Since Oddclaw's last visit to the Hyrulian village, the settlement had expanded greatly.  The huts had become larger with more fortified struts, the machines at the back shone brighter than before, a conical structure that beasts poured buckets of fat and plant matter into before it funnelled out slop the other end that more beasts carried to a large field of growing crops.  Other machines could be seen purifying the water through pipes into the earth and regurgitating clean drinkable nutrients.  Around their homes was a wall of felled tree trunks sharpened to slickened points, with an even greater wall of rough black stone circling the outer rim and the first line of defence being the hills themselves terraformed with only three points of entry.  Outside of their huts creatures cooked from pots, short piggish things and gangly boars with twisting horns alongside lizards resembling chameleons much like Lizanaich did.  Children were cavorting happily between puddles, splashing each other and swinging wooden blades in fights to the finish whilst their older relatives were learning true combat in a clash of swords and spears and shields, crafted from metals and stones that glinted in the sun.  The guards welcomed their leader back with a bow and a hand to their chest as Lizanaich waved his friends in, chattering briefly in his language before heading towards a hut and motioning them to follow with.

        //"UNCAH LIZ, UNCAH LIZ!"//

        //"Heheyyyy kiddos what's up?!"// the chief bent down to hug a small piglet and his two lizard friends.  //"What's that ya got there?"//

        //"Issa stalfos bone!"// the piglet waved a bleached thighbone in the air as did the other two.  //"We found a biiiiig stalfos when we were huntin' wif mistah Mobenheim!"//

        //"Wooow look at you brave hunters, looks like you oughta be the Stalwarriors haha."//

        //"OOOH, YEAH!"// one of the lizards shrieked.  //"Thassa COOL IDEA uncah Liz!"//

        //"YEAH we gonna be da Stalwarriors, raaaargh!"//

        //"We should get sum skulls to wear!"//

        //"Well now hold on hold on,"// Lizanaich grabbed them before they ran off, //"don't just go picking up skulls off the ground you dunno what bugs live inside 'em you might catch a disease.  Why don't I make some skulls for ya instead, that way you can shape 'em any way you want?"//

        //"YEAH, C-CAN YOU?!"// squealed the hatchling.

        //"I'll get right on it tonight, just gotta find some wood and whites to paste on but we'll make Stalwarriors outta you yet."//

        //"YEAAAAH!"//

Watching the children run off waving their bones like swords, Red sighed with his shoulders sinking as Angela gave a pitying look.

        "Are you alright?" asked Oddclaw patting his thigh.

        "Yeah I uh...just, thinking about someone."

        "Oh, alright then."

        "Damn these guys look weird though, they're not from around here either?"

        "Don't be rude," said Angela, they're good people they'll help us plenty with what we need."

        "Sound like you've been here before."

She gave him a derisive look before they reached the hut where the smell of anaesthetics drifted from.  Two black bokoblins, small squat boars with cloth shirts and studs from their long ears, were currently wrapping leaves and some nauseous salve around a lizard's arm where blood was pouring freely down his scales.  Beside them were two robed creatures with violet beaks hidden beneath their hoods, one dressed in red and yellow, the other brown and blue.

        //"Now make sure the salve's evened out,"// said the brown-blue one in Hyrulian, //"you want the astringent to cover all parts of the wound."//

        //"A-alright,"// muttered the younger bokoblin, //"heh kinda like wrapping a filo pastry."//

        //"You know what, it does!"// tittered the older pig as she sealed the leaves over the wound.  //"Alright, is that good?"//

        //"Yep that's perfect,"// said the red-yellow bird, //"now you just let that set, so the patient should rest up for at least an hour until his wound's all coagulated."//

        //"Alright that's good, can we feed him perhaps?"//

        //"Totally, patients need food to help recover right?"//

        //"Hey Ade, Bose!"// the lizard chief waved from the doorway.  //"Can I borrow you for a sec?"//

        //"Sure, great work girls you just keep an eye on him.//"

        //"N-no problem,"// said the younger one twirling a finger round her ear flap, //"It was um...really fun learning from you."//

The older one grinned at her with a nudging wink before she hissed her, away whilst Ade and Bose stepped out of the hut to meet Oddclaw, Red and Angela.

        "Eyyyyy Odd, howsit going?!" cried Ade in English.

        "I am well thank you!" he replied in turn.  "What are you doing here?"

        "Oh we're just teaching some new recruits to get basic medicine down, it's been pretty alright, how's the fam?"

        "They are wonderful thank you, this is Red and Angela, they need help catching a thief."

        "Ohhh a thief huh?  I'm Adenine and this is Ribose."

        "Delighted to meet you," said Angela offering her hand.

        "Yeah..." they shook hers rather stiffly before shaking Red's more proper.  "So uh what they look like?"

        //"Sorry but,"// Liz patted their shoulders, //"you two mind we head back to my hut and we all have a good pow-wow about this, also I need to clean my cape."//

        //"Oh r-right, sorry chief."//

Motioned to follow they went to the chieftain's hut, a surprisingly smaller place than the other huts but it was covered in bedding with a large triceratops skull hanging above their heads as they all sat comfortably, with Red almost curling his tail round himself and trying to dry his feet from the swamp water.  The lizalfos chief took off his cape to hang on the wall as Adenine and Ribose sat between him and Oddie's group to act as translator.

        //"Firstly,"// began Lizanaich spreading his stickly hands, //"I wanna say welcome to Mohberrin Village, also thank you for chasing off that mud-beast."//

        "It is fine," said Oddclaw sitting cross-legged, "why were you fighting her on your own?"

        //"I wasn't planning to fight it, I was hunting after this freak that attacked our village, this weird wiry thing that was burning constantly."//

        "OH," Angela clicked her fingers, "that's our girl, the thief that we're after, you know where she is?"

        //"Well first off who are you two?"// he pointed at Red especially.  //"Also tell your friend to watch his flames, we might be damp but we're not inflammable."//

        "My name's Angela and this is Red," she gestured to herself and him, "we're hunting down criminals from our world basically."

        //"Well this thing sure acted like a criminal, tried to burn out our kitchen and nearly got to our waste processor if it wasn't for Ade and Bose's quick thinking to douse the shit."//

        "Yeah we uh had problems with a firebeast before," said Adenine in red scratching his hood, "so we already knew how to deal with it, we got a special cannon out back we made just for this sorta thing."

        "Really?" asked the raptor leaning in.  "What sort of firebeast?"

        "It looked kinda like a raptor's skeleton, just consumed in flames and constantly screaming its head off."

        "Cxulubcah," said Ribose in blue looking towards Angela, "that was what it called itself but me and uh...Rose, another traveller from beyond helped send it off again."

        "I...wait, that first word," Oddclaw cocked his head, "what did you say?"

        "Don't worry about it, point is we know how to deal with fire in any form."

        "In any case," Angela pulled out the photo of Maria, "do you know where THIS one went?"

        //"No,"// said Lizanaich shaking his head, //"but that IS the one that tried to attack our villIage, sent scouts in all directions to try and find it, knowing at least SOMEONE was gonna come round to ask for it cuz it sure wasn't anything I seen in this world, and it definitely wasn't that stalfos Cxulubcah either."//

        "We'll take it from here then," she leaned forwards with hands on knees, "we don't want her killed, we just want her captured."

        //"I understand, I told my scouts not to fight it, just to give a report on its location and head back cuz i don't wanna lose more of my people."//

        "Good advice, she's very dangerous.  I guess we got no choice but to sit and wait."

        "I'm down with that," said Red groaning with a stretch of his wings, "been flying all damn morning I think I got carbuncles on my tips."

        "I also think we should rest," said the raptor, "would you mind if we stayed here until your scouts return?"

        //"No problem!"// Lizanaich nodded shaking his hand.  //"You're always welcome here Oddclaw, your friends and family have always helped us.  But your friend over there with the wings should really watch his flame."//

        "I will tell him, yes.  Is there a place we can stay?"

        //"I have a couple spare huts we made for guests sure, is there anything else you guys wanna ask?"//

        "Nope," said the policewoman shrugging, "we just wanna catch this thief and then we're off."

        "Wait," Oddclaw turned to her, "do you not have a machine to track them?"

        "Yeaaah but," she pulled it out to reveal its flickering frantic screen, "I didn't have time to mention it when we landed but someone is interfering with the signal."

        "Osborne?" asked Red.

        "Probably, which means he's close, and Maria's trying to find him."

        "Well hey, two pidgeys with one stone right?"

        "Hahaha, yeah we'll be done today!"

        "That is good!" said Odd slapping his knees.  "Alright, could you take us to our place to stay please, sir?"

        //"Sure follow me."//  The lizalfos creaked as he stood up turning to Ade and Bose.  //"Can you guys clean my cape, cuz you all know your stuff better than me."//

        //"No problem sir,"// the two saluted, //"just gotta give it a good dry out an' a li'l special mix."//

        "Hey uhhh," Red raised his hand, "can I find someplace else to sleep, cuz no way am I gonna lay down in a place like this?"

        "Oh right," Angela cleared her throat, "can my friend here sleep outside the village where he won't accidentally burn anything?"

        //"Long as he behaves,"// Liz shrugged, //"I think that's a good idea too, sorry I can't accommodate him."//

        "Don't worry he'll be fine."

Heading towards an empty hut on the east side of the village, Oddclaw and Angela found a few beds available for them in a wooden hut stilted above the waters that they took time to rest in as they waited for the scouts' return.  They watched the village in all its activities as moblins trained with spears in self-defence, bokoblins cooked with their new crops and mixed with dinosaur meat to create hearty stews that they ate together with the tribe who regaled stories of their hunts to their children with gleeful excitement as the day drew on and in turn the villagers even started to put on dramatisations.  An elevated mound had been made in the centre of the village for people to sit down around a large open flame as they acted and sang songs of their homeland which Adenine and Ribose tried their best to translate for the newcomers.  Red however took his leave to find a barren hill near the village region and try to rest his aching wings by laying down on his back to stare up at the sky until he drifted off to sleep with a full belly.

