Shifting 1
Shifting 1 ~SnowDragon
This one's about a world where a small group of shapeshifting individuals must survive in a world where they're kind is both actively hunted and hated by the world around them. The main character here is a 16 year old shifter dragon by the name of Salen. This one is long, so settle down somewhere comfortable and enjoy!
It was nearly 5am when a lone dark silver dragon landed in the backyard of suburban two story house, surrounded by many others just like it. The backyard was dark, almost pitch dark, as the house and it's tall fence blokced almost all of the light from the street from reaching this far.
The dragon was thankful at the very least that the grass was soft, it made so little noise even when jumped up and down on. This close to the house, he became quickly afriad that even the slightest noise would wake up the house's occupants, and that could end him entirely. He made a quick yet silent dash to the back wall of the house, directly underneath a darkened, tinted window, pressing his back up against it to take a quick look around and pant softly, taking the moment to breathe and calm his body down. Make sure he wasn't being followed.
The wall he was pressed again had a wooden vine stand built into the wall, green vines criss-crossing over the white wooden frame up to the very bottom edge of the window. The dragon swung around to the front of this vineframe and made short work of climbing it, having done it many, many a time beforehand. Once at the top, he quickly examined the window itself. On the outside it was a plain, run of the mill, darkly tinted window, you couldn't see inside it unless you pressed an eye up against the glass. It was nearly one way mirror grade, with a little keylock at the bottom left corner where the window joined the wall.
Reaching a paw into a pocket, the dragon pulled out a small golden key and slipped it into the keyhole and turned it to the left, with a little click the window unlocked and he pulled it left out of the way. Behind the window was a pulled black curtain, twice the height of the window itself and more than wide enough to cover the entire window. He pulled that aside, revealing a darkened, simplistic room to his eyes, to which he smiled at, shutting and locking the window once more and pulling the curtain back to it's former position.
He was home.
He walked around his bed, something he hadn't slept in for several years, and quickly made haste to ruffle and ruin from it's preivously tucked in state, and moved quickly to his desk, unlocking it with another key from his desk, listening to it click before he pocketed it and slid the well oiled draw open. Unlike the simple wooden desk as it appeared on the outside, the inside of this drawer was armoured with steel a centimetre thick, keeping it's contents safe from all those who were not him. At the moment it was empty.
Reaching under his black jacket, gripping the hidden chest holster that lay within, he pulled out a matte black Baretta with an attached silencer, and safed it with a flick of his thumb, decocked the hammer with a cringe as it clicked back into position safely, the room so quiet it echoed around it and after a second of listening, pulled the magazine out of it and laid them both within the desk drawer, following them with two other spares he had on his person.
He quick work of his jacket after that, dumping it on the floor under his desk and took off the chest holster for the Baretta and put it in the drawer on top of the weapon it once held, shutting it silently after that, clicking it locked a second later.
Yawning quite suddenly he forced his hands into the air, interlocking his paws and stretching out his back muscles, listening to one or two of his vertabre popping back into position after the climb, his wings fluttering as well as he shook his head rapidly, remembering his keys were still in his jacket. He grabbed for them quickly, pulling them out and then reaching for under his black shirt, grabbing a dangleing piece of cable with a small box at the bottom, much like a lanard. Opening the box up, he slipped his keys in it, and shut it, and gave it a little shake. Silence.
Smiling he put the boxed lanard back under his shirt, certain that his precious keys would remain safe there. His cupboard, sitting at a right angle to the desk against the wall he opened next, picking two coat hangers out at random without any clothes on them and throwing them onto the ruffled bed, completing the image that he had only just woken.
Now back in his room, he sat in the chair and let out a sigh, using the silence of the moment to relax and let his mind wander. A niggling doubt forming in his mind as it wonder, he'd forgotten something. What it was he couldn't say, so he shrugged it off and turned the chair around to face the computer sitting on his desk. Knowing he'd left it sleeping, he punched the any key on the keyboard which suddenly glowed, G19 lighting up on it in a cool blue, signifying that this was an expensive keyboard indeed. His monitor glowed to life as well, bringing up a black screen with a flashing dash prompt, a computer security measure he was quite proud of. He spent the next ten seconds rapidfire typing his password in. Hitting enter, in the bottom of the screen appeared "Good Morning Selan".
