Suprise package pt 5

*Knock Knock*

"Ughhhhhh, just another 12 hours please."

"Get up before I grab an air horn, Shane...Shane?"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZ..."

"Huh... guess he'll miss the breakfast wraps the-"

"NOOOOO! I'm up! I'm up!"

I hop out of bed at the mention of breakfast wraps...I was starving. Unfortunately when I hopped out of bed my foot gets into a wrong position and slip.

Thump

"Ow." I see my mom trying not to laugh as I pick myself up.

"How long?"

"Five minutes" It's then I notice something...

"Where's bullet?"

"She's downstairs staring down Ryan... That dog has to have been trained by someone, or be extremely intelligent because she actually let us know when she wanted to go out, she wiped her paws before going back inside and even turned the tv on."

"Creepy...but dogs have more intelligence than some people think, it how they're raised   that really determines how they act... And I honestly think Bullet is a one-of-a-kind find."

"I think so too, see you downstairs." As she heads out of my room to the kitchen. I take my time and stretch, feeling my wings brush the wall behind me along with a series of pops in my neck and tail. I walk over and take my computer off standby mode, type my password in and start updating, I notice that my claws left little peck marks on the keyboard and sigh... this keyboards going to go fast, good thing it was cheap. The little progress bar moves agonizingly slow so I turn off the monitor and head to the bathroom.

I take care of buisness, say "hell no" to trying to shower, and wash my claws, which I can say that I am glad we don't use bar soap. I head downstairs to find dad setting a dozen of the wraps onto the counter then evil eyeing Bullet, who was sitting in a chair at the table staring at the plate... freaky.

"Yeah... she's been doing that for the last ten minutes."

"Three words, creepy...unexpected...and again creepy."

Bullet looks at me and wags her tail a little. I decide to try something... "Bullet, off the chair." I say it in a causual tone and she does it, she just looked at the wraps and back to me. I grab one of the wraps of the plate and take a bite, which meant half the wrap. I remember the way that my dad made them, just like a burrito, except with eggs,sliced bacon, diced onions, and chopped sausage plus a hit of shredded mozzerella... Delicious. Must be pure agony for that dog to watch me eat this...what if? I crouch down near bullet and say, "Bullet, I'll give you a two whole wraps if you go upstairs into my room, grab my wallet off the end table, place it on the coffee table then grab the tv remote and bring it to me." She huffed then went and did exactly as I said! I take the remote out of her mouth as my parents sat there staring.

"Yep, she's a genius." I say that and feed her a reward wraps. I eat another 5 wraps before dad said something I didn't expect.

"Hope your feeling social today."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to the mall for some clothes shopping, and also to buy everything Bullet needs from walmart."

"I don't think they have dragon-friendly shirts and pants." I'd be suprised if they did.
"You didn't see how fast the world reacted, There's already a company called Dragonwares that formed literaly overnight, and so we thought, can't have Shane running around in one set of pants forever... so why not go today? They have a shop that just opened up in the mall. Also that's not the only thing we caught on tv."

Consider me suprised. I use the remote and flick the tv on... sure enough there is a commercial for Dragonwares going on. You know how commercials seem overly stupid or weird? Well this one didn't have any of that, just one dragon saying to the audience that if they just turned and needed clothes and accessories to come on by... Simply the most tame commercial ever, i'd bet there being swarmed right now because of it. Other things included a global man-hunt for the person who did this, something about corperations like Apple calling for "volunteers", and a little "debate" over whether or not we were human any more, the discussion involved a shrink, a psychologist and a doctor... I flick the tv off before they could get a chance to speak, I hated it when people tried to "classify" someone or something and having three people that probably had completely different views argue of whether or not we were human was something I wasn't going to watch... besides, I already knew we weren't human anymore except in mind. I turn to my dad and say...

"When are we leaving?"

"The moment you finish your shower" No way... guess skipping a shower just doesn't work anymore.

"Serious?"