The wind rustled past his face as he felt the world turn underneath him, his tail flickering its flame as embers brushed past his skin to become will-o-wisps spirited away by the breeze.  Warm clouds hovered past offering shade over his body, the sky darkening as the hours passed from blue to pink to blood-orange hue.

        "Red?"  His eye blinked open at Angela's voice.  "You alright there?"

        "I was," he muttered sitting up towards the sunset breeze, "did the scouts come back?"

        "Not yet, but the clan chief said they usually return by this time."

        "Good, the sooner we're done the better," he stretched his wings with a grunt, "I hate the swamp, too much damp it's not good for my tail."

        "Is something bothering you?"  She walked up to beside him patting his arm.  "I can tell."

        "You know what it is."  He turned away from her.

        "I know this all looks shady to you-"

        "What part of you isn't?"

        "Red please, I've tried to explain-"

        "Like shit you have, you never explain anything, always gotta be cryptic with you types."

        "Because it's difficult, and half of it even I don't know."

        "Then what harm could it do?!" he threw his hands and stood up in a huff.  "Why can't I tell him about James?!"

        "He won't understand," she walked in front of him, "I told you before."

        "But why not, how do YOU know. you just said you don't even know half of this!  I'm sick of you makin' assumptions about everyone!"

        "I don't make assumptions Red, I know what lies in his heart, and the things you know about his father will only anger him."

        "Why?!"

        "Because the one you regard so highly as your dearest friend is the same person who abandoned him before he was born.  That is how he will see it, and if you try to tell him anything about James you will ruin the plan."

        "That's stupid!"  Red stomped with a puff of flame.  "James would never do that, you KNOW he would never do that, not after all he did!"

        "The one you know wouldn't, yes.  But his James was different, younger and stupid and unwitting of the family he left."

        "D-DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT, HE'S OUR FRIEND!"

        "And it's because he's our friend we should be honest!"  She stood her ground with baring fists.  "He was ignorant, in every sense of the word, it wasn't his fault and it was not his intention to leave a family behind, but his mind was so torn apart with trauma that not even he remembers such things."

        "Then why even come here!?" he barked with creeping teeth.  "Why even involve Oddclaw in something like this if you won't even tell him?!"

        "Because if I told him then he would never help us!"  She thrust her head up close to his.  "I am trying to help his family, please, you understand don't you?"

        "Like you helped mine?  Oh right, you didn't."

        "Wh-what?  What do you mean?!"

        "The last time you 'helped' a family, you manipulated a little kid with your stupid dreams and promised he would see his mom again, and then that THING almost killed us!"

        "I told you before I had no idea what that thing was!"

        "YOU'RE DOING IT NOW!" he stomped swinging his arms with burning rage.  "You're still doing it, why can't you just leave shit alone and let things BE?!"

The woman palmed her face with a deep sigh as she steadied her words.

        "I know.  I...I know I have a history of this.  But I promise you, it all turned out good, Isaac found peace and his family were reunited, I met his mother again in the farplane and everyone was happy!"

        "Not everyone."  Red tightened his throat and looked down to his feet.  "I never had a family.  I was raised by an old man, who gave me away like a prize, to some snotfaced punk that beat me and kicked me around because he was too STUPID to understand me.  If it wasn't for James I-...I-i-i would've..."

He sighed deeply with claws pinching his snout, closing his eyes with a shudder as he breathed in the smoke from his lips.

        "James was my friend.  James was the most important...beast I ever met.  I still don't like humans, I don't trust them, and that's why James helped me because he wasn't just a human, he wasn't some trainer, he was my friend.  And you're telling me I can't even tell his son, his own son, what an awesome friend he was, you got NO RIGHT to tell me what to do!"

        "I'm sorry!" she cried stomping her foot.  "I know this is complicated, I know this is difficult to explain!"

        "Doesn't matter what you do.  You just use us."  His tears started to thicken down his cheeks.  "You always used us.  You used James to get revenge, you used Isaac to get where you wanted, we only found out about where all those humans were hiding because you used him with that thing in Cinnabar.  He was a little kid who was alone and needed a family, that was it.  I would've been that family.  I loved him.  I loved my little brother."

He tightened his fists as he bowed his head with a tinkling of his collar.

        "I loved him because I knew what it was like to be alone, and you killed him.  You killed my family.  You killed my brother you f-fucking BITCH!"

Red suddenly flew at her with roaring fangs as the policewoman disappeared in a fog of smoke, flickering purple flames left behind in her wake as she reformed to a human shape beside the charizard.

        "I'm sorry.  Yes, I deserved to hear that and I am sorry-"

        "SH-SHUT UP!"

The beast blasted a plume of flames that roasted across the barren hill as the phantom strafed into a darkened mist.  Suddenly Red felt a cold deep punch to his stomach, shivering with shock as he crumpled with a groan before Angela resumed her shape.

        "I understand you don't trust me.  But I promise to you now, no matter what happens next, no one is going to die, no one is going to be sacrificed.  I want to heal someone's pain, I need to do this."

        "Wh-why..." Red sniffed back his tears clutching the bell on his neck, "why can't you just leave people alone?!"

        "I have to help his family.  I have to.  I made a promise to help this spirit, her heart begs me to."

        "Wh-whose?"

        "His wife."  She clutched her chest.  "The one who gave me half her heart, a few years ago we met.  It guides me to her husband who I've managed to trap here, he is tortured by his own monsters and I cannot let him suffer that any longer."

        "It's n-not...your problem-"

        "I DON'T CARE!" she shouted breaking tears down her face.  "I can't let this just happen, I need to help him!  I need...I-i need to bring them back together, her heart is begging me."

        "You already...guh-"

        "Do you want Oddclaw to understand his father?  Do you want to be able to tell him, one day?"

        "Y-yes.  Dammit."

        "Then help me please.  Help me do this, and I promise you that he will understand."

        "F-fine.  Fine."  He stood up with a deep breath.  "But you better keep your promise, or else."

His claws became a fist in front of her eyes.

        "I will hurt you.  I will find a way to hurt you and when I do...you'll wish that you could die like we can."

        "What makes you think I can't?" she glared with a glint of darkness in her eye.  "What makes you think I never wished for true death?"

They said nothing more as they returned to the village, Red flapping off as Angela followed from beneath, spiriting herself in a gust of black purple shade that faded from the hills until both reappeared back in the village.  Oddclaw sensed a disquiet from both of them, but said nothing as they ate up roasted steak for dinner in the light of the burning village square.  Then forty minutes after, there came a commotion from the entrance as two moblins returned frantically, stumbling with gangly bodies like trees in the wind.

        //"SIR, SIR!"//

        //"What?!"//  Lizanaich looked up from painting his wooden mask.  //"You guys found something?"//

        //"The firebeast, the one we were hunting, we found it in the Haven!"//

        //"Wait, what?  OUR haven?!"//

        //"Yes, a-and another one too, some kinda...floating, horse-thing!"//

        //"Ugh, Din dammit, now it's taken up home in our shelter!"//

        "What is wrong?" asked Oddclaw nearby.

        "That thief you were chasing holed itself up in the Haven," said Adenine.

        "What is that?"

        "It's an emergency shelter, see after that Cxulubcah attacked the village before, Lizanaich decided that we need a safe place nearby to hide in, yanno for the kids."

        "It's still a work in progress," said Ribose crossing arms, "that mountain's hard as shit to crack through so we had to refine some real good minerals for tools and if that beast is in there, well it could ruin months of work."

        "Where is this mountain?" asked Angela stepping forth.

        "Right at the bottom of the black mountains west of here, it's hidden in the forest around the base of it."

        "We have to stop them!" Oddclaw cried turning to Angela.  "Come on, let us go now and fight them!"

        "I agree," she looked to Red patting him, "come on big guy, let's end this charade."

        "You're damn right," he muttered lowering himself to let on his passengers.

        //"Woah woah wait where you going?!"// cried Liz standing up.

        //"They're off to fight the firebeast,"// replied Adenine.

        //"Wha-like now?!  Shouldn't they like prepare or something?!"//

        //"Nah I think they got this, don't worry, remember one of them survived a Guardian."//

        //"Well uh...jeez, you guys sure don't waste time huh, tell them I said good luck and I hope for the best!"//

        "He says good luck," translated Ribose, "we're all rooting for you guys."

        "Thank you," said Oddclaw as Red took flight, "we will come back soon!"

With a powerful flap of his wings that shook the very waters Red took flight towards the Deep Mountain.  To travellers on foot it would take at least forty minutes, but to a charizard it was barely time to blink before they landed in the forest and made their way in with Red keeping check of his tail.  The raptor pulled out his rifle, glimmering steel with triangular barrel tip as they made for the base of the mountain.  Ten minutes of search revealed an entrance to a cave hewn by unnatural means by its smooth hollowed front, a gaping maw of darkness that the black stone revelled within as Red went out front, his firey tail making a torch easily that bore light into the walls of shimmering night.  The cave was not especially deep, and soon within five minutes they had encountered its end in a large central room that took the shape of a dome interior.  But their eyes went towards the unusual construction of steel that sat in the back.

        "What...what is this?" murmured Odd.

        "This is it," said Angela, "the stolen tech."

Stretching the length of the rear wall was part of an entire research room as if someone had plucked it from the world and dropped it into this cave with tiles and all, computers beeping with various monitors showing new graphs and an increasing scale of imminent danger to the viewer.  Buttons blinked across six consoles that were being manned by someone invisible as codes rippled through the screen when the raptor approached, the light of the computers giving enough for him to see as he held up his rifle for the first three steps.

        "RRRAAAAAAAAARGH!"

