Kale stood a fair distance away from the commotion with a slight smirk as he ripped off his mask. Fangs bared from his mouth in a way so that he couldn’t close his mouth properly. Zair stood atop his shoulder, meowing, and another cat, with two different colored eyes, stood by Kale’s feet, looking agitated. Kale had a hold on the cat, holding it back, however.

Grant’s body had begun to change. He screamed as his body twisted atop the ground and the masked pursuers all jumped back.

“Ambri! What have you done!? We were supposed to use that drug once they were inside the cages!” a voice shouted.

She looked terrified. “I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE SEDATIVE! WHY WOULD WE EVEN BRING THE OTHER ONE WITH!?”

The four figures surrounded Grant as they tried to wrack their brains with some way to stop his inevitable coming outburst. Kale never stepped any closer, his presence was that of a scarecrow on a neighbor’s farm. Watching four crows with their wings snapped, trying their best to escape the situation before the mighty predator would eat.

“You have to have brought the sedative, right!?” Ambri screeched.

“We-uh, no…” another voice said.

“Damn it! What are we going to do? The first transformation is always the hardest to handle!” Ambri’s nails began to grow into blades as well as everyone else’s around her.

“We can only hope for the best… If it comes to the worst case, we’ll just have to kill him.”

“We can’t do that…” Ambri muttered. “Do you know how much time Lars has spent advancing this procedure to where it is now?! He’d kill me if this went to waste! Which drug did I give him anyway!? Please be one of the minor ones...”

As they pinned Grant down, trying to get his body to calm, fangs shot out from his mouth as his eyes glowed a bright yellow. His hair grew and tangled all the way down to his back, fluffing out and raising, as if charged with static electricity. His nails dug deep into the ground as he was forced to the ground. A few seconds passed and his muscles grew and he jumped up with the force of a small explosion, causing his pursuers to jump back.

“What is happening with his eyes?” one of the masked people asked.

“I-I don’t know…” Ambri said. “They are kind of creeping me out.”

The yellow glow of his eyes pierced through everyone around him as he did quick takes, observing his enemies. Grant no longer looked human. He appeared as a beast with a violent grin creasing on his face. His tongue wrapped around his massive fangs as he breathed in deep.

“We’ve got to do something now!” Ambri shouted as fangs grew from her mouth. She led her group and charged in on Grant, creating a tight circle around him.

A roar echoed over the field as Grant threw his arms out to the side. His arms were now three times as big as before, his legs too.

Ambri’s crew took turns jumping in and making an effort to slash at Grant, but each time his instincts were too sharp and he blocked their nails with his, sparks flew with each graze of a blade.

Grant had no signs of slowing down, in fact it seemed to be the opposite. With each attack aimed at him, he seemed to grow even more violent. After a couple rounds of the masked group taking turns with hits, they knew they were going to have to go all out soon.

“Are you sure we can’t kill him…” one of the masks said.

“Yeah, I’ve already told you! We can’t kill—” Ambri’s voice was halted by a body that flew past her vision. She turned her head to look at the body as she trembled. Blood pooled, creating a puddle in the grass.

“I’M GOING TO KILL HIM!” another masked figure shouted.

Ambri didn’t say anything. She only shook in horror.

An arm flew across the field, almost smacking her in the face. The body followed right after.

“WE’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!” The third masked person said as he began to run. But, Grant leaped forward, grabbed his leg and tore it off. The masked man screamed as he still tried to crawl away, but Grant didn’t give in. He leapt forward and gave the masked man a final stab, leaving the field a bloody battlefield.

Ambri’s body trembled as she fell to the ground. “No… Frei.... Daniel… Momo…” She cast her gaze at Momo’s body who lied closest to her. She was struggling to breathe.

“Ambri… I guess this is a fitting end, huh? I honestly don’t know what to think anymore... We’ve done our fair share of wrong things… Maybe this is what we deserve… Being killed by our own creations...”

“You’re wrong Momo! We are doing this for the good of everyone! It’s not wrong!” Ambri cried and Momo’s body turned still.

Grant started approaching Ambri, eyeing her, panting.

“Momo!?” Ambri’s eyes darted between Grant and her friend’s corpse. She searched for her other two friends, but all she was greeted with were unmoving mutilated bodies.

“Grant!” Ambri started charging towards him, her form starting to change, her eyes set to kill, but Kale swooped in, blocking the path to the blonde beast. Kale stared at her with a calm look, mask and gloves removed.

“Nah, you can’t handle Grant on your own,” Kale said, as he raised one hand to her, forcing her to halt her rampage. The other hand held a frantic, struggling black cat with one blue and one green eye.

“So, are you finally going to help me?!” Ambri raised her claws and pricked one of them into Kale’s arms and blood trickled down. Zair jumped off of his shoulder and instantly grew taller than both Kale and Ambri, resembling a lion.

Kale began to laugh, uncontrollably. Then immediately spun and kicked Ambri. His foot pressed into her stomach with intense force, causing her to gasp. She flew through the air and smashed into her car, denting the door. Kale turned and looked at Grant. Kale knew it would be reckless for even him to even deal with this monster right now, especially if he let this cat get loose from him; that would be the worst case scenario. Even with Zair, they wouldn’t be able to bring them down to reasonable levels without getting harmed themselves. He wasn’t going to risk losing himself or his companion.

Kale pet the massive Zair and helped calm him back to his house cat size. They weren’t here to waste time fighting.

“Kale! What are you doing!?” Lars hobbled up to him and stared at Ambri.

She was dazed, staring at her fallen comrades.

“I’m ready guys!” Kale shouted.

Three creatures flew up into the sky and approached him. He picked up Zair and placed him back on his shoulder and got a better grasp on the raging black cat.

“Kale!? Why are the vulthos coming here!? And why do you have that other cat?” Lars’s hateful glare pierced through Kale, who responded with a smile.

“What an ugly sight…” Larkin, one of the vulthos said, as he looked over the bloody mess.

Three humans with massive dark black wings were dressed in black feathered shirts, pants, and helmets, hovering above Kale. One of them grinned. One of them shook their head. The other seemed completely indifferent to the situation.

“Yeah, let’s get you out of here, Kale,” Yvette said, sounding worried. “There are more cars coming!”

The end of Lars’s limb opened up to a mouth of needles as he decreased the distance between himself and Kale, who licked his fangs. Grant was still observing, preparing himself in case someone attacked again.

“Now!” Kale shouted as Lars tried latching onto Kale.

The three vulthos’ talons each grabbed onto Kale, and they took him to a low altitude in the sky. They flew towards Grant, and Kale kicked his shoe off at him as they passed over him.

The beast’s yellow eyes glowed brighter and Grant began chasing after them.

“Well, that is new…” Kale said. “Elijah’s eyes didn’t even do that.”

“How do you actually expect this plan to work, Kale?” Larkin asked.

“We’ll just have to lure him to a forest and wait for him to tire out,” Kale said, still pondering the idea.

“Babysitting a monster?” Yvette sighted.

“It wouldn’t be our first time,” Hage finally spoke up.

Kale stared out into the horizon, as he sailed through the sky. Zair moved about, trying to get in a comfortable position while the unruly cat wrestled with Kale, causing them to shift side to side.

“Don’t worry Elijah. I’ve got a plan. Please, just hold out a bit longer.”