"Well, you heard me. Today is your lucky day!" eX-0281 unlocked the door but stood fast so they did not dash out to freedom. "Follow me out calmly, and let me do the talking. The elevator is activated by my keycard, so there's no sense in getting hasty."

The other three humans all marched out of the cell, but the most important one—the lycan shifter—remained seated in the corner.

"Come on, Amaya," said the other woman, Miranda. "You won't feel any better sitting in that cage alone."

Slowly, the lycan shifter staggered up. The pupils within her light blue eyes had dilated and constricted unevenly, only making her look all the more deranged. She stared straight at eX-0281. "Do you want me to come with you? I'm either the biggest asset or the biggest burden, depending on what you're going for here." A string of giggles slipped past Amaya's clenched teeth.

"Of course. Come with us." eX-0281 waved her out and wished that they could hurry this up.

"I understand," she jeered. Amaya bounded past the bars and joined the others.

With a deep breath, eX-0281 began walking back down the hall. His tail dragged after him, the multiple sets of boots stomping in his wake. Hopefully the four eco-terrorists had a smidgen of combat skills to back up their escape attempt, or else he would be leading them to their doom.

I suppose that's what I'm expecting of them.

The rattling laughter of Amaya unsettled him, making him feel worse and worse about what would happen upstairs.

Like the emo boy had said, they were going to get shafted by the legal system if they stayed here. Everyone had put themselves in harm's way by attending the protest, and it was only natural for them to want to fight their way back out.

eX-0281 was just giving them that fighting chance, or so he tried to remind himself.

Quick in her light steps, Mrs. Bouchard followed slightly behind him. She would have walked at his side if not for their faked formality. "I don't know what's going on," she began hesitantly, "but thank you."

"I know Charlotte," eX-0281 whispered. "It's a long story, but I'm here to save you, Mrs. Bouchard."

"Please. Call me Josie." Her eyes seemed to twinkle with wonderment, obviously grateful that anybody would come to help her. A thousand questions must run through her head about her daughter's association with him, but Josie waited for a quieter time to ask.

Instead, she tried to introduce the others.

"I already scanned them," he said hastily. "I know their names." These people could stick with him and haunt him, wondering exactly what happened to them after tonight. "I'm eX-0281, by the way," he added in a mutter.

The elevator raced upwards, the numbers flicking lower as they ascended.

B5….

Buckling from her hyena cackles, Amaya clenched her arms around her midsection. "Oh, this is just spectacular." Her words came out too deep for a woman's voice and rumbled with a growl.

A shudder ran up eX-0281's shoulders. The Disco Menace's voice echoed around in his head.

You better be prepared to take out the wolf if it turns on you.

B4….

"I wanted to go to the protest," Amaya continued, "like a normal person. I didn't take my medication beforehand—you know, in case anything happened." Through that constant laughter, a tone of distress was evident in her voice. Nearly breaking down to tears, Amaya kept biting at her nails so that no bloody finger was safe. "If the GPC didn't arrest me, I could've gone home and taken my medicine. Everything would've been just fine!"

B3….

Miranda hovered close to Amaya, trying to soothe her. Josie did the same, but eX-0281 knew that he needed to protect her at all costs. Snatching her away, he said a few kind words to Amaya instead.

"Hey. I know it's really hard to resist our instincts to shift. Just hold off a little bit longer, until we get up there. You're doing a really good job." The thick talon of his thumb stuck into the air, trying to offer her a thumbs up.

B2….

"Ha," Amaya huffed out heavily. "That's easy for you to say, sub-dragon."

"Yeah? I know," he moaned. eX-0281 felt grateful that his dual forms existed in a state of harmony. The instability of the wolf forms is what made lycanthrophy considered a disorder, never mind the infections.

"Aw, man," Zeke said, "this is gonna be wicked. Do you have a berserker form, Amaya? Am I going to see a werewolf go berserk and a sub-dragon hit rage mode?"

"Huh?" eX-0281 asked. What does he mean by rage mode?

B1….

There was no time to ask, as they would arrive to the ground level momentarily. Pulling the gun from his back, eX-0281 prepared for action. "Stick close to me, Josie. We're making a dash for the doors."

As the ding resounded, Zeke jumped to the side and jabbed the close door button of the elevator. Per their programming, the doors began to open but shut quickly thereafter. "Shh. I sense a plant." Eyes fluttering closed, he leaned his back up against the doors and seemed to fall into a trance.

Now that eX-0281 had time to ask a question, he asked a much more confounding one. "What's he even doing?"

"Shh," the other man, Cassius, said. "He senses a plant. Zeke's our D-class nature mage!" Such a tone of pride lifted in his voice.

eX-0281 stifled a snort. Normal people did not consider D-class or E-class particularly worthy of designation as a mage. The E-class could only do the basic [Bend] for their element, while D-class could [Bend] and [Manifest].

"Really? What's he doing to a plant out there without even a spell to his name?"

"Shh!" Zeke snapped more harshly. "I'm trying to concentrate."

A few quiet moments passed before there were some harsh screams outside. A shrill woman's cry was followed by an angry guttural sound of a sub-dragon.

"I've distracted one of them," Zeke said proudly. "You're up, Amaya."

"Let's take out the rest!" Cassius cheered.

A snarling sound came from Amaya as she gnashed her human teeth. Her molars clattered together a few times under her shaky jaw, then the sound became sharper as the teeth extended into canines. Pointed ears popped up at the top of her head and grew a blonde colored fur like the rest of her hair. A big, floofy tail unfurled from the top of her pants which contrasted with the massive claws for her hands.