        "ODDIE LOOK OUT!"

Turning fast he fired towards the ceiling as a burning fireball came down upon him, searing his three-laser shot through the arm of a terrible beast that grabbed his throat and screamed with a fist ready to crush his face before Red came flying with his own punch to crack into its skull and send them flying.  Skidding across the ground with rakish fingers, was a rabid 4-foot tall ape, hunched over and vibrating with fury until her breath steamed with black fingers and long toes tensed like wound puppet strings.  Her eyes turned into pinpricks, elbows burning with raw rage like her shocking hair of lurid flame that gleamed over her white-furred brown body.

        "Nice to see you again," the police officer walked forwards, "Maria, you're under arrest for murder in the first degree."

        "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"] she screamed slamming her fists into the dirt.

        "Officer Middleton, RCPD, and you can come out too Osborne, you know the rules."

        "On what authority?" said a a disembodied male voice.  "I have done nothing wrong legally and if you wish to take umbrage with my bodyguard then YOU are the ones trespassing."

        "Says the one with half-a-lab of stolen equipment just sitting out here in another dimension's cave, like none of this is really yours!"

        "Ohhh?  And who's going to prosecute me?  After all..." the computer bled a digital stream like a ghost from its screen, "you cannot arrest a digital entity."

Hovering in front of the consoles was a strangely-adorable model of some vague equine shape in bubblegum pink and sky blue, a polygonal thing around 2'07'' in height that floated with flippers for limbs and gave a beaming grin with its eyes turning into curved lines.

        "What...what is that?" murmured Oddclaw.

        "Osborne," snarled Red, "the bastard himself."

        "Now now let's not resort to namecalling," said the porygon floating forwards, "best not to burn bridges before you start to build."

        "What do you want with this?" challenged Angela with her finger thrust to him.  "I know you guys aren't selling it, you're not that stupid to sell hot government tech."

        "Very good, I am glad you learned not to underestimate me.  But if you understood this technological dream behind me, you wouldn't even have to ask in the first place."

        "I know what it is, but why do YOU need it?"

        "The same reason anyone wants to harness dimensional tech."  He turned towards the monitors and floated above them.  "To explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no Pokemon has gone before...but I am not anyone, I have a much greater dream that will require a much greater beast."

        "A...beast?"  Her eyes widened with a hand to her forehead.  "Oh, Arceus no you're not going to-"

        "WHAT ELSE WOULD IT BE, DIPSHIT?!" the flaming ape roared with spit flaming from her chin.  "ALL THE HUMANS WILL PAY FOR SCREWING WITH US, AND ANY POKEMON THAT DON'T JOIN US, THEY CAN DIE WITH 'EM TOO!"

        "Are you INSANE?!" she cried.  "You can't control an Ultra Beast, nobody can!"

        "SHUT UP BITCHFUCKER!"

The Infernape suddenly went in a screaming charge before Oddclaw fired his rifle with a direct shot to the chest, stopping her short in her tracks with a hard numbing pain.

        "A-AAAAAAARGH!"

        "ENOUGH!"  The raptor kept aim as the burning beast clutched her heart.  "We have your friends, you will both leave this land now or else I will be forced to fight you!"

        "Oh be quiet you little sobble," scoffed Osborne rolling his eyes, "this has nothing to do with you."

        "I am the ambass-sidor of this land, YOU answer to ME!"

        "Then here is my answer, little mudraker."

        "GET DOWN!"

Red grabbed the raptor and pulled him away from Osborne's beam of light, a piercing shot of red, yellow and blue that circled rapidly before his face to shriek through the cavern.

        "You cannot stop me," the porygon's eyes became two dipped lines of fatigue, "the ultra beast is coming one way or the other and only I know how to control him."

        "I just told you no one can!" shouted Angela.  "How are you even gonna get it back to our home huh?!"

        "Ahahaha, you forget the DIMENSIONAL technology behind me you simpleton.  All I need is to calibrate it back to our point of origin with our new friend in tow and so we shall rule the seas.  I shall take the digital frontier, and my friends once you release them and you will, shall take the physical frontier."

        "Why are you doing this Osborne?!  It's not good enough for you to take everyone's data?!"

        "No, it is not.  Humans are so fallible, so easy to manipulate they cannot be trusted with anything.  Money, projects, lives, so much of it can be lost by their fragile states.  But I...am perfection.  I am a program designed precisely for allocation, resurgence of infrastructure and if humans are too weak to understand then I shall gladly alleviate them of their burdens.  And if they so refuse...well."

The machine suddenly beeped a shrill warning as the colours changed to a terrifying red.  The floating digi-beast nodded looking behind him with a smile falsely created as a line across his snout, whilst Maria turned on her knuckles halfway between fear and constant fury as a twitch in her face.

        "It seems our friend has arrived.  He will come to us soon searching for our signal and when he does I hope that the gods of probability will favour your...catch rate, hmhmhmhm."

        "A-are you...serious?" muttered Red.  "U-uhhh...Angela?"

        "Take them down," the policewoman cracked her knuckles, "we deal with him when he comes."

        "Wh-what is this 'him'?!" cried Oddclaw keeping his weapon trained on the thieves.  "What is happening?!"

        "NEVER MIND WE HAVE TO STOP THESE TWO FIRST!"  She stomped towards Osborne.  "Dead or alive you're coming with me, BOTH of you!"

        "Challenge accepted," the porygon floated towards her with Maria in tow, "you might be able to stop us...but you'll never stop HIM without us."

        "I've fought worse monsters than you, now COME ON, IT'S TIME TO DUEL!"

        "RAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIGH!"

Flying first Maria came barging towards Angela with pounding fists, snarling with a frantic rage as she leapt at the last moment to somersault through the air with a karate kick that the woman dodged swiftly.  Oddclaw went for Osborne whilst Red came to assist Angela with his own flaming fury as his fist began burning in mid-flight.  The monkey turned fast with a roundhouse kick and cracked against the charizard's chin, knocking him aside before she leapt upon him and frantically beat his face.  He took the hits and retorted with a single punch to her chest, knocking the smaller fire-type off himself as she backflipped in recovery and sprang forwards with two fists out front.  He blocked with his wing that suddenly shimmered like steel before snapping back in recoil to slash across her face, the dragon following with a hard kick to the monkey's stomach that bowled her back with a snarling fit as she stomped her feet.

The burning chimpanzee made another running start towards him, punching one fist so hard into the dirt that she upended herself into a cartwheel, forming a firey wheel of death that came rolling down towards Red before he could react as she doublekicked his face with flaming feet, knocking him down from the momentum before she leapt onto his face and violently throttled his neck.  Frantic claws raked across her face as she countered with one fist slamming into his face and one of her knees driving into his chest before he grabbed her and rolled viciously fast with a burst of his wings underneath, laying on top to crush his fist into the floor and crack the stone beneath when Maria swerved her head and suddenly spring-kicked both feet into his stomach with incredible strength.  Forcing him off they both stood up as the infernape came flying once again with her feet in front, balling her toes into fists that double-punched across his head in a whirlwind kick that lashed scorching flames across his cheek.  Red staggered back, charging his fist with smoulder as he came swinging back with one mighty punch that crunched squarely into her face, twisting the knuckle into her flat-open nostrils as she rolled hard with a cloud of dust across the cave.  On the other side of the underground battle, the raptor and the human stood facing against Osborne, guarding his machines.

        "What a dangerous toy you have little native," tittered the digi-beast, "be careful not to start a fire, wouldn't want you to get TOO intelligent."

        "I will give you one more chance," said the raptor taking aim with his charging rifle, "submit to me now, or face my fire."

        "You can try, but..." his eyes suddenly ran through lines of coding as a spark of white gleamed through his body, "you cannot catch what you cannot hit."

Oddclaw did not even register Osborne's movement when he fired, a trailing blur of rose-blue that left behind only a vague imprint of him as Angela tried to follow with a flying punch but he was already six feet away before she even landed.  The raptor shouldered his gun and went on the offensive, claws out fully to try and catch the evasive porygon who constantly strafed out of existence, zigzagging like a glitch and always twice out of his opponents' reach.  Oddclaw was certainly faster than the police officer and managed to get closer with frantic steps and quicker feet, trying to leap and slash the block-shaped beast but never quite reaching much to the porygon's amusement as he pulled back to whirl three orbs around his body.  Red, yellow and blue that started whirring faster until they became a pure white, the raptor dodging just out of the path of a tri-attack beam that burned his ears with a sharp ringing sound as the wall behind him started crackling with ice.

        "ODDIE, GIMME YOUR GUN!" Angela cried.

        "WHAT?!"

        "WE CAN TAKE HIM, YOU GO IN WITH YOUR CLAWS I'LL BACK YOU UP!"

        "I don't THINK so!"

Osborne charged towards the human but Oddclaw fired his rifle fast with three glancing shots he was forced to dodge with a glitching sprint, fading briefly back before the raptor hurled his rifle towards the police officer and went straight towards the porygon.  The block-shaped beast turned to him and started quickening his pace, strafing left and right to almost become a blur of three that the raptor struggled to determine which was the real one.  He focused all his patience as the porygon heightened his agility, faster and faster towards a solid smear of pink and cyan as Oddclaw cracked one of his fists against his hand watching and waiting.  Then he punched.

        "GAAARGH!"

        "ANGELA NOW!"

        "GA-AAAAA-A-A-A-A-ARGH!"

Osborne suddenly floated back with a shock on his face, hashtags appearing in his eyes from the stunning blow to his chin before Angela fired the laser rifle straight to the porygon's belly.  Violent bursts of energy tore through his digital coding as he roared with a stuttering voice, twitching spasms through his wings before he turned and shot a powerful beam of tripling arcs towards Angela.  She jumped faster than expected, the shrieking beam tearing past her face with sparks of lightning that crept across her skin and popped veins of sulphurous smog through her arm that was caught in the blast.  She covered herself quickly and feigned a cry of pain as Oddclaw leapt onto the porygon and started biting his head, rabid claws raking and scratching viciously over the hard plastic-feeling surface before Osborne threw him off with a hard spinning roll to slam Oddclaw to the floor.