Then it came to life, the desktop showing, icons of games, applications along with the Aero task bar of a Windows 7 terminal. The time in the bottom right showed 5:17 AM, he had a little under three quarters of an hour before he had to move again.
The first thing he did as he grabbed the mouse was double click on a shortcut labelled as 'HYDRA.exe' and double clicked, listening to the fans fire up to full speed as he also brought Internet explorer 9 up and rapid fired a few of his favourite forums up. They were alright, but hardly what he was really online to do. By the time they had all loaded, HYDRA had loaded, appearing in the middle of his screen with a simple white box. To the untrained eye, it looked like a frozen program. Thirteen seconds later, Selan had typed another very long password and then alt-tabbed back to the internet. Browsing through a few of the forums he frequented and finding nothing of real note, he'd come back and post later he mused to himself.
The news, was a different story. The front page showed crime scene tape all over the front of a crisp, white medical building, two police cruisers and a black box truck with flashing red and blue lights which was otherwise unmarked. The headline?
"SHAPESHIFTING TERRORIST CAPTURED ALIVE"
His breath caught as he pulled up the article and skimmed over it, stopping as he saw a picture of a grey fox in handcuffs with SWAT members with shotguns surrounding him being put into the back of a cruiser.
He quickly alt-tabbed back to HYDRA, now a grey-on-black window with links and text scattered over it, a green box in the top left indicating that he was bounced through over 30 points, ensuring that this connection was quite secure. He clicked hurriedly on the link reading 'Communication' and waiting, tapping his foot impatiently as it loaded. Once it was, he quickly hammered out.
"THEY GOT ASHMIR!"
He let out a deep breath and looked at the 'online' bar. In addition to seeing his own username, 'AlarinGlow', three others were online, all of whom were in HYDRA since he was ever introduced.
"We know." Lin2 replied, and Selan breifly wondered what they were really thinking behind the walls of text they now replied in.
"He tripped the laser net in Newson Research Resourses Building, the cops were all over him in a few minutes. He didn't stand a chance." One of the most senior HYDRA users, Vexin noted, "we all know he'd never say anything, if that's what you're panicing about."
Salen took a deep breath, calming himself down. He knew that. But it didn't stop him from being worried terribly.
"That's a bit cruel Vex," The final other user online, anSwer responded, "Ash intro'ed Glow to us, remember?" Selan's bar flashed and he clicked the bottom right of his HYDRA window, bringing up an email message from anSwer. Taking a break from the conversation he could no longer see, he read it.
"Still on for tonight at 1?" Salen smiled a little, some good news to counteract the terrible. He'd been waiting for this for weeks.
"Wouldn't miss it." he responded. HYDRA's email system was more akin to a private message one than email, based on how quick you could trade them.
"I'll be green scaled wingless dragon at the park with the duffle bag, the big oak in Golf-4," anSwer noted, quoting the park's map grid system.
He quickly thought of a response and typed it in. "See me as the red fox in the black with the black backpack." Deciding on his form for tonight, he commited it to memory.
"Sorry about Ashmir..."
Salen stopped typing, thinking about the grey fox who had saved him from certain destruction and taught him nearly everything he knew.
He could hear footsteps outside, two of them... his parents were awake and heading downstairs. He quickly typed. "See you tonight" and switched back to the communication window, browsing through the lines of text that had appeared while he was talking to anSwer and then quickly hammered out a goodbye and logged out and shut HYDRA down.
Hitting the Windows Key and L sent his terminal back to the state he found it in when he left and put it to sleep as he stood up. He blinked as he remembered an exam on this afternoon and nearly swore loudly. Goddammit, why did he have to be 16?