"Yeah." he makes a go do it gesture and I reluctantly head back to the bathroom. I take a look at the shower, only a tiny bit of room to stretch my wings... but then they would hit the bottles on the shelf, glad I wasn't claustrophobic. I get the shower warmed up and step inside, I barely fit, I just stand there letting lukewarm water pound my head and roll down my body for a few minutes. I grab the shower head and hold it above my folded wings... it would have to do, I wasn't going to try and use bodywash on these. I do use bodywash on my body... only half way through did I breathe through my nose and realize the mistake I made...

"RAAGH!"

I quickly wash my claws off and cover my snout, it felt as if my nostrils were on fire! This stuff was strong for a human's sense of smell, but now it was too powerful for my enhanced senses. I quickly wash off then stagger out of the shower gagging and snorting. My god... I wasn't going to do that again anytime soon, virtually all the water didn't get past my scales so I was dry in just over a minute. It takes another full minute for my senses to clear, the reek of the bodywash still clung to me... I hoped it would fade soon as I get dressed and head to the front door where my parents were waiting.

"Have fun?" my dad asked.

I put on my best sarcastic tone... "Oh, yes. I about fried my nose from using the body wash, it was absolutely wonderfull!"

"well then, today's off to a good start... ready?"

I facepalm and say "No... i need my wallet." I head into the living room and grab it off the coffee table along with my phone and see bullet leap up on the couch with the remote.
"Wanna watch tv while we're gone huh?" She yips and i turn the tv onto cartoon network, and leave the back door open a little so she could get out... before I head back outside I take out my wallet and add the twenties from Psycho to the $120 I already had, making it $180. I walk out side and see my parents already in the silver honda accord, I stand beside them waiting for them to pull out... They don't and dad rolls down his window and says...

"Why aren't you getting in?" Oh, they think I was going to ride with them.

"I thought I was going to fly there."

"Not a chance, get in the car." I sigh and get in the back, it didn't leave much room for my wings so I scoot over to the center, curl my tail so it runs with my leg down onto the floor and move my wings out to my sides so I could lay my back comfortably against the seat... it did not help much.

"Alright, cars are now obsolete to me as this is the most uncomfortable ride of my life...  and just why did I have to ride with you?" I say as we close in on the mall.

He just laughs and says "I just wanted to see if you'd actually would get in."
I mutter "***hole." under my breath.

Thats when my mom says "Language!" How does she always manage to hear me when I cuss? I end up saying...

"Which is foul yet there's a certain expression with it that you can't get anywhere else, if you like I can learn another language and cuss in it instead." I was suprised the words came out of my muzzle, but sh*t happens right?

"I don't want you cussing at all!"

"If that's the case get dad to stop cussing too, cause he was using it before me." Dad tenses because he knows he's going to be nagged about it now... All I needed was a bag of popcorn to make the scene complete as I watched the gripe-out.

We pull into the parking lot to find almost all the spaces taken. We manage to get a space near the back as someone in a ford fusion left. I get out as fast as I could and stretch heavily, a dozen or so pops later I stop and take a look at the entrance. There was many a dragon going about, some were alone while many had a parent with them... very few had both parents with them, guess being a dragon can cause families to break apart. I remember Tyler when I think this... I hope he's alright, but for now I have a lot to do, I guess I can go over there and check on him after this shopping trip. We head inside and see a shop off at the far end being ravaged by dragons, looks like I was right about that commercial... this is going to suck...

"Um... maybe you two should just give me some money for clothes then head over to walmart because I think this is going to take awhile." I look over at their faces and see that they didn't expect for it to be this busy, the store would probably be out of stock soon, maybe in about another 3 hours from the way dragons are coming and going.

"You sure? It looks a little..." Mom motions in the general direction of the store.

"I'll be fine, you just get the stuff from walmart. You can call me afterwords alright?"

What I didn't tell them was that I didn't want them to get caught up in the store, there was enough claws, spikes, and wings in there to make it a torture room, I didn't want my parent's going in there and getting impaled by some careless dragon, sadly some dragons had brought their parents in with them.

My dad sighs and says "Alright, but try not to get caught in that horde over there okay?"
He pulls out $250 and hands it to me and they leave obviously concerned about me going in there... but at least I had scales and plates to keep me alive. I walk over to the Dragonwares entrance and take a closer look, the sign was black with sky blue letters, a tribal dragon came off the bottom of the s and flew under like an underline. there weren't any mannequins nor did I expect any, most of the room was devoted to racks upon racks of clothes of every variety but most were gone. A large group leaves with tons of clothes being carried in their arms, I figure this is my only chance so I duck inside before things speed up again.