        "INSOLENT little BRAT!"

He charged with a headbutt to knock the raptor backwards, stumbling into the path of a furious infernape who came shrieking down upon his head as he dodgerolled left and swung his fist against her skull.  Red tried to gang up on her but was blocked fast by Osborne thrusting his whole body against the charizard's head.

        "Oh, so now the walking fire hazard wants to play?"  His eyes scanned over the winged beast with a lurid green.  "Why not see if you can break my firewall hmm?"

        "Oh like you think that's real clever?" Red snorted with a puff of smoke.  "You want I should hack your face off?"

        "Try to do so and I will shut you down, lizardon."

The porygon's body suddenly converted its colours, glinting shades of amber like a fiery gumdrop as the charizard swung his burning fist towards the blocky head.  Osborne took the hit surprisingly well, fires tickling across his sculpt harmlessly as he spun himself round before bumping against Red once more almost teasing him.

        "Wh-what the shit?!"

        "What's wrong?  I thought you enjoyed fighting your own type."

        "UGH you're startin' to piss me off and you don't even DO anything!"

        "Then try to hit me harder, imbecile."

Brandishing his fist he took another swipe, the porygon dodging this time and the next as the charizard's slower swings were easy for the agile poly-shape to avoid, ducking and weaving his floating body beneath and above every fire punch that Red gave as he started to tire out.  Puffing great plumes of smoke the charizard tried to pace himself, backing the porygon back against his machines and hoping to corner him, but the digi-form already knew and swerved fast to the left to push Red suddenly to the side with a stagger before charging up a whirling beam that Red was too slow to escape.  The triple attack of the blinding rays focused as one and ripped through Red's body, staggering with a roaring agony as harsh energy waves tore over his skin and sent deep ruining vibrations to his organs that made him double over in pain.  He felt burns not of his own as fire crept through his opening wounds, lacing them with acidic fire that stung with such sharpness his eyes watered until the attack beam stopped.  He stood himself back up with a deep breath, opening his wings with a flourish to burst through the pain and charge forwards with a sudden flight to send his fist surging towards Osborne.  The porygon's eyes glinted with a myriad of coding once more as his face shimmered like a pale mask, before the charizard slammed his fire punch hard into an invisible wall just inches from Osborne's features.

        "Ah ah aaaah."  The porygon's eyes made a tick-tock.  "You didn't say the magic word."

        "SHUT UP NERD!"

        "Noooo that's not it either."

Red kept punching, trying to break through the barrier like a wall of solid ice that grazed his knuckles and formed callouses in his claws whilst Osborne looked over towards Maria facing against Oddie.  The raptor went into a fighting stance with fists at the ready, the fire ape tightening her arms with a howling shriek as she pounded her fists into the floor to throw herself head forwards at her opponent.  Oddclaw swiftly dodged  right with a turning kick to her neck, but she landed in a half-roll to swing out her tail and wrap around Oddie's leg, pulling him down with a kick to his other leg as he stumbled.  She cartwheeled fast with surging flames up his body, burning a soft line from the belly to the neck before she stomped his face hard and suddenly strangled him tightly with her long-fingered toes.  A smile crept across her face as she tightened her grip, balancing on one foot to choke him harder with her other foot coming down like a second fist with curled toes to pummel his snout and tighten his breath, before he thrust-punched her in the crotch with a shocking gasp that made her legs weaken just enough for him to throw her off.

Grabbing her leg he rolled and immediately slammed both his fists like a hammer onto her face, taking the hit with a snarl before she lunged forwards at his shoulder with a ruthless bite that made him yelp and pull himself off back to their feet.  Maria rolled forwards to make a sweeping kick as Oddclaw jumped with a scissor-kick to the face, knocking her back before she bounced forwards with a high flaming punch he dodged barely with a reverse roundhouse kick, spinning his body to slam the heel of his foot straight into her jaw and knock her for a full 180.  The raptor grabbed her from behind immediately and tried to choke her, elbow in front of her throat with his knuckles grinding the back of her neck into a guillotine chokehold that made her immediately suffocate, tightening her throat muscles as hard as she could before she threw herself forwards to hurl the raptor over her head, sending him down crashing on his back as she stood up above him for a grand punch upon his face, before a shocking laser blast sent her reeling with a hard burning punch to her gut.  Stopping herself short of the cave wall she turned to see Angela with smoking barrel as Oddclaw pulled himself back up with gasping heave.

        "Hey, monkeyfuck," she raised her middle finger, "your mom sat on this last night, wanna see how it feels inside you?"

        "NNRRRRRAAAAAAAARGH!"

Galloping with psychotic froth at her lips, Maria pummelled the earth before leaping high with a firey fist that shone like the monsoon sun before the police woman leapt back in a fast strafe skidding her shoes across the dirt, hurling the rifle over Maria's head and back towards Oddclaw in the midst of her dodge.  The monkey swung with raging fists, the fire shortening out but her fury still remained as she swung punch after punch in a violent blur of red and white, driving her knees forwards one after the other between punches and snap kicks that flicked scorching wisps that faded as quickly as her next attack, roundhouse kicks that she stopped in half-turn to ball up her fist into a ruthless elbow and yet Angela managed to dodge every single one, almost fading out of existence between punches that split smoke between them and searing kicks that scattered stone across the wall.  Suddenly Maria stopped from a tightening crunch to the stomach, cold and deep as she felt knuckles twisting into her gallbladder.

        "HNNNNRRRAAIIIGH!"

        "Pitiful," Angela reappeared beside her with a smile no human could make, "you really think you know who you're dealing with?"

        "F-fuck...YOUUUU!"

Shoving the woman back Maria rolled to the side and gave another frontal kick, driving her knee upwards that Angela caught with a grabbing pull of the leg and in a judo maneuver shoved Maria down on her back, forcing her to stare into her eyes.  Darkness grew from within the human's gaze, a long road through the twisting woods of black spires and broken trees where purple mist weaved through the fog.  Then, she saw the skulls of other pokemon screaming back at her, twisting and cracking out of joint from the dozens of ropes that lunged from the dark wood and burned to set them alight, screeching ever harder as the infernape felt a horrific shudder through her body, one deep enough to wound her rancorous heart

        "N-NO, NOOOOO GET OFFA ME, GET OFF ME YOU BIIIITCH!"

Thrusting both feet into Angela's chest, she forced her off before rolling backwards to plant her palms flat into the dirt, forming a handstand as she spun her feet above her head to form a ring of fire, almost solid from how rapid she turned her hands before springing towards Angela with a high-turning kick that rotated her entire body like a screw, spinning viciously fast as the police woman backed off out of range before the infernape twisted herself back into a second handstand, briefly to propel herself forwards directly like a burning missile straight into the woman's chest.  Angela cried out with shock as the crunching spin of her feet torqued into her stomach, groaning as she fell against the floor as Maria bounced off her in a backflip.  Pulling herself up the policewoman saw the infernape start to tighten every muscle in her body as steam rose out of her fur, shaking through her head like a chemical reaction as her teeth creaked harder against her jaw before she gave a primal scream.  Her body ignited to a pure crimson flame, a singular entity of fire incarnate that sent roasting flames in a circle all around her feet and melted the rock beneath her toes.  Something shot her in the back of the head, but she barely flinched as she turned to see Oddclaw with his rifle, aiming straight for her face.

        "You."  She turned with a crackling stomp as her voice dropped two octaves.  "I'll make you wish you died FIIIIIIIIRST!"

Her body soared across the cave like a falcon in hunt, much faster than the raptor anticipated as he braced himself to strike the flaming-furred fireball of unholy rage that shrieked like the heavens had broken.  The fire turned hotter to become as white as her fur until just before reaching Oddie something dark swirled in front of her to collide with a hard crunch and a woman's scream.

        "ANGELAAAA!"

        "NOOOOO!"

The policewoman took the full brunt of Maria's burning blitz, crushing with solid flare against her body as she crumpled fast into the wall with blackening smoke pouring from her body as the infernape's body shuddered from the recoil with deep pains through her chest, a tightening of the ribs that made her clutch herself with heavy breathing.  Angela slumped to her knees gasping from the burns swollen beneath her clothes as she struggled to breath from the black cancerous wounds invisible.  Oddclaw heard his rifle beep fully recharged as he aimed towards Maria, before Red suddenly slammed the back of her head straight into the ground.

        "YOU DEAL WITH OSBORNE, I'LL TAKE THIS ONE!"

        "RIGHT!" he rushed towards the console as Red tried to grab his opponent.

        "FUCK OOOOOOFF!"  She screamed with a spinning backfist across Red's face.  "I'm gonna break, your FUCKING NECK and then I'll fucking SKULLFUCK YOU WITH YOUR WORTHLESS SPIIINE!"

        "Big talk for someone who can't even stand up straight," he clicked his fingers taunting, "seriously did you sell your spine, or are you just some fake-ass ditto that's too stupid to understand feet?"

        "NNNRRRRRAAAAAAAIIIIIGH!"

The two flung towards each other as fists went flaming, pummelling each other's bodies in a rapid-fire rhythm as bruises formed across their faces and chests that darkened with every second, spittle flying with every crack of the jaw as Maria almost overpowered him with even faster-flying fists that became a pale shroud of fury.  Red struggled to take every hit as a dozen fists broke his skin, purpling the amber deeper and deeper until he finally grabbed one fist and immediately pulled it hard to draw her face in towards his own burning punch, crackling her nose almost inwards with his brutal counter as the red mist in her mind became black with a shock of sharpening pain.

