out with ants, I will it to go away, like I do when I'm keeping an emotion at bay. The willing surprisingly works, it faded outward, like it was being taken back into the rest of my body. I open my eyes and see everybody staring at me “What?”


Jamie says “You did not know that your arm was bursting with electricity?” Okay, I didn't control it as well as I thought did I?

-Nope, but congratulations, you're becoming a lightning bender.- I felt like telling him to shut up, but I just didn't respond to that.

And instead say “Um, I think I did, just not on the outside.” and shrug... was that focusing ring even working? I decided not to ask that.

Alex gives a blank stare for a second or two before saying “Ooookay, current distractions aside I can find out what needs to be done, just give me a couple minutes to figure it out... and... a blueprint of the ship might be nice.”

A holographic screen appears on the nearby wall, with a full blueprint of the ship... well this intelligent ship just made a new friend in Alex, as he says “I'm starting to like this ship!” As he heads over to the hologram with the DDA. Ty had carved [TY Wuz here] Onto a turbine's casing... I shake my head as he lays down and starts daydreaming near that large corridor. Jamie looks at the blueprints alongside Alex, it doesn't take him long to figure it out.

“Got it!” He says, he might have just tried to snap his fingers but as claws can't exactly do that it just made a clicking sound. “At first I thought the thrusters weren't causing the radiation, but I was wrong, there is magnetic propulsion, but here's the thing, it's what keeps the ship in orbit, kind of like a rail system. Take it down and-”

I finish for him “Ship crashes into planet, got it, anything we can do about that?”

He lets off one of his annoying “I'm a genius.” Smirks before saying “Sure, there's a backup propulsion system we can use that'll keep us well in orbit.” He taps his laptop, probably going through to start the backup thrusters “Aaaand right, it looks like the ship was keeping the option because we could have killed ourselves. We've got options for magnetic propulsion systems now, let's see what we can do.” He starts making a dragging motion with his claw across the screen, and we start to hear turbines cycle down, the electrical hum dying... then Jamie's phone rang.

She answers “Hey Blake, good news, we have...” She listens for several seconds, then her eyes widening with each second... then she Yells out “Alex turn them back on now!” The seriousness and urgency made him obey almost instantly, the electrical humming coming back in full-force.

“What is it?” I ask

“Ask him yourself.” She says as she puts it on speakerphone once again.

I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe...

“Don't make a sound, or we're both dead.” The voice whispers from behind me. The voices get steadily closer until they suddenly start fading, probably taking a turn on the hallway to another part of the floor. The grip around my throat kept tight until they were completely out of earshot, then he lets go, so I do the natural thing and whirl on him after a quick breath, but stop when I notice it's...

“Dominick?” I say, surprise managing to make it's way into my voice.

“What? Expecting it to be your little friend?” He says, voice lowered some as if he's afraid of being overheard.

Come to think of it “Yeah, I did expect it to be him, why the choking and the secrecy BS?” I ask, still tense.

“Because they don't trust me any, and they shouldn't, because of what they are about to do.” He says, taking a look out into the hallway.

“The virus they plan on releasing tomorrow?” His reaction of surprise was literally almost squawking, but he recovered and leveled the gun I didn't see before at my head, I didn't have any doubts he would miss.

“You know?” He says, part angry, part surprise.

“I found out not two minutes ago, by hacking Corey's computer.” He didn't lower the gun, but he didn't shoot either, so I took that as a good sign that I had gotten his interest, so I continue with “What Alpha's doing isn't anywhere near right, and I'm taking it you thought the same?”

“Yes, I did, though I had to go with it or never leave here alive. They made a mistake thinking I would go with this, I actually have human family here, and if that virus gets out...” We both know what would more than likely happen to them.

“Then we seem to have a similar goal, I won't condemn the city to that kind of fate, and if the government even heard this virus was around, we're all dead.” His gun hand wavers, then drops, he puts the gun on a thigh holster and checked the hallway again, he looked different without that hoodie from the store, you would think he'd have feathers on his arms and such but he didn't, he actually resembled an Egyptian deity with the human body and animal head and wings. His dressing was almost casual, black T-shirt, and urban camo pattern jeans, the only thing that stood out was the armor, black steel plates covered the outside of the jeans, looking almost form fitted for the legs, he wore no shoes and saw that his feet were mostly human, except for the talons and having only three instead of five... kind of an odd combination.