I could now get a good look at the counter and most of the store. A maroon dragon was manning the register, he had 3 horns in a "trident" on his head and his eyes were a cold blue in contrast to his scales, he had on a black shirt saying "haters gonna hate so i'll hate you right back you d**n human" he was dealing with a trio of teenage dragons and looked like this day was his personal nightmare. I take a quick look for clothes that I liked, it was hard finding anything that fit, there was a lot of clothes that I liked but again nothing fit, shirts weren't open enough for my wings or had spike rings and jeans were to long or short. A brown drake with two tails and four horns comes out of the backroom with a large stack of boxes of what I guessed was clothes and planted them on the counter...

He calls out to me "Hey! If those don't fit tell me your size and I'll see what I can dig up." must be the manager... I tell him my size and he goes to head into the backroom but stops for a second and asks...

"Turn sideways and extend your wings a bit." I do so and he looks intently at my wing membrane, It stopped right about 4 inches from my waistline. he looks a few more moments before asking...

"Any colors and types you like?"

"Blue, black, grey, and crimson. As for types try for cargo pants and jeans, t-shirts and sleeveless." He nods and heads for the back. I take another look around and spot something that I missed, I walk over and hold it up, It was a sleeveless jacket that looked very close to a millitary vest with an digital ACU style camo pattern and a soft collar, I was in love at first sight. the front had four cargo pockets and was thickly padded, giving it more rigidness than normal, I turn it around to see the wing mods, the back was basicaly a belt with only a two inch-wide strip that widened out at the bottom and top leaving plenty of room for my wings to move. I try it on, it was tricky to put on but I manage by going wings first, I zip up the front and gauge the feeling, the fit was great and I was loving the freedom my wings still had.

A massive amount of dragons begin to stream the store at that moment and I was glad I found this before someone else could loot it. The manager comes back out with a stack of pants in his arms.

"Found ya somethin' eh? Take a look at these." I pick out two pairs of grey cargo pants, several pairs of blue jeans, and another two cargos but this time they were olive drab. He turns and calls out to someone in the back.

"Jess hurry up we got another wave coming in!" A golden flammie comes out of the back carrying large boxes, she sets them on the counter next to the earlier stack and slits the tape on them with her claws before taking out clothes and rushing to get them onto the now empty racks. The manager goes back inside for a few seconds before coming back outside with stacks of shirts in his arms. Most were plain but a few had common dragon-esque images, I grab three midnight blue, and four grey sleevless shirts, many black, red, and grey t-shirts later I finaly think I have enough. The manager had went off to help Jess get the new stock out, I head over to the register with all the clothes in my arms, the dragon lightened up considerably since what I had gotten was a light load compared to others heaping stacks. He starts with the jacket that I was still wearing... D*** this was expensive compared to the other clothes, a good $150 but I wanted this badly, I look around and see the other stuff that was being sold, sunglasses, fingerless gloves, hats, and even a claw "sharpener" that looked a lot like an expensive knife sharpener, I would've gotten some gloves but there weren't any in black and didn't have much style. I end up paying all of the money my parents gave me plus $45 out of my own wallet. He pulls out some large bags and stuffs the clothes into two of them.

"Here you go." He says as he hands me the bags, He gets a horrified look on his face as a group of five dragons advance towards the register, I don't think he's cut out for this. I walk out side and slip one bag over to my other arm, whip out my phone and call my parents.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mom, where did you guys park?"

"You made it out alive?"

"Without a single scratch i might add."

"We are parked at the last row on the left, near the front."

"Thanks... can you unlock it too?"

"Don't you have the keys?"

"*sigh* No... one thing I forget out of everything are my keys."

"Ryan'll meet you out there."

"Why can't he just use th-"

"Because he want's to know how much money of his you just spent and what you spent it on."

"Uh-oh"

"You spent it all didn't you?"

"Um, yeah."

"On more than just clothes?"

"No, it's just clothes and this epic jacket I now have. Are you guys just about done?"