During this, Oddclaw raced back towards the porygon who had been watching idly the battle progress, seeing the raptor race towards him with rifle in hand as an artificial smile formed across his blocky chin.

        "Oh come now, haven't you learned already?"

        "More than you," goaded Odd with a snarling creep, "you are a worthless liar, nothing about you is true so I will not care what happens to you, thief."

        "Worthless?!  What do you mean worthless?!"

        "You are not true, the things you stole do not exist and you cannot even find true friends."  The raptor chuckled with a mocking grin.  "You would be the most pathetic beast I have ever known if you actually existed."

        "What do YOU know about truth?!" barked Osborne.  "I shall have true power, beyond ANYTHING you will comprehend you savage!"

        "At least when my sisters steal shiny stones the stones are there, you are nothing but a child, too stupid to stop eating dirt after pretending it is meat!"

        "ENOUGH!"

He charged his beam with a rippling trifecta of orbs, spiralling towards the raptor who dodged and fired at the porygon's underside when he just dodged from the attack.  He scanned the raptor quickly with a low hum over his body, turning his colours from burning crimson to a dark earthy brown that mimicked the raptor's scales perfectly.  Oddclaw jumped onto the control panel with a flying wallkick to crack across the porygon's face unexpectedly, knocking him back before he initiated a barrier program with light briefly glinting off his head as he took a more aggressive stance, his eyes forming backslashes as he headbutted into the raptor.  Oddclaw dodged and made a swiping uppercut into his hard plastic face, barely registering the hit as he turned with a tailswipe to shove the raptor back down.  Osborne made another dashing charge that Oddclaw swerved round before whalloping the back of his head with the rifle, following with a spinning axe kick that came straight above and cleaved down his neck with raking sharp claws as the porygon groaned with contempt.  Slamming his head into the raptor's chest he knocked him back enough to prepare for another tri-beam, whirring spheres of energy that blurred into a pale ring before a bursting shadow ball struck against his body hard to send him flying.

        "GA-AAAARGH!"

        "Not...yet," Angela smiled with a winking grin as she staggered up to him.  "You're almost done Ozzy."

        "How...DARE YOU!"

He barrelled towards her in a spiralling rush as she backed off fast to let him overreach before stomping the earth, sending out a dark pulse that rippled invisible through the air and struck Osborne deep with a horrific aura that made him flinch, like cold fingers creeping into his code and twisting the binary as he stuttered short leaving him exposed for the raptor to fire the last shots needed, two of them hitting straight into the porygon's chest.

        "GAAAAA-A-A-A-AAAARRRGH!"

His body shook with violent seizures as his eyes blinked rapid colours, frozen with rictus as Angela finished him with one punch across his face that smouldered black the second before it hit.  He fell to the ground like a lifeless toy as Angela staggered against the console, looking to where Maria and Red had managed to pull themselves free as she stood back to reignite her body once again as a pure whitening flame.

        "I...will punch you through your FUCKING SOUUUUL!"

        "Yeah?"  The charizard stomped his feet and tightened his stance with reptilian slits in his eyes.  "You have to stop ME first."

His tail suddenly grew its flame to creep along his back, smouldering trails up his spine that slowly covered his body like oils burning as he shook with a slow-building roar that sent rippling reverbs through the cave with a rumble of the ceiling.  His tail became red, then it burst into purest blue as he grinned with the glories of battle incensing him.

        "See this?  THIS is how you do it."

        "RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!"

Maria charged first and so did Red, two flaming meteors that tore across the cave like a galactic battle about to emerge as they pulled their fists back, the floor burning with such heat that it started to make the others sweat, the raw magmatic power that flowed through them leaving behind a lava floe in their wake until they clashed.  The volcanic explosion was tremendous, almost deafening as Oddclaw covered his ears and a few stalactites fell from the roof with half the monitors of the control panel cracking in showers of glass upon Osborne who looked upon them in fright.  The inferno roared before them a few minutes more until they saw who the victor was in their clash of fire.  Red's fist twisted into Maria's chest as her own crunched deep into the charizard's blackened chin as they stood for a few seconds in silence.  Then she fell, her legs weakening as her knuckles pulled off his skin and she staggered backwards with a deep almost blood-red bruise in her stomach.

        "Heh...stupid monkey."  The dragon stumbled back with a gasping wince.  "Really thought you'd win in an age of reptiles?  Time you learnt your place."

        "You alright Red?" Angela gasped from the wall near the computer.

        "Yeah...I'm good, just gimme a potion after we put 'em in their balls."

        "Right."  She walked over to Osborne laid on the floor as the computer's remaining screens stopped beeping red.

        "H-hah...hah," Osborne wheezed with @-shaped eyes, "very good.  You, you managed to succeed with ONE problem."

        "More like two," snorted Red with a gasping wheeze, "good enough I'd say."

        "You cannot stop the utlra beast...that will be your greatest task and I only wish the best for you to-"

        "That so?" said Angela pointing towards the screen.  "Cuz it looks like your project failed whilst we were fighting."

        "What do you mean I-...wh-...WHAT!?"  His eyes flashed with sudden X's.  "WHAT HAPPENED?!  WHERE IS MY GOD-BEAST?!"

The screens had lost their colour as the red faded to reveal optimal conditions.  The gate had been opened but no beast had come through, showing that something had once been but now no longer existed, a blank on every front as his eyes twisted into red and yellow colours alternating with a violent seizure briefly.

        "N-n-no, NO, NOOOO WHERE IS HE, WHERE IS MY GOD-BEAST?!  WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

        "I didn't do anything!" shrugged Angela.  "Except whup your ass so that's one less problem to worry about and it's time, for YOU!"

She whipped out a black-and-yellow ball.

        "To get back where you belong!"

        "NO, I REFUSE, YOU CANNOT MAKE ME GO BACK!"

        "Watch me."

She caught it once from the air before hurling it straight towards the porygon, cracking against his snout as the ball opened to envelop his screaming form in a thick red mist.  His body lost its shape as his rabid shrieks echoed with the sounds of a binary screech like a broken modem.  The ball snapped itself shut and clinked to the ground, rolling furiously for three seconds until the light of its button stopped.  Click.  Angela sighed with relief as she walked over to pick it up before heading to Maria's comatose body and hurling a blue-and-red ball towards her.

        "Finally."  She watched the second pokeball barely resist before clicking shut.  "We're almost done here."

        "Wait, almost?" asked Oddie shouldering his rifle.  "Did we not catch all of the thieves?"

        "Yes...but," she turned to him, "we have to check on that anomaly that they summoned."

        "Oh, yes but did the machine not say it was gone?"

        "That's what I wanna know, why IS it gone?  And I know just where we can find it so let's follow the signal just in case."

        "Right," Red flexed his shoulder with a wince, "still need a potion here."

        "I gotcha don't worry."

She pulled from her belt an orange spray bottle as she squirted it over his wounds, healing and cooling all his burns and bruises with moderate success as he felt his strength return to him.  He sighed as the antiseptic soothed him and knitted his cuts with rapid succession before Red took another from her pouch and sprayed her burns clean.  Oddclaw politely refused as they took their leave back to the entrance of the cave.

        "Oh, shit," Angela clapped a hand to her head, "what about the machines I forgot to ask-"

        "The humen will send them back," said Oddclaw as they leapt onto Red, "we had machines before from other places and they were sent back too."

        "Alright good, let's go."

She hopped on with him as the charizard flew straight towards the south and along the western ridge of the Greatbeast's Spine.  The indomitable mountain range stretched all along the southern edge of the continent, a jagged set of teeth that raked the dwindling sky as mammals scattered between the peaks of the arid valley.  Red flew down towards the forests that grew thick, a clustering explosion of emerald at the westernmost point of the Spine before landing on an old well-ridden trail that led to someplace close.  They said not a word until they reached the end of the path, a winding trek of compressed dirt that stopped at a large metallic entrance that reached deep into darkness, the remains of a building barely noticeable between the fronds of ivy and ferns that had grown over every inch of rusted steel as Oddclaw tightened his breath.  The scents that lingered from within shook him to his very core.

        "Is this...i-is this the...no.  No it cannot be-"

        "What's wrong?" Angela asked.

        "I-i...um," the raptor stuttered into English, "I-i think...I...know this place."

        "Wait really, this old place?"

        "Yes.  I think...I think my family came from here."

        "Your...family?"

He nodded quietly.  Red and Angela shared a look as she walked up to the entrance first and beckoned him with her hand.

        "Come on.  Let's go."

        "Are you...sure something is here?"

        "It's what my tracker's saying."

        "But...what do you think we will find here if there is no beast?"

        "I don't know."  She stiffened her lips.  "But I know with your help, everything will be alright."

        "Really?  Thank you."  He took her hand with a smile.  "I am glad that I could help you both."

        "Believe me...you're helping me a lot more than you'll ever know."

They walked into the darkness together as Red followed behind, his tail sending a bleak flame across the old rusted walls before disappearing.  Oddclaw heard a whispering voice just before the silence came.  A voice that he heard from a dream.

        "Daddy?"

He looked up at his daughter nipping his face.

        "Daddyyyy ahm hungry."

He sighed with a deep breath that pushed against her side as he pulled himself up.  His eye gazed over to the other three raptors squabbling and biting each other in a tussling trio as he stumbled towards the entrance to his cave.  Then he decided against it and sat down in the passage much to his children's confusion.  They tried nudging him and biting him to encourage his body to move, but all he could do was stare towards the outer cave.

        "Daddyyyyyy, ah wan' fooood."

        "Yeah ah wan' food too daddy!"

        "Daddy get uuuup!"

But he said nothing.  He watched listless with his lone eye blinking until his children gave up, bored with stomachs growling as they sat in turn with a growing upset.  Half-an-hour passed until a shadow came to his nest.

        "Good morning."  He heard Radium's voice.  "Sunscreech, are you awake?"