“What are you planning on doing?” I ask, then realize how stupid of a question that was. “Or rather, how.” I add on to recover from the stupidity of my own question.

“That's the hard part of it, I have to find where they are keeping the stuff and burn it, force them to do something else, I don't really have a good idea, I only found this out yesterday.” Apparently he wasn't an think on your feet kind of person... hell neither was I, but I still learned to think faster than that, by now I could have had a good solid plan going...

“So you don't know where the virus is being kept?” He shook his head, which I was expecting.

“That's something we're going to have to look for, though it isn't going to be... easy?” A certain someone was standing right behind Dominick, who turns and looks back, and guess who? 101 in his unerring stare stood there, he smiles “Thinking of a little sabotage are we?”

“Okay... I thought you were with-”

“Corey? Yes I was, until I put a hole in the wall with his face, can't stand that egotistical bastard.” Something suddenly clicks

'You're the one who called Sheryl up there?”

He nods his head “Needed to get you alone, but I see you've got someone else who was thinking the same thing, hello Dominick.” Dominick could only nod at the dragon towering over him, I think he was well intimidated by the way 101 carried himself, intense red eyes, and that posture that just said “F**k off, i'm annoyed.” he threw around so well, but I think the rifle strapped to his back added to that intimidation factor just a tiny smidge more.

He clears his throat and continues “Well, since I have two people for stopping the genocide bomb, how about we get to it?” Ooookay, so he knew about that? He seems to get my unspoken question “Who do you think got you into the computer smart one? Not your little hacking device, that's for sure. Anyway they won't be finding Corey anytime soon, and the canister we need to smash and burn is sitting on the floor neg eight, along with a few of the more Zealous members of Alpha.” He spits out the word Alpha like it was the worst thing in the world, though we both knew it wasn't.

“Shouldn't they have a backup of the virus somewhere? It's not like you will just make one of a virus and use it on just one city.” Dominick asks

“They do, in several other large chapters of Alpha, and before you ask, no, I don't know which ones.” He had a really dark attitude, sounds like he has some real hate going on.

I speak up “Well, that just fucks things up doesn't it? Even if we stop this one, the others will still be released.” Pessimism mode activated!

He just chuckles “You really think that they will take a risk like that, when they find out there's a flaw in the virus?” What? He had a look on his face like he had done something.

“What did you do one-oh-one?” I ask.

“Well, since I was on his computer and was tunneling through some files when I see that this is the chain starter, this guy's the complete head of Alpha for now, and when that means... i got creative, made a message about the virus still affecting EVOs through secondary exposure and crap, a bit more on this and that, then sent it out to them all... hopefully they got the message and believed it.”Guy's got initiative, and ingenuity... dangerous combo.

Dominick looks at him questioningly “But what if Corey tries to-”

“He won't, 'nuff said.” His tone matched exactly what he said, don't pursue it.

“Not to interrupt or anything, but we should get rid of that virus and get out of here as soon as possible, I've seen they're weapon collection they've got and there's no doubt they have the man? Power to use it should they find out about us.”

“True enough, this-a-way.” He leads us to the elevators, this floor seemingly deserted... the moment we get inside the elevators he takes a second to get a good , long breath out, probably to ignore the elevator music, and presses the button for -8, we head down, he says “I don't know how they will be set up down there, so be sure to take your guy down quick, and no gunfire, sound still manages to travel well here.” Dominick consents with a yes, though he seemed a bit uncomfortable with the prospect of hand-to-hand... I wished I could use the electrocution mode on aurora, but I still didn't trust anyone enough with that, surprisingly I trusted 101 more than I did Dominick, but still, 101 shot Locke, got to pay him back for that, and true to his personality just plan shady.

The moment the doors open 101 bursts out the door in a blur, and suddenly a beetle EVO has his head used as a football, the exoskeleton cracking as the man did a back-flip through the air, I rush out and chop a komodo dragon EVO in the throat, not enough force to crush his adam's apple, but enough to cut off his oxygen supply and keep him from roaring, with a bit of rapid movement I palm him in the temple as he doubles over gasping for air, the EVO's eyes glaze over and he crumples sideways to the steel floor. Any more guards weren't to be seen, so I take a look around the room., it was more of an entry hall than a lab, so the door at the end must be the actual lab part of the building... and it was solid blacksteel, wonderful. Dominick walks out of the elevator...