All the while, she continued snarling and ripped her head from side to side. Spittle came from her elongated snout, topped with a dog's nose and flashing eyes.

Name: Amaya Silver [Lycan Shifter (Partial Wolf Form)]

Vitality: 78%

Discrete Parts: Left Shoulder (100%), Right Shoulder (100%), Nose (100%)

An almost relieved sigh left eX-0281's lips, glad he did not have to deal with her in berserker form. "Ready?" he asked Josie.

"Ready," her shaky voice said. "I-I don't like this!"

Before she could do anything else, the elevator doors opened. A sub-dragon was so near to them, he must have been waiting for the elevator to arrive. eX-0281 shoved his gun immediately into Josie's hands so that he could have his claws free.

At the same time, Amaya rushed out first and attacked a sub-dragon farther off in the very center of the room. Her frame crashed into him before he could finish reaching for the gun on his back. The claws dove straight for the neck and tore off a section of his helmet in the process.

Streaks of red were flung into the air as the helmet pieces clattered to the side. The sub-dragon horns kept the rest of the helmet intact, and the back of the skull bounced limply against the ground.

Target: fC-2492 [Sub-Dragon (Dragon Form)]

Vitality: 38%

The surprise attack made him sustain a great deal of damage, but the thick, scaly neck kept him alive. Instead of continuing to grab for his gun, he brought both his claws down on Amaya overhead.

A puppy's yelp curled from her lips as the draconic claws sank into her collarbones. The attack just narrowly missed her neck from the way that she lurched back.

Name: Amaya Silver [Lycan Shifter (Partial Wolf Form)]

Vitality: 70%

Discrete Parts: Left Shoulder (72%), Right Shoulder (76%), Nose (100%)

The fellow she had taken down was not the only sub-dragon in the immediate vicinity. In her eagerness to attack, she had bolted straight past the sub-dragon nearest to the elevator door. He had held his own criminal in restraints, ready to take them down to the cells below, but he had since released him.

The civilian backed into a corner of the wall, holding his handcuffed hands up. The panic was evident in his eyes as the scuffle was underway.

"What the heck?" The sub-dragon leaped back from shock with his attention fully focused on Amaya. The lycan had run so close to him, he probably felt her fur brush past the scales of his hands.

Likewise, before this enemy could reach for the gun, eX-0281 burst out of the elevator to attack. With his claws spread as wide as possible, he slammed the points through the leathery material of his wings. eX-0281 tore five massive shreds down the length of them, rendering them useless.

Those ruined, blue wings made eX-0281 suspect another one of his clones. The first two letters for the series confirmed his suspicions.

Target: eX-3689 [Sub-Dragon Shifter (Dragon Form)]

Vitality: 90%

Discrete Parts: Right Wing (0%), Left Wing (0%), Tail (100%)

In pain, his clone toppled to the ground face first. eX-0281 lifted his claws above his head and swung them downwards like a sledgehammer. The claw tips drove into the unarmored base of the tail, piercing through the natural scaly armor. Something much harder cracked against his talons as some links of bone were pierced and splintered.

A high-pitched squeal came from eX-3689 as one of the most painful wounds for sub-dragons to endure was dealt on him. Similar to his wings, his tail had just been broken at its base.

Vitality: 65%

Discrete Parts: Right Wing (0%), Left Wing (0%), Tail (0%)

Subject to his own sneak attack from behind, the other sub-dragon had all discrete parts rendered useless.

In a desperate attempt to get away, his clone crawled hastily on all fours. The limp tail dragged after him in a rather sad state. Unable to properly balance himself, he no longer could stand on all fours. Plus, his balance would be thrown into total disarray. Without even able to grab the gun from his back properly, the most eX-3689 could manage was crawling around on the ground and try to slash at his enemies.

"What's even happening?" The cry came from their left. A red-winged sub-dragon wrestled around with a potted plant on the front desk. The leafy vines had grown out of control, constantly twisting and twitching around whenever the sub-dragon tried to escape its snares.

"That was all me," Zeke said with a big huff. His voice hardly lifted in a hint of amusement.

All the while, Amaya had taken point. As such, she endured a barrage of bullets point-blank.

At the doors ahead of them, two more sub-dragons had entered the police station just recently. They took level steps forward as they unleashed a barrage of bullets.

Amaya arched her back and howled as red wounds adorned her body. "Ah!"

Name: Amaya Silver [Lycan Shifter (Partial Wolf Form)]

Vitality: 27%

Discrete Parts: Left Shoulder (72%), Right Shoulder (36%), Nose (100%)

She kept screaming as her body began to expand again. The skeletal structure became bigger, as did more hair sprout all across her body. Larger and more fearsome than before, an unimaginably deep roar came out of the creature that used to be a slender woman.

Ragged huffs came out of her mouth, savage and raspy with every single breath. She must look terrifying from the front, but luckily, eX-0281 and everyone else had hung back. The massive muscles along her back could be seen beneath her rippling fur. Most of her clothes had torn away to shreds, leaving only her tight-fitted pants for rags and an elastic bra.

Name: Amaya Silver [Lycan Shifter (Berserker Form)]

The thunderous roar boomed from within her chest. The hulking form lifted up and came down with all her weight on the squirming sub-dragon beneath her.

Oh no, eX-0281 thought. Please tell me I don't have to calm her down….