There was no response.  He watched the face of the dark-green raptor peer in to be slightly startled by Sunscreech's appearance.

        "A-are you alright?!"

His eye moved to blink once.

        "I thought you would...well, I hope I did not wake you, I brought you some food since I knew you couldn't leave your children."

The visitor dragged in three large shrews by their tails, dangling them before Sunscreech as a glimmer came to him.  He forced himself onto his feet and crept back to his bed to let him in as Radium approached the children.

        "FOOOOD!"

        "Hahaha yes, don't worry uncle Radium's here."

        "YAAAY FOOD, FOOD!"

        "Here you are, now remember two of you share one!"

He dropped two rodents as they tore at the flesh and fur, greedy little lips and snouts plunging into the warm blood and ripping out organs by the dozen with scrabbling snarls and panting glee whilst Radium handed the last shrew to Sunscreech.  He raised his head and started to tear the chest slowly, crunching quietly with his teeth sinking in to rip through the soft muscle, drinking the blood with steady gulps as his eye closed in relief.

        "Thank you."

        "It's fine," Radium sat down beside him.

        "NO!"  Sunscreech snapped.  "That is her place to sleep, NOT you."

        "Sorry sorry, I didn't mean-"

        "It...whatever."

        "I'm sorry."  The raptor sat away from the bedding.  "I just want to make sure your children are safe, they are practically my family too."

        "Hmph."  He tore at the stomach and chewed it into his gullet.  "I appreciate it."

        "I will keep bringing food until they are old enough, is that alright?"

        "Yes."

        "Uncah Radium?"  One of the sons popped up with a bloody snout.

        "Yes something wrong?" he turned to him with a purring lick.

        "Is daddy sick?"

        "No, of course not."

        "But he...h-he don' wanna move o-or get food."

        "Well, because someone has to stay behind to look after you, and you only have him now."

        "Oh."  The little one looked down and licked his lips slightly.  "Why did mommy leave?"

        "Because...because she died," Radium gulped softly.

        "A-ah know, ah know she died but...why'd she leave?"

        "Because that...that is, well-"

        "Death is when you leave forever."  Sunscreech put aside his food and sat up proper.  "When you die, you can never come back."

        "But, wh-why?" the child walked up to him.  "Why can't you come back?"

        "Because your body cannot move.  Your blood stops and your mind stops thinking.  See this beast?"  He nudged his snout against the shrew.  "He is dead.  He had a family, but he died and now he can never go back to them."

        "Is...i-i-is someone eating mommy?"

        "No.  You can die without being eaten."

        "Wh-whyyyy?"

        "I...I-i do not know, son.  I do not know why your mother died.  But she did.  Sh-she is never coming back."

He started to choke from his throat whimpering as he laid himself down upon the soft bed of dried grass next to him.  Her smell still lingered as he shuddered sobbing with a tightening grimace and shook his head with grinding teeth.  He felt his son nuzzle against him, softly licking the blood off his lips.

        "Is okay daddy.  Ahm here."  He laid down beside his father.  "Yer here too, you've not died a-an' ah haven't died too."

        "I...I know son."

        "So, d-don' be sad, cuz ahm still here, lahk mah brudder a-an' mah sisters too."

        "I know.  I am...I-i am so happy you are all here."

He curled his head against the boy and licked his face, the other children soon approaching once they finished eating as they all curled up against their father.

        "I love you," he murmured to them quietly, "all of you, I love you.  No matter what...h-happens I will never leave you I...p-promise."

Radium smiled and left without a word leaving the family together as the hatchlings drifted off back to sleep next to Sunscreech.  The raptor in verdant black crossed the central hall of the cavern where Riptor sat upon her makeshift throne.

        "How is he?" she asked him in passing.

        "Still the same," he said with heavy sigh, "at least he is still eating and he cares for his children."

        "Keep an eye on him all the same, I don't want him to follow Methyl."

        "I know.  Fourteen months he has been like this, I'm worried about him."

        "I am too," she twitched her tail with a rippling of its scales.  "At least he stopped being angry at me."

        "You can hardly blame him," said Radium stepping forwards, "the newcomers didn't help either."

        "I was hoping they wouldn't recognise him but it doesn't matter what they think.  We're not in their tribe, they are in ours and Sunscreech is not some banished waif here, he is a loyal raptor like everyone else."

        "Exactly."  He leaned over towards the base of her seat.  "...did you do something with your tail?"

        "Yes."  She slipped her long bio-steel appendage in front of him to reveal a sharp metal blade at its tip.  "Sulphide helped me graft this thing on."

        "May I ask, why?" he cocked his head.

        "I like how it feels, he got so annoyed with me playing with it all the time he suggested why not just put it on my tail and make it a part of me?"  She shook her head with a deep chuckle.  "He should really know never to suggest things to me."

        "Iiii uh, seeeee well I'm going to tend to my family now so if you need anything-"

        "I know where you are yes."

She waved him off bending her tail towards herself, staring upon the blade as it failed to catch the light from the sun outside whilst she tapped it with her claws daintily.  Her stomach growled in protest at her waiting as she slinked off her seat with a half-roll onto the floor, stepping into the dawn of another morning upon the island.  The nests had grown since the newcomers had arrived, fresh wholesome raptors of an ancient world that had come to spread their fruits of labour upon her tribe.  The sounds and smells of newborn children.

        "Can you hear it?"  Sulphide slinked up behind her.  "The sounds of peace, of our future, my goddess."

        "Yes."  She smiled closing her eyes to the sun.  "So beautiful."

        "Purebred children, none of them defective, none of them struggling to breathe, I have counted each and everyone and they are perfect.  All of them."

        "It is...beautiful."  Riptor sighed as she gazed upon the nests.  "I cannot believe we've done it.  We are here Sulphide, we...we made it."

        "Free from those who would dare to control us," said the male purring against her, "free to become our own masters."

        "Just as nature intended us to be.  And yet...I can't stop thinking about that one you saw."

        "Oddclaw yes?"  He looked to the east.

        "How can such a raptor exist?" she turned to walk into the forest.  "Sunscreech mentioned an abomination so often that I assumed it was just a disabled sibling, but not this...this-"

        "Anomaly," said Sulphide diplomatic.

        "You are certain not a trace of human is in him?"

        "Absolutely, my tongue never lies concerning blood."

        "And yet he resembles one so...closely that it disturbs me.  What sort of existence could create such a raptor?"

        "From what I heard in the tribe, his father came from another world like we did."

        "Really?" she muttered scratching a tree in passing.  "An alternate evolution?"

        "Perhaps," he pondered moving towards another tree to squat against it, "he's certainly a purebreed of that there's no question."

        "And clearly not a mishap considering he has a child the same build."

        "Indeed," the sound of trickling water drizzled between his legs, "the child is no defect either, from the few days I spent he was as sharp and able to speak our language as his father does perfectly."

        "Hmmmm."  She tapped her toes against the softened earth.  "How are the newcomers?"

        "Wonderful," said Sulphide shaking his tail and stepping away from the tree, "they don't trust Sunscreech still but I assured them he is none of their business, that and his recent misfortune has softened them towards him."

        "I do not want him to be the centre of focus," she headed north catching the scent of prey, "I just want his children to survive and become strong to ensure our future."

        "What about you?" he asked slipping up beside her.  "Will you take a mate too?"

        "I am...not sure."

        "You didn't take any of the newcomers so I had to ask-"

        "I know Sulphide, I just don't...feel right with any of them."

        "Feel right?"  He cocked his head.

        "It...it's hard to explain," she sat herself down in a small ditch, "it doesn't feel like I should, like I...need the right male, I felt something pull in me when I saw all the new raptors that turned me away from them.  All of them."

        "Hmhmhmmm," Sulphide sat beside her with a gentle lick, "you cannot deny it now."

        "What?"

        "That your body knows what your mind refuses to believe out of your great modesty."

        "Oh don't do this again," she snorted rolling her eyes.

        "I'm just saying that you ARE the god-slayer and you're clearly the most intelligent, the most powerful, the most perfect of all of us that we could never hope to achieve!  That's why the humans failed to contain you yes, because everyone underestimated you!"

        "Even myself according to you?"

        "Weeeell if your body thinks it's true," the jaundiced raptor gave a lurid grin as she scoffed.

        "I don't mind when we're in private, just don't call me goddess or god-slayer in front of the newcomers, we're not a cult."

        "Of course I wouldn't, you know that."

        "Do I?"  She leaned close until their nostrils almost touched.  "Just accept that it's my choice who I decide worthy to breed with, if ever."

        "Understood."

Sulphide bowed with a gentle purr as they sat and waited for their prey to appear in the form of two young rodents skittering through the woods.  They never survived the morning as the raptors picked apart their bones to the bare before returning back to the nests, seeing the breach between shore and forest become more cluttered with babbling hatchlings and screeching families between cyber-studded beasts and ancient ferals.  Riptor walked the length of every nest checking over each little raptor with the studious gaze of a schoolmaster, strict but patient as they bowed respectfully whilst Sulphide traipsed on ahead to check on the slaves and their rafts.

        "How is everything?"

        "Good!" a newcomer chirped keeping her head low as the hatchlings yapped around Riptor's feet.

        "Your children are very lively."

        "O-oh, please forgive me alpha I will tell them to-"

        "No no, no that is good!"  She patted her front limb upon the mother's head.  "Relax.  I know you want to prove yourself in this new family but you are doing everything right."

        "I-i am?"

        "Of course you are," said the mother's cybernetic mate who licked her cheek.  "You've given me and my leader a wonderful future, thanks to you and those who came with you."

        "Thank you," she purred lowly, "I just...forgive me I was just so excited to explore a new home, though I never thought I would ever go across the sea!"

        "Hmhmhm, I know we're rather unusual" said Riptor licking a hatchling that nipped at her toes, [i]"but I'm glad that we can give you a new life."