“That was quick... I barely even saw you.”

“That was quick.” 101 mocks him in a perfect mimic of Dominick's voice, he quickly switches back to his normal pitch and tone “If it wasn't we would have several more problems to deal with... but for now it's the door ahead.” I quicjky take the Kobra pistols off the guards and hand tuck one into the back of my pants, I hand the other one to 101, who takes it before walking up to the metal door... looks like it could only be opened from the inside... that's a major flaw, made worse by the fact there was no camera or slide on the door to see who it was... I think I know where this was going...

He knocks deftly, once, twice, thrice, before maing a clearing sound in his throat.

“Who is it?” A voice sounds through the metal.

“Open up, it's Corey.” He does an absolutely perfect impersonation of Corey, if that had sounded from behind me I would have been convinced. We hear several bolts and hydraulic locks whoosh open, the moment the door opens the frog EVO gets a nice friendly punch to the face, flying back into a steel table, the frogman stays still after falling to the ground.

“Ugh, think i got slime on my claws.” He says while shaking his hand trying to get the green, disgusting goo off his hand... it would have gotten rid of anyone's appetite real fast. I enter and look around the room, tubes in the far right corner, some rows of terminals and a rack of canisters sitting on the far wall, made of metal and about the size of a brick... something was missing from this equation... where's the test subjects or specimen freezer? My question gets answered when I pot a side hall sitting on the far left, l could hear sounds coming from there.

“There's the stuff we need to burn.” 101 says while pointing to the canisters... I needed to check something first though so I say “Dominick? Mind checking out the far hallway over there?”

“Not at all.” He heads off into that area, I hoped he wouldn't find what I feared, human test subjects in cages.... now onto the original business. “So how do we go about burning this genocidal virus?” He nods toward the tubes “See those? That's where virus's are tested with different conditions, we can put the canisters contents into that and use the purge command, poof, no more virus, and we can smash the mini-server and kill their data, they won't be making anymore of these for at least a good month or two.”

“Guy's! You might want to come get a look at this.” And cue my fears though we needed to hurry about this “Go ahead and start loading the canisters, I’ll take a look and see what Dominick's found.” HE grabs some canisters out of their slots in the wall, and starts taking them over to the tubes. I head into the side-room to see what...

“Whoa.” I look around, it was much worse, I found the specimen freezers... then entire back wall was full of them, in-between? Several humans, all dead from the virus... I felt like puking at the sight, left in four by eight cells to die in unimaginable pain... the fuck! It made me angry just thinking about it, people in cages, subjected to fatal experiments... reminded me of the facility I was in, now I just wanted to watch this place burn in purifying flames. I tap Dominick on the shoulder to get his attention and thumb back toward the main room. He left without a word, he was thinking the same thing I was I bet. I look up, and see the fire detector, the thing could sense fires as far away as thirty meters, don't need that. Reaching up I yank it out of the ceiling, and crush it underfoot. The doors to the specimen freezer stood in front of me like a window to death, each one was kept at an exceedingly low temperature, keeping the viruses and bacteria cultures dormant... I see labels for several deadly viruses including small pox and Yersinia pestis...the bubonic plague? Some of this and that, a few more viruses, one thing is for sure, they needed to be destroyed.

“Shane! The canisters are loaded, come back here so we can finish!” Okay... but first I’ll leave a parting gift I find the temp control for the freezers and crank the little line all the way up, the projected temp showed five hundred degrees Fahrenheit... should be enough to kill anything in there not an extremophile , capable of surviving heat like that and such. I walk out of the room and see 101 hovering over a computer with [purge, Y/N?] written on the screen. The moment I walk in he hits the enter button with the sound of a thermobaric bomb the virus dies, He kicks over a small tower on the ground and breathes fire on it, the computer screens showing a wicked flash of scrambled data before going dark. When 101 stopped the mini-server was just a puddle of plastic on the ground. “Ready to leave?” He asks.

After nodding my head we go back to the elevator, dragging frogman out and shutting the door, the automatic locks sealing it from the outside world. We take the elevator to the ground floor, when it opens we get greeted by the sight of several EVOs pointing guns at us... quick reaction, but ours was quicker, he slams the roof button and shoves Dominick to the side of the elevator and pressing him against the back as a hail of bullets pepper the wall, I had ducked back against the opposite wall, watching through wide eyes the amount of gunfire that made it through before the doors close and we start shooting up. 101 backs away from a nearly crushed Dominick.