"Yeah I'm in the checkout line right now."

"Alright, Love ya."

"Love you to shane."

"Bye."

I hang up and fly over to the car... Dad was standing there looking for me on the ground. Heh, didn't expect me to be flying, guess I'm gonna have to change that.
I pull out into a wide circle and use the lane as a runway, no cars so I decend and that d**n glitch of fear tries to f**k up my perfect landing... it worked. I tipped to the side and my wing edge keys the trunk of a 1970 dodge charger, s***t... glad nobody saw that, I end up in a run as I touchdown, dad finaly sees me after I land and advance toward him, he looks at the jacket...

"Nice... how much?" I tell him, he didn't like it.

"That f***ing much?"

"Language! Anyway I paid with some of my cash so back off."

"He... nevermind, just put your crap in the trunk" He pops the lid and I throw them into the trunk. Mom comes out a minute later and we get the stuff loaded.

"Alright you can head home without me. I've got stuff to do."

"What?" dad seemed a little confused at this.

"I've got stuff to do, aka I haven't been up here in while and I thought I might see what"s new..." I strech my wings a bit "Plus I don't need a car to get around anymore."
"You be careful." My mom is always concerned about me like I was going to die if I went off somewhere without her knowing.

"I'm 18, I''m not irresponsible."

Dad just snorts and gets into the car, my mom lingers a bit with a worried look she usually has on her face before getting into the car. They leave and I see a buff guy start freaking out about a scratch... ohh ****, I duck out of the way and start weaving through the lines till I was sure that I was out of his sight, I check the lane and don't see any cars going so I get a running take off and go into a loose circle. My stomach signals it's hunger, wow it's only been an hour and half since I ate and now I'm hungry again... I remember the food shops back at the mall, of course I could just head ovder to BK and eat there, but for some reason I felt more comfortable around dragons and the mall was swarming with them.

A few minutes later I land at the entrance and head to the food court. The place was packed, only a few tables left and guess what? About 80% of everyone there was a dragon of some kind.  I head over to the pizza store and get a duo of medium pepperoni pizzas, I pay and head over to the last empty table. It was on the outer edge of the court and the only table nearby was one full of draconic skaters decked out in new gear, I recongized some voices coming from friends that I had among their group. I didn't feel social so I just take out my phone and go to my music and start a playlist, "Natrual born killer" by A7X starts playing as I devour the pizza.

I was just starting my second pizza when I hear the click of talons behind me.

"Mind if I sit here?"

"No." Where have I heard that voice before?

A white dragon with black scutes sits across from me with two bags from McDonalds holding several double quarter-pounders. He had webbed ears and no horns, was around 7 foot 9 and his eyes were a dark grey in color along with his ear membrane, he has a short black mane as well. It finaly dawns on me who that voice belonged to.

"Alex!?" His head snaps up from his food, Alex was one of Tyler's friends from school, normally I didn't hang around with them but I was around enough so that they all knew me, Alex here was a mechanical prodigy and a serious bookworm to science fiction, he didn't have his glasses anymore and all he had on was a pair of black cargo shorts.

"Ello Shane, didn't know it was you. See you also took the vial." His german accent was worse now.

"Yep... anyone else of your group take it?"

He breaks eye contact "No." I knew what must have happened... social isolation, his "friends" saw 'im like this and kicked him outta the group, bulls***t must have happened to many of the other dragons as well.

I hear the click of multiple talons again come from behind me and I turn to see a dragotaur. At first I thought it was a girl because of the scales being ametheist purple in color along with indigo scutes, but then he asked...

"Can I sssssit here?" His voice had no accent at all and the creepy hiss came from his forked tounge, which was the only one I have encountered as of late.

Alex speaks up first "Sure" He puts his forelegs on the seat while he puts down a tray full of hot dogs, fries, onion rings, and nachos. I hear the bench groan under his weight but it holds. I manage to get a better look now that he was sitting next to me, He had a whopping six horns, two short ones in the middle with larger ones flanking them, the last two curl under his jaw like tusks, spikes started just behind them and roll all the down to his waist. He had no clothes excedpt for a ozark trail backpack that he had shouldered, his eyes were blood red with a round pupil instead of the draconic slit. His tail had four rows of six short spikes near the end. His ears were pointed like mine and his claws were black... oh and his full standing height was around 9 feet.