        "Even if we are rather weird," said the new father nipping his mate, "first time you met me you kept trying to pull off my marking!"

        "I thought it was a smallwing!" she giggled with a gentle bark at her son trying to attack Riptor's foot.  "I have never seen hunters such as your tribe before, it is as if parts of you are made of stone!"

        "Hmhmhahaha, yeaaaah it is kinda weird but I'm glad we didn't frighten you off."  The father bent down to pull his son back as he rasped in protest.  "I never thought I'd ever be a dad, I'm really happy you came."

        "I am happy too," she bent down to clean one of her daughters that picked at a rodent's head, "I just tired of the same trees and the same sea with the same scents that I smelled every day that even the hairless visiting us became boring."

        "We are more than happy to have you here-...wait."  Riptor squinted leaning her head back.  "Hairless?"

        "Yes, the hairless warmbloods that come to visit us, they are friends of our tribe."

        "What do you mean by that, I don't...like mammals without fur?"

        "Yes they are very odd!" she growled at her son trying to take her daughter's food.  "They have very small heads like fruits, and they stand like a tree would despite being shorter than us.  Actually even they have stones on their bodies protect themselves, just as your tribe do!"

        "That sounds very unus-..." her voice drifted as her eyes widened with a distant look.  "No."

        "Hmm?" the new mother looked up swishing her earthy tail.  "No what?"

        "I...these, hairless warmbloods, do they look like this?"

She scratched out a vague shape in the dirt, forming a circular head with a long stick-thin body along with two arms and legs.

        "OH!" the mother cried with a chirr.  "That is them yes, do you know them too?!"

        "I know them well."  She dug her foot into the picture and raked her claws through.  "Where did these creatures live?"

        "Across the sea north of us, they are such odd beasts but Oddclaw made friends with them!"

        "Wha-...Oddclaw, a-and who is that?!"

        "The one you call um...S-suh, sull-fyde, spoke to him, I think he knows him."

        "And just how did this Oddclaw even make friends with su-"

        "RIPTOR, R-RIPTOR COME QUICK!"

        "Wh-WHAT is it I'm busy!"  She turned to a blue-streaked guard running frantically towards her.

        "S-some, s-s-something in the mountains, SOMETHING BIG!"

        "What, what kind of somethi-"

        "H-HURRY PLEASE I-I-IT'S COMING!"

        "Ugh," she stood up turning to the new mother, "when I return, tell me more about these 'hairless' alright?"

        "U-um...alright?"

With a look between her and the cybernetic mate that understood slowly with a gasp of shock, Riptor tightened her lips to bade him silent as she followed the guard down towards the sandbar that bridged the forest to the mountain ridge.  The raptors down at the beach had all stopped working, turning their heads towards something that frightened the slavefish as they frothed the waters around them in panic.  The sky had burst open to form a crackling halo of piercing light, almost blinding like the eclipse as the beasts struggled to watch amidst a great howling gale that shuddered through the mountain valley like the breath of an ancient dragon.

        "IT, I-I-IT'S COMING!"

        "H-HOH, NO PLEASE, P-PLEASE LET US GO I DON'T WANNA DIE, I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

        "CALM, DOWN, none of you are dying just stop fidgeting!"

        "What's happened?" Riptor stepped through the crowd.

        "Something is coming from the sky," murmured Sulphide, "it just happened a few minutes ago we don't know what it is."

        "That...a dimensional portal?"

        "It looks like it."

        "Keep the newcomers back," she murmured into his ear, "they won't understand, I'll investigate this, you four come with me!"

        "Yes Riptor."

The four guards followed behind Riptor as Sulphide went back to the nests, seeing already a cluster of the new raptors looking down towards the assembly.

        "What is happening?!"

        "I-is there skyfire?!"

        "Everything is fiiiiine," said Sulphide raising his front limbs, "just a little tropical storm nothing to fear, it happens."

        "Th-that is no skyfire I have ever seen-"

        "Well you have never been to the islands have you, just get back to your little ones and we'll take care of-"

GHHHRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARH!

        "A-AAAIIIIIIGH!"

        "H-HOH, WHAT IS THAT?!"

Something fell from the portal with a god's fury echoing across the sea.  A black mass that crunched into the mountain with such force that one of the peaks cracked completely in half and started falling into the sea.  A rumbling tremor that they felt beneath their feet as the raptors started panicking, both past and future clamouring even louder as the ocean began to seethe with unnatural rage.

        "WHA-THE MOUNTAIN IS FALLING!"

        "What is that THING?!"

        "Everyone be QUIET!" Sulphide shrieked above the noise.  "Riptor is investigating it now, please return to your nests and keep your children safe!"

        "I DON'T WANNA DIIIE!"

        "KEEP THOSE SLAVES UNDER CONTROL, EVERYONE ELSE GET BACK!"

The wind became harsher as the trees started to shiver with fear, claws invisible raking the sea to become a horde of phantoms that haunted the isle amidst cowering raptors that gathered beside their frightened children.  Riptor led her guards up towards the crumbling mountain valley, rocks scattering before them as boulders crunched and rolled down the sharp steep ridges.  The sound of a deep beast could be heard just ahead as Riptor silently motioned with her tail to keep their heads down and walk slower through the valley.  They tightened their throats and stepped between the boulders, keeping their distance from the rolling rocks that threatened to crush them at a moment's notice from the constant vibrations under their feet.  In the midst of the mountain forge they heard something eating, crunching hard teeth crackling stone like brittle glass as they came upon the source.

        "What...what the fuck is that?"

Beneath the burning halo was a horrific black mass, grand grotesque at 20 feet with yellow lines streaked across its appendages of which there were nine sprouting from its entire body.  Two thick legs the size of tree trunks, two sharpened vestigial wings from its shoulders above a thick mace-like tail, two smaller arms either side of its head and its final two limbs that slithered from its front like blind serpents with tremendous jaws that carved into the mountainside like bulldozers, pulling rocks into its central shape with a sickening mechanical crunch as the mountain peak above nearly fell on top of it.  The creature opened its mouth above and let the rocks fall into its gullet as it grew larger, plumpening with a bestial snarl as it became rabid in its devouring of the entire cliff that disappeared within minutes.  The more it would feast the greater the rumblings came beneath.

        "Look at the size of that thing!" gasped a guard of stainless steel.

        "Not the biggest thing I have seen," murmured Riptor.

        "I-it's eating the mountain, look it already ate the entire PEAK that was there before!"

        "I've never seen something eat that much."

        "What...what do we do?"

        "What else, we kill it."

        "A thing that can eat mountains?!" shuddered a red-tinted raptor.

        "Either we kill it or it eats this entire island," she snarled at him, "I am NOT losing our pack again, not when we have children, not when we have a future."

        "B-but-"

        "ENOUGH!  Arsenic, Thulium, move to its left, Hassium and Solder go right we'll try to keep it from moving out the valley."

        "Yes Riptor."

They took their positions as the creature finally noticed them, turning its body round to face Riptor and reveal its monstrous face comprised of a single gaping maw of deep synthetic blue where its teeth twisted and screeched like a metal crusher in three circles, its fat leathery tongue sitting between its golden jaws from which the giant twin snakes that slithered out of its gullet.  A small crown of black sat at the peak of its head with its own set of eyes above the two venomous blue pupils just above its gigantic maw.

        "Can you speak?" she asked first.

        "HE AHA KAHI HUNA?" its voice alone cracked the earth between them.

        "You are disturbing my pack and devouring our home.  I will ask you only once to leave and take your feast elsewhere."

        "HIKI 'OE KE HAKAKA?  HELE MAI KA MAKE."

        "Will you leave this island?"  She braced herself with tightening claws.  "If you do not, your corpse shall lie here."

        "KUKAI MAKA?I AKUA E KOLOHE ANA.  HALA NUI.  GU'ZLOR."

        "NOW, ATTACK!"

The four raptors leapt upon the beast from above having climbed up the ridge to make an aerial assault.  Two clamped down on its back wings whilst two more yanked at its upper arms to try and twist them out of their joints, but the creature threw itself back against the cliff to try and crush the raptors.  They leapt off quick before shooting out their tails like twin spears to plunge into its body and rake across its leathery hard skin.  Half the raptors circled to its left and blasted fire from their throats into its side, causing it to swing its serpentine tendril like a hammer and crush hard against the rock when they ducked underneath.  One raptor almost became crushed from the falling debris as they quickly dodged back with Riptor heading right to slice out her own tail like a razor whip, her added blade at the end of her tip cutting far deeper than expected as the Guzzlord roared with surprise at the fresh wound.

        "KAKAI LOAAAA!"

        "KEEP HIM BUSY!" she cried.

Her guards quickly started jumping and snapping at the monster, pulling at its limbs and biting its feet before it suddenly belched a thickening smog as black as itself, toxic fog choking their lungs as they screeched and pulled back to evade its horrendous acid breath.  Feeling another wound streak across its back, the beast swung its club-spiked tail with the force of iron towards Riptor's head as she strafed fast to dodge the crunching blow, cracking the stone with shards of dust before it turned to the cliff and started to climb with impossible strength.  She hurried after with claws digging into the cracks it left behind as her team followed into the remaining peaks, the Guzzlord digging up more of its feast in passing as it shovelled rocks into its mouth whilst the ridge decayed further.  Lines ran deep as the mountain shook in its severing, a slope peeling off from the valley to loom back and teeter over the sea as two raptors hopped quickly from one crackling mass to the other amidst the rumbling death ot the earth.

        "R-RIPTOR!"

        "KEEP CLIMBING, STAY CLOSE TO ME!"