“That was a close one, quick too, I didn't think they were going to catch on 'till after we left... but things like that happen, flight it is then.”

And now for Dominick to point out the obvious “But you guy's don't have any wings.” 101 just grins, like he was dealing with a kid who asked obvious questions all the time.

“We will when we get enough room.” was his cryptic answer to the EVO, for once I’m not getting cryptic crap, what a change! We reach the roof and when it opens we find they had covered their bases, though I don't think they expected us to make it past the ground floor, only five EVO's were here, one was downed right as 101 rushed out again, the horse EVO taking a savage kick to the gut and a axle-kick to the head, the EVO's face cracked the roof, I rush out before any of them bring their weapons to bear, I flip over one, gabbing his shoulders as I did so and using my momentum tossed him like a ball across the roof, him in complete surprise, I wrap my tail around another's foot and yank him off his feet, this one an minotaur, I recognize him as the white and black one from the lobby right before I drive a palm right between the eyes... knockout!

BANG!

I jerk at the sound, it making my ears ring.

BANG! BANG!

I look and see that 101 had taken the rifle off his back and blasted the one I tossed and the one that came up just behind me, both hit the ground almost at the same time like some kind of orchestra.

Bang bang bang!

This one was much quieter, but I see one behind 101 drop, three holes in his head... Dominick scored that shot with the pistol he had apparently. I look around the roof, our skirmish must have lasted only a few seconds, but it had felt like an eternity, we hear the elevator doors close and start to go down.

“And for one last bit o' sabotage.” He pries the doors open... and we see the pulley system... that's really old, modern elevators use magnetic rails along the edges of a very tight elevator shaft... if something were too... yep. 101 had reached out and cut the cable with a quick swipe of his claws, the twisted cable whipping down into the darkness, we hear a resounding crash several seconds later.

“Now I bet they'll really be pissed off.” 101 says with a grin.

“You enjoy causing mayhem don't you?” I say bluntly.

“ 'Course I do, but only to people or places that deserve it.” And that just proved he was conscious about his actions.

Dominick holsters his gun “As much as i'd hate to burst your bubble, but you know, wings and all.” Okay, wonder how surprised Dom's going to be when 101 shows him his little trick.

101 chuckles “I have no bubble, but then again, you were saying something about wings?” He had started the shift into the quadruped form, this was different than the one I saw in the videos though, he was much smaller, maybe a good twenty feet from head to tail-tip, and maybe fourteen feet high if he stretched his neck up, he flips out his wings, still avian, and laughs at Dominick's open-mouthed expression. “Careful, a squirrel might decide to nest in there.” Dominick closes his mouth after that. “Come on Shane, shift so we can get out of here.” Okay....

“But I like these clothes... and I haven't really tried the quadruped thing.”

He get's the biggest look of surprise I had ever seen on his face “They really didn't push you that much? Guess you are a softie.” I come back with “Guess you're a hard-ass.”

He laughs “Touché, have Dominick hold your clothes, and it isn't exactly hard to freaking shift.”

“So I'm a pack mule now?” Dominick asks, without sarcasm I might add.

“If you're a pack mule i'd make you carry my rifle and a bunch of other crap, besides, you owe us for helping out on that virus, you could never have done it by yourself.” 101 says bluntly.

“And here I was thinking you were doing it because it was the morally good thing to do.” Dominick says with a bit of indignation

“I wasn't going to let something like that slide, besides, it would have solved nothing, except increase hate for EVOs in the surviving population, which let's face it, humanity is a stubborn as a cockroach, kill one there will be a dozen more somewhere... Though softie here probably did it because he didn't want the deaths on his conscience.”

“You have zero diplomacy skills, you know that?” I ask to him after getting my jacket and shirt off.