Me and Alex look at each other... we were thinking the same thing but he asks something else first...
"So... what's it like being a taur?"

"Being a what?"

"A taur, you know? What you are now, four legs, two arms, that sort?"

"Oh... Besssidesss thissss d**n hisssss? I couldn't sssssleep on my bed because I'm now around 600 poundsss, sssssure I can breathe fire and run asss fasssst as a horsssse and fly but when you have to ssssleep on the cold hardwood floor benefitssss just go out the window. Made worssse is the fact that I'm purple!" He propably would've continued his rant had I not said something.

"Think of it this way least you can still get inside your house, unlike a full-sized dragon I know."

Alex looks over to me with interest "Really, who... oh, it's Ty insn't it?" I nod my head.

"Poor b*****d. How's he holding up?"

"He's got family trouble last I know, Sarah took the vial also, and his dad is less than happy. I'm going to go over there after this and check up on him."

"I'll head along with, must be having the worst time of his life right now."

Alex looks up and stares at something coming up behind me. I turn and see a dragoness, don't ask how I know but I do... She was 7 foot 8 and tan with a mane of spikes that that ended close to the base of the neck. The blue hoodie she was wearing was sleeveless and had abstract art going across it, she had four arms, the bottom pair were messing with a rubics cube while the top held a tray with lots of... ugh, veggies and that meat substitute, what was it called? Tofu, thats what it was called, yeah she had tofu burgers. I was a massive carnivore before I was a dragon and disliked almost all veggies, fruits were fine but never veggies. I was glad I'm not one of those people who criticized others choices... but I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.

"Yes you can sit here." I say before she has a chance to ask.

She spoke with an standard southern accent "Thanks." She thankfully sits by Alex... Looks like he's got a crush on her, heh.

Alex and the new girl start talking and we seemed to become invisible to them, so I turn to the taur and ask him...

"Never got your name."

He inhales the last of the fries and replies with "Marcussss. What'sssss yourssss?"

"Shane." I find out the the dragoness's name was Kate from their conversation which goes on for a few minutes before the one thing that I wished wouldn't happen today does happen. "war is the answer" by five finger death punch starts playing on my phone... it set the mood... aka, my mood.

A voice comes from behind me "Well well, what have we here?" Your f***ing kidding me... the one person I didn't want around me today. I don't turn around and just say...

"F*** off Steve."

"Oh that's no way to talk to someone better than you now is it?"

Steve is the resident douchebag, he was pathetic... typical evil rich kid, drinks, sells and uses drugs, ruins everyones party no matter where it was and even tries to pick fights with everyone, he lost every one. He and I had a "history" together, shortend up version? He goes to a beach party drunk off his a** and tries to pick a fight with me, I go to walk off and he tries to cheapshot me, I end up tripping and tossing him around for a few minutes while everyone else laughs and videotapes it (Note: everyone hated this guy except for his little cliche' group) It was funny... until he pulls out a butterfly knife and tries to stab me. I end up with a few cuts but I paid him back by breaking his arm and dislocating his jaw, along with giving him a pair of black eyes. ever since then he's had it out for me, he's tried everything short of shooting me to bring me down... heh, nothing has worked.

Most of the chatter dies as they realize who was around... I could imagine people getting up and leaving right about now. I didn't want to deal with whatever s*** he was going to say so I strike first.

"Steve, you don't qualify, so shut the f*** up and go back to hell... Satans missing his b****." That pissed him off and I hear him growl at... growl? I turn around to see a three headed solid green hydra staring me down with a group of five humans behind him. He didn't have any clothes or scutes and each head had the standard two horn conifiguration along with webbed ears.

I bust up laughing and everyone looks at me like I was crazy, it just served to piss Steve off more.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"Looks like your split personality disorder finaly caught up with ya." Rule one of dealing with him, piss him off, this made him reckless and he usually lost it then stormed off.

His right head growls at me some more while the middle head said...

"Your begging for death punk." Just being near him is making my blood boil.

I stand up and his left head goes wide eyed, he was maybe six foot five so I had to look down on him.

