CHPT 520: Not Yet Awake.

Saturday, March 21st, 2241. Ra Stadium, The Sunlands….

What more was there to say about sleep other than the fact that it got bloodier? Jack took the center focus like an actor who'd finally gotten his big break in the famous nightmares play of Claude's Nightmares. His footsteps echoed through the Deviant in snaps and screams. The snapping of Stella's Companions throat. Her scream. Her destruction.

When Claude woke up, it wasn't a snarling swinging feral mess as usual. It was calm. An opening of his eyes as he uncomfortably rose from the couch, stretching out his muscles and stiff joints— taking note of the light tap on the window behind him.

He turned on his heels, feeling Loba's eyes hard on him from her spot in the hospital bed with Stella. Much like Frosty, she was ready to move…. And eat. He could feel their fresh energy and hunger— maximizing his own. Making him laugh at the singular burst of Lupine energy he used to feel most mornings. It was nothing in comparison.

Nothing compared to Frosty, Loba, Diamondback, Ursula, Cassidy. Entire bodies of hormones, urges and complex thought, funneled into his own mind.

He'd almost forgotten another. The very being that had woken him from his horrific sleep with repeated beak taps to the window.

Blackbeak. Either he hadn't left…. Or he'd learned to fly at supersonic speeds.

After seeing a massive black skinned androgynous vampire giant and a Humanoid Bat Necromancer the impossible felt very tangible.

He opened the window. The long legged Umbral Raven stepped inside and hopped onto the top of Cassidy's head. His massive curled claws dug into the leather.

The birds feathers shimmered under the shadows as if it was black sunlight. The hooks at the start of its beak smelled of meat and blood. Claude could see Blackbeak in his minds eye drilling that devastating bladed knife of nature into the throat of some unknowing prey. Deep enough to puncture the windpipe and then some. Deep enough to make the hooks near its face catch flesh and rip its throat clean out. Then all the avian shadow had to do was fly and watch the end. Circling like vultures….

Vultures….

The word echoed— the metaphor came again in another form as two bodies sluggishly dragged themselves out of one of the Tangent Scenario domes. In fact, it was the one they'd all used two days ago. The one they met Jack in.

The one they left Samuel and Bengal in. Samuels father must've forced the Tournament coordinators to leave the portals open. Of course they weren't dead.

Of course they—

In a soundless blur, Claude reached down towards Cassidy's sleeping frame and pulled one of his autobows out of his holster.

The grip of the weapon was foreign. Cold metal lacing polished wood. Uneven and heavy on the fro side from the spinning chamber of steel bolts and high quality sight with an eternally glowing reticle. A glow that matched his own eyes as he borrows BlackBeaks traits.

His bones thinned. His body weight grew light and airy. His nails sharpened into talons. His vision sharpened.

Focusing in on Samuel and Bengal. Bloody and broken. Samuel's knights armor was broken and torn off in most areas. He steamed, fresh after being transformed. Bruises, welts and bite marks made him unrecognizable to anyone who wasn't as obsessed as himself.

Bengal trailed behind him missing an arm. Lupine of Remus blood died the sands as they approached the sanded platform.

His finger itched on the trigger as if it was a blade at Samuels throat. As if Stella hadn't lost her entire mind yet and reminded Claude of his horrifying mortality. As if.....

"You take my weapon... and hesitate? This is blasphemous, wolfboy." Cassidy spoke into his mind as he coolly adjusted himself on the couch. "But…. Maybe it's all for the best, huh? We know the pyramid heads start their shifts when the sun rises, don't we?"

Claude watched as the Sunlandian Guards rushed the stage, surrounding the students to asses their injuries and personal identities.

Claude never dropped the weapon as he aimed out the window.

Even as student screams erupted below ground in the dugout and the thunder came rolling in.

Another student went missing overnight. They either had a full blown student kidnapper or something far worse.

Claude wanted to say he had too much on his plate to care. But something about all of it stayed at the back of his mind…