“I had to have something to deal with that Alpha guy, if i didn't i would've taken his head off when he first started that rant. Now hurry up, it's starting to look like the cops might but in and we don't need that right now.” I roll my eyes and finish getting the rest of the clothes off, then I look at aurora... I don't think it's a good idea leaving this on... I set it into standby with a mental command and the constant vibration against my arm stops, it's storing the energy so that it can start itself again when it comes out of standby without having to draw upon my bio-electricity. I pull it off with a bit of a pneumatic hiss, which 101 notices, but says nothing... He already thinks I knew about the quadruped shifting thing... and I guess I do, I look back to when Darwin made me push the shifting abilities... that pressure feeling that I got must have been the threshold for the change... I focus on the feeling again, the increase in pressure and heat, like a heating rubber band, then all of the sudden it snaps, and I feel my bones crack and shift.

I fall to the ground hard, using my hands to break the fall, but I notice them change quickly, now the shift was started it was like a rock going downhill, faster and faster and even harder to stop. My legs go numb for a second and the pressure on my back grew heavier, until I could feel something that wasn't there before, the wings break free and fall by my sides, it almost felt like having extra arms. The rest of the size and muscle changes continue, I only had four claws now on each foot and I could feel something riding down my spine... maybe spikes? My neck was longer so I could look back and see... yep, about half a foot high and sleeked back with a razor edge on top, they only ran down to the tailbone. Those were all the changes I could see so looking back at 101 I see him looking at me closely, his red eyes a little bit unnerving.

“Not bad, though looking alike is kind of creepy.” He was right, though I was glad his eyes were red instead of my orange or else it would be really creepy. I move the wings so they fold against my back. “Pick up your clothes and let's go, we've got a lot of distance to cover in a short amount of time.” 101 says as he takes a look over the edge to the ground below.

“Well that's what you two have to do, i've got family to visit and move out of the city before Alpha gets to them.” Dominick says after a quick moment of silence.

101 is the first to speak “Okay then, don’t know how you are going to do it but they'll be more focused on us for the time being, so get going now, and... oddly enough, goodbye.” Okay, question mark? Dominick huffs and runs off the building top, getting into flight quickly and speeding off into the deeper part of the city.

“Oddly enough? What the hell does that mean?” I ask as Dominick fades out of my increased sight range.

“Never said it before, not even an abbreviation or a similar word, feels kind of odd rolling off the tongue for the first time.” I shake my head at that, at least he's honest though.

I decide to ask after several seconds “Lead on, I have no idea where we're headed.”

“Sure, question though, are you anywhere confident that you can fly?” Good question, no I wasn't.

“Yes.” I lie, I thought it was a good one too.

“I call BS, you're not the least bit confident are you?”

“Okay, got me there... on a scale of one to ten? Maybe a two-point-five.”

“Better than nothing, try not to think about the imminent painful death if you fall, no pressure lad.” Oh sure, no pressure, that's a good one, kind of not hard thinking about it right now, since he just had to say that. He takes a few steps toward the ledge and leaps off with his hind legs, then with a few strokes of his wings he's off... really not sure about his. I see 101 slow into a hover in the distance, waiting for me. I take a deep breath, I was lucky enough to be able to hold onto the clothes and aurora with a single paw, I keep a tight grip on them as I three-leg walk to the edge, great... vertigo. I place my hind legs on the edge and put some serious push into the leap, suddenly over the edge, it was almost like being weightless for a second, but then gravity came back down and feel my open wings catch the air, now it's sink or swim, if a bad analogy for something like this. I try flapping my wings and succeed in only losing quite a bit of altitude, buildings seemed quite a bit more threatening now.

“Focus!” Came 101's shout from somewhere above me... focus? When I'm about to become a wall ornament? Yet some part of me had kept that in mind, flap both wings at the same time, in-between breaths, don't put to much force into it... I follow those words almost mindlessly and see that I had gained quite a bit of altitude, now I was free and clear of the buildings.

“Not bad, though I was hoping you didn't cut it as close as you did.” I turn my head sideways and see him above and to the right of me, looking down in... was that relief? No, couldn't be.

“I would have killed you hadn't I made it you know.” I say up to him.

“That's if you survived crashing into a steel building, and I would have pulled you clear if you weren't going to make it.”

“Then why do I feel not reassured at that?”

“Because I didn't say it before you lept off the building?”

“Oh yeah, that's right... remind me when we land to hit you upside the head for not doing it then.” I can see his smile from where I was flying.

“God, already acting like brothers who hate each other, this is going to be fun.” He banks off towards a smaller part of the city and listening to the subliminal thoughts in my head match a perfect tight swooping curve to follow him towards his unknown destination and whatever else is there.