"So are you, you son of a b**** so I suggest you leave and beg daddy to get you a plane ticket out of here, 'cause I'm sure he'd oblige with a son who's now three times uglier and moronic than before." I was pissed and anyone who had a third of a brain would know back off right about now... sadly he had killed most of his three off.
-Prick needs to get beat to an inch of his life.-

-I agree, but let him get the first hit in, that way we can call self defense.-

By now his entire group had backed up and were close to breaking rank and abandoning their little "leader" my comment had pushed Steve over the edge and he tries to punch me... emphasis on "tried", he curled his fist and punched my chest. I hear the bones in his hand pop and hear his claws stab into his palm, he roars in pain and steps back several feet clutching his bleeding palm. I was about to charge when the skaters get up from their table and walk over to me before turning to Steve and saying...

"Think it's 'bout time you left, prick." His group had dissapeared... he was alone.

He shoots back with all three heads "Oh Yeah? MAKE ME!"

They look at each other, shrug and rush him. He gets knocked down while four of them pick him up and carry him to the exit before tossing him out the doors, the security guard was watching the entire time... apparently he didn't want to be involved. One of my friends of the group Jason, walks up to me.

I say "Thanks JC, shame that he didn't learn his lesson though."

"Ha! If there is anyone that can teach him some respect, I'd buy them a round. See ya man."

"See ya." Everyone back at the table looks at me as I sit down and start eating again.
"What?"

Alex starts first "That was the most PO'ed i've ever seen you."

"Because nobody gets under my scales like he does." He just shrugs, he knew Steve's rep.

Kate follows up "You just humiliated him... do you know how long I waited to see that  happen?

"Three years?" Turns out I was right.

Marcus is last "I'm sssssuprised you didn't take hissss headsss off."

"I was going to until..."

That's when I remember that tiny little conversation with myself... ****.
-You there?-

-Yep, we can talk 'bout this later 'stand?-

-No, I wan...-

I get jerked out by a shove from Marcus "You zoned out there."

"I'm fine, just thinking about what would've happened if Jason and his buddies hadn't stepped in."

-Liar.- Yep, this is going to be grade A annoying.

Alex speaks "We all know you would've kicked his a**."

I chuckled and replied with "Sure, would've been video-worthy."

We start talking about other things and I found out about the others, Marcus was 22 and going to collage to be an architect, Kate was believe it or not the girl that lived across from me and was going to go into video game design after graduating, Alex I already knew that he was going to major in engineering. After a while I tell them I was going to go check up on Tyler, we swap phone numbers before leaving, Alex came with me, a good deal happier than before. We take to the sky and head over to Tylers house, it was good deal aways almost on the other side of town.

"Hey! watch those wings! Those edges are kinda scary." Whoops.

"Sorry!" I bank away... great, I'm a flying hazard.

We circle over his backyard looking for him, his house had one of those "mega yards" because they border the edge of a forest, there was lots of tree cover so It was hard searching for him... which suprised me considering that we were looking for a 15 foot tall red dragon. HIs house was a simple one story but it had a large surface area, 4 bed 2 bath configuration with a double garage and a back office area that led outside to the patio. I didn't hear the wings until it was to late...

Whump

Something massive slams into my back before I hear...

"TAG! Your it." Tyler you clever SOB, must have been in the clouds waiting for me.

"I twist in the air and enter a hover to see Tyler laughing his head off as he landed in a small clearing in his yard. I follow and manage to land without messing up.

"Tyler! No fair..."

"Neither was it when you started with me. Who'd you bring?"

Alex lands beside me from a streight drop from a low hover. "I'm sure you didn't think you were the only one of the group who took it did you?"

"ALEX!" He would have glomped him hadn't we both dived out of the way.

"Uh-uh I'm not going to be tackled by you Ty." Alex says as he brushes the dirt and grass that was torn up in his scutes.

"So Ty, how's it going?" I say this and he seems to perk up more... what the hell happened to make him this happy? Last I saw he was at tears, so why is he so excited?

"Fine, i'm going to be leaving in an hour."

"Say WHAT!" Both of us say at the same time.

"You remember those volunteer commercials?" I get an image of