From night crawling shifter expecting death, or worse, capture around every corner, to normal high school attending teenager all within the space of an hour. The bus had arrived on time as usual at 7, no more than two hours after he had arrived home from his excursion into the night. He clothes he wore were the same black ankle length trousers and button up shirt semi formal gear he was always seen in, abiet with a different pair every day. While he did feel (somewhat) safe during the school day and to and from, he had long since stopped going anywhere without a weapon. Strapped to his ankle in it's own holster was a Peace Keeper combat knife, which was hidden by his trouser legs at all times and yet was still easy to draw from.
The bus ride was typical. Noisy. Crowded. Everybody was shouting just so they could hear each other stories about stuff they'd surely talked about on facebook for the past three days, along with mindless gossip and talk about assignments they had or had not completed far to late. His fins even picked up gossip about himself and he grinned. Oh how little they knew...
But when shouting from a certain three started being directed to him from two seats back and over he let out a sigh, thinking 'here we go again'. Back before he'd realised his own innate power, three currently shouting had begun hounding him since day 1 at the school. While just letting it happen publically, he'd recently taken to cracking the lead goon's terminal and social networking sites and gone nuts from there in revenge and Salen knew that he knew that he was responsible.
The bus ride was mercyfully short and Salen was one of the first off with his backpack. The sky was grey and getting greyer, and despite is overly formal wear, he quickly slipped through the crowds of people, thus ensuring his sanity from them... that is, until the big lunch break when they shared a class together, god help him. Thunder rumbled in the distance over the noise and he smiled. Maybe today wouldn't be such a bad day after all.
As usual, Salen was in class long before anyone else. His mind, however, was not keeping with his standard clock, his thoughts constantly wandering back to Ashmir. Even though the two of them had never, ever, shared their real names, they were as close to true friends as was possible. Ashmir had taught him literally everything, from his training in LINE, to shooting a gun, how to better control his shifting powers, how to hold the shifted forms for longer.
"Salen?" A gruff male voiced asked from the front of the room and he shook his head rapidly, blinking back to the here and now, almost a little irked at having being woken from his thoughts, looking now at the lion who was teaching the class something inconsci... he blinked as he re-read the teacher's notes on the board and bit his tongue to keep from snarling at the words written up there, the lesson terrorism in the modern world, mainly shapeshifters, who the government had labelled as terrorists since nearly before he was in the 7th grade, the lesson seemed to have been sparked by Ashmir's arrest.
"Salen, answer, the question." He lion repeated, and he gazed at him with nothing sort of a deathstare, the class's eyes on him, gossip circling the room again.
"...No." he replied darkly, and the room suddenly went silent with the word
"Pardon me!?" The lion replied, a little stunned, having never recieved something so blunt from a student before, "I said, answer the question!" he repeated much louder, rising to his feet.
Salen remained seated, which might have been a good thing, because the others in the room couldn't see how much he was shaking in anger trying to keep it under control for his own sake. "Whatever your question was, I don't care, because I'm not going to answer it."
"Then you stay right where you are after class then." To which Salen replied with a muted snarl that had the others next to him shifting away a few centimetres as quickly as possible
His mind must have been wondering for most of the lesson, which was probably a good thing considering the topic at hand and as the lunch time bell rang the room emptied in record time, although his fins could hear the goons waiting just outside the door and a small crowd was forming judging by the sounds of footsteps and loud conversation just in the hallway.
The lion wasted time by slowly cleaning down the white board with an eraser, and if Salen was a normal student, he might have just been annoyed at the valuable lunch time being wasted, and Salen took the time to calm himself down before he went nuts. What was it? Deep breaths, in and out, one... two... three? Oh great, now he was talking to himself.
The lion made a point of driving home the fact that it was his job to teach and that he didn't set the subject matter and yadda yadda, Salen stopped listening, merely nodding when the words stopped. Eventually, the lion seemed convinced enough that the silver dragon was sorry enough for his actions and sent him off to play with a wave of his golden furred paw.
Salen nodded, grabbing his bag and swinging it over his back in the same motion as he got back up to his feet and fluttered his wings as he walked swiftly to the door, towards the peanut gallery that awaited him, suppressing a short growl at the thought of what was to come. The door opened inwards, and everybody would be waiting for just that sound.