Leaping from slope to slope, the mountain cracked more at the seams until the entire western ridge of the valley was falling, parting from its peaks as if a giant blade had cut through them in half as they slid treacherously further to the sea with raptors and Guzzlord in tow still devouring the stone around itself.  The raptors staggered and leapt back towards the mainland as their stone platforms started to tilt evermore towards the sea, rushing as one and jumping over the faults that burst beneath their feet to send deadly shards of shrapnel all around them, the sky turning above their heads as the sea came to meet them with a twisting sense of vertigo.  Sensing its platform about to break, the grand devourer leapt towards another cliff and crunched with the weight of a tank, crackling the precipice before continuing to feast with carving maws that ripped and sundered the ancient rock into spittling pieces that fell into its abysmal tongue, growing ever slightly more with each gulp as the raptors advanced upon him.

        "STOP EATING YOU FAT SHIT!"

        "SOLDER NO!"

The stainless-steel raptor charged him without thinking, leaping upon his back and frantically plunging his tail into its spine with the briefest success as its twin tips dug and twisted like a dagger too short.  The beast swung its tail upwards to try and crush him but Soldier leapt up quickly to avoid it as the Guzzlord reared its head upwards.  The raptor bellowed a plume of flame into its throat but it did nothing to stop his fate as the ultra-beast swallowed him whole to the sound of his scream.

        "NOOOOO!"

A brief spatter of blood burst from its lips, flicking its grotesque tongue to clean what little there was along with the remains of a raptor's tail left limp against the sides of its grinding twisting teeth that circled constantly like a thresher.

        "KAHIKI GU'ZLOR!"

        "GET BACK, GET BACK!"

The creature puffed up its body with a sudden heave before belching a huge cloud of poisonous gas, burning black that seethed with bubbling heat as the raptors quickly pulled away to circle round the beast.  Its eyes twitched upon Riptor as it drooled with a new taste, thundering towards her as a blue light started to form from its body that thickened with a deep power.  Faster it came with the speed of a train building up as she jumped towards a cliff wall to climb higher above him, but the beast had other plans when it slammed its whole body with a dragon rush straight into the base of the peak.  The mountain began to creak, groaning with despair as it poleaxed diagonal reaching out to sea, stronger than its previous brothers who had fallen so easily beneath the gargantuan hunger.  The Guzzlord crunched its way upwards with hidden claws in its thick feet, slathering its jaws upon the ultraraptor who climbed upwards keeping it away from her guards who looked on with fright whilst evading the constant blizzard of boulders that trundled and crunched through the valley into the sea, some of which came close to barrelling towards the sandbar.

        "KEEP THE ROCKS AWAY FROM THE BEACH!" she shouted.

        "WH-WHAT ABOUT YOU?!" they cried up.

        "IF THIS BASTARD WANTS ME HE'LL BE WILLING TO DIE FOR IT!"

Riptor puffed up her throat to suddenly burst a rain of fire upon the creature's eyes, the monster snarling with irritation from the acidic burns that licked across its sclera as it continued to climb upwards, its brobdignagian girth causing the mountain to further tilt as the earth itself quaked under their feet.  The raptor swung out her tail with full unlinking, swishing it round her body and snapping it towards the Guzzlord's face to tempt it closer.

        "COME ON, YOU EITHER EAT OR YOU DIE RIGHT?!"

        "MAKA POLOLI!"

        "THEN TRY AND CATCH ME!"

She suddenly charged without warning as the mountain became a full diagonal slant, gripping her claws into the stone as she made a flying forward flip as if ready to jump in its throat before slicing out her tail at the last minute to stop short like a buzzsaw blade scarring between its eyes, the extended blade of metal in her tip gouging through its skull as the ultra-beast roared with a shock of pain to its head.  The monster grabbed a loosened chunk of stone with its teeth and hurled it towards the raptor but she dodged underneath to swerve right and leap onto its side with her jaws ripping at its wing, surging heat in her teeth to scorch its frail appendage and blacken its root as the glutton snarled and spun frantically to throw her off.  Its tail swung for her head as she backflipped off its body, blasting a volley of fireballs across its skull and hitting the crown-shaped peak twice to make it reel with anguish.

The world further tilted as the mountain almost became horizontal, the sky and the sea twisting as the horizon spun slowly like a compass to a magnet, the raptor's stomach turning to adjust as she gritted her teeth and waited for its next attack.  The creature came charging with its thick mouth-arms stomping like two hammers towards her, crunching the stone harder as cracks formed even further like egg shells beneath their feet.  Waiting for the second last blow to crush inches from her face, she dodged straight beneath its arm and leapt onto its back with claws digging into the wounds as she clamped her jaws upon its crown and viciously started to tear, pushing her feet against either side and gouging her claws into the base to twist and rend its roots even deeper out of its skull.  The monster roared and shuddered from the breaching agony that crept through its face, trying to swing its arms above its head to grab her with their teeth as she deflected with her tail, driving her three-tips into both sinister limbs as the beast shook with building rage.

It would be the mountain that threw her off when it suddenly creaked even further from the Guzzlord's weight, the gluttonous giant stomping its feet even harder with short hefty jumps until she was forced to leap straight in front of the ultra-beast who lunged with its maw as she quickly jumped back to stab her tail deep into one of its eyes, twisting through the glassy pupil until it cracked with a harrowed scream that shook the sky, black blood pouring down its face as it stumbled back from the piercing sting of her tail as she pulled and thrust back towards its other eye to force it on the defensive, the monster countering with a full spin of its tail as it stretched its appendage like a rubber fist straight towards her face, crunching into her snout with a deep bruise and bursting wounds that dotted her face.

The tail came back for a heavy swing as she ducked and leapt back further out of range towards the edge of the mountain that slowly dipped closer to the sea.  The monster's rage shook through its body as a pale azure consumed its being, a frightening visage as its energy burned with infernal waves that ripped through the mountain's peak, shattering it almost fully in half as the burning force of a dragon awakened within the beast.  The gorgon braced its feet and charged with unholy strength, wide open jaws and the death of everything within its endless hunger as Riptor clenched the muscles of her body with a few steps back.  The Guzzlord roared with teeth whirring faster, blending into a fade as she jumped across the splitting ridge to let it burn towards the edge of the peak, forcing it to stop hard with a shudder of its godly brace, turning to meet Riptor's gaze as her tail slashed across its remaining eye to force it back into a stagger.

        "COME ON YOU FAT SHIT-EATING BITCH, YOU WANNA EAT HUH!?  YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE MY FUTURE AWAY FROM ME?!"

She laid her head down almost fully towards the crumbling floor as it roared swinging its tail down like a scorpion from above its head, before Riptor backed off immediately to let its mace-club crunch into the stone and shatter its platform apart from the rest of the mountain.  She shoved her tail underneath and with a vicious crunch snapped the rock off into the Guzzlord's mouth forcing it to eat its own tail with a gulping shock as it stuttered in suffocation.  The desire to feast clashed with its urge to stop as its tail became ripped within its infinite stomach, trapped by itself as the creature choked harder and harder with roars stuttering harder as it turned short of breath, its throat filling up with its own body in gasping shrieks as it panted desperately with Riptor's grin etched on her face.

        "You know what happens to gods?!  They find me."  She slinked her tail in front of its wounded gaze.  "They find...death."

The raptor plunged her tail deep into the stone between them as it suddenly shattered taking the tip of the peak off before the rest of the mountain would fall along with it.  The Guzzlord shuddered with a scream as it fell towards the sea, choking upon itself as Riptor immediately raced back towards the valley amidst crumbling debris and crackling shards that snapped suddenly in front of her, threatening to impale her as she swerved and leapt over pieces of the mountain that fell before she could, the horizon slanting faster as the former peak bent even faster to a diagonal as she clambered desperately over footholds forming further and deeper within the avalanche ensuing.

She grasped the base of the mountain cliff just before it severed completely from the rest of the world, jumping with full spring of adrenaline as her claws sunk deep aganst the edge of the precipice, her body hanging over the brink as she scrabbled herself up onto solid ground as she heard the ocean consume everything with beast and all sending a tremendous wave of water to storm towards the island.  Her eyes widened in horror as she watched half the sandbar become swallowed by the sea in a raging surge, the rafts torn apart by the tsunami as raptors fled in panic to higher ground and the icthyosaurs trapped by their leashes shrieked within the bucking furore of the waves until they finally settled.  A few minutes of silence gave time to breathe as she heard voices cry out to each other, broken rafts and split logs with felled trees along the shore as she looked back towards the valley.  The mountains were gone and the moon shone through the remaining husk of the canyon.

        "RIPTOR!"  Sulphide came racing up with golden back glinting in the light.  "R-riptor, riptor are you alright?!"

        "Yes."

He nuzzled her frantically with shivering purrs and desperate licks to her wounded face.

        "I-i-i...I thought, that-"

        "You know me better than that."  She smirked breathless as she licked him back.  "I saw the flood, is everything alright?"

        "I-i haven't checked, I was more worried about you wh-what happened?!"

        "A beast came from beyond and I killed it.  Solder is dead."

        "Oh...wh-where, where's its body?"

        "In the sea choking on its own tail.  We have another problem."

        "What, is there more of them?!"

        "No," she shook her head walking past him, "something more frustrating."

        "What?!"  He followed up beside her.

        "One of the newcomers I spoke to...she told me of these 'hairless warmbloods' that apparently exist."

        "What, hairless...like, mammals without fur?"

        "Yes.  Mammals without fur, that stand on two legs.  With hands."

His face dropped with a blank stare as he shook his head slowly.

        "No...y-you don't mean-"

        "There's nothing else it can be," she said biting her teeth, "check for casualties first, then the slaves then rebuild the rafts, we have to leave this island."

        "Wh-what?!  Riptor but-"

        "Not now but soon, when the children are able.  We have to form a meeting about this with the rest of our original pack."

        "A-alright...and, you are sure that thing is dead?"

        "Did you forget, my son?"  She turned back to him with a creeping grin.  "God-slayer was my original purpose and those who dare to face me, shall not live to see their futures."