Grabbing the doorknob and pulling it down and out to open the door, he breifly wondered how it was that Jarad, his favourite lead goon, had spread the word about a supposed lesson teaching to a certain silver dragon if his computer was bogged down with porn and his social networking accounts locked out. As expected, right outside the door, there he was. His two other goons of which he'd never learned the names of were leaning against the lockers on the other side of the hallway, arms crossed, surely awaiting the bloodbath, onlookers on both sides of the hallway, blocking possible escapes. There was only one explaination...
"Don't TELL me you learned to TALK, Jarad." He shouted out in mock amazement to the hugely built grey wolf, a stereotype football jock in everyway, shape and size. They were about the same height, Jarad having an inch or so. It was actually a pretty good insult now that he thought about it, the crowd silent, waiting for the action.
They didn't have to wait long. By the time Salen had reached the hallway and spoke his line, the wolf had grabbed him and thrown him against the lockers on the otherside with a CRASH of metal. It certainly hurt, but he didn't show it, he had felt a lot worse. The books in his backpack now crushed against the steel lockers absorbed some of the impact force. Two or three people trying to start a fight chant, but their voices soon faded into the silence.
"You INSOLENT little piece of SHIT!" The wolf roared, making the dragon's fins flick in annoyance at the sound this close and Salen sesponded with a laugh, making Jarad blink. People didn't usually laugh when you pinned them against a locker by their necks.
"I'm sorry... I'd thought you'd appriecate it! Or is this about the files I deleted making space? I'm sorry, I forget things sometimes..." He noted, Jarad letting his neck go and taking a step back and some people almost looked disappointed before he drew his fist back and socked the dragon across the right cheek, sending Salen sliding across the floor, stopping in front of the crowd, that was quickly growing bigger by the second.
Physical violence wasn't what Salen was expecting and he shook his head, his cheek stinging with the impact. He tore his backpack off and then jumped back to his feet, watching a few mouths drop in the other crowd, rubbing his cheek, the wolf laughing stupidly at him.
"Did that hurt? I'm sorry, maybe I'll hit a friend of yours next time!" He roared with laughter, his goons echoing it, before looking about, making a point. "Whoops, sorry, no friends eh? Guess it's just gonna be me and your hide getting the shit kicked outta it"
Salen sighed, shrugging and walking towards the wolf, who watched him approach with the same stupid grin as he'd had from the start. He closed until he was right in the wolf's face, who didn't dare look or back away under peer presure.
"Dear wolf," Salen started, his nose almost touching Jarad's. "You know, I'm sure there's a way we can resolve this peacefully. Almost one hundred precent CERTAIN there's a way. But, you know what?" Salen asked, leading him on.
"What?" He replied, humouring the dragon before he beat him half to death.
"It'd just be wasted on the likes of you..." Salen rolled his shoulders in a shrug and swiftly grabbed the wolf's shoulders with both hands and drove his knee up right between his legs, the cry of pain had bearly left his muzzle when the scaled paws on his shoulders brought his head down while he was still recoiling from the first strike, low enough that Salen's second knee strike caught him in the nose, breaking it in at least three places judging by the sickening cracks heard, followed by a loud thud as Jarad's body hit the floor heavily as he gasped for air and let out a pathetic little whine of pain as Salen kicked him in the stomach to make sure he stayed down. There was silence in the air.
The two other goons watched on in horror, trying to be as non violent as possible in case they were next. Salen kneeled down next to the wolf's bloodied muzzle as he squirmed in pain. "Don't ever hit me again." Seeing the wolf nod weakly he stood up and grabbed his backpack once more, and walked out through the crowd, as they parted hurriedly for him.
It was one bus ride he'd never forget and even Salen himself was surprised he would ever say such a thing. Apart from the sound of the roaring bus engine and scattered whisperings, it was silent. Everyone did their best to keep their distance, as if afraid he was snap and kill them all at any moment. He smiled as it started to rain rather heavily outside
He was almost sad that it had to end when he got off at the stop, his clothing and bag quickly becoming soaked as he walked slowly and ever unconcerned at the pouring rain which only grew harder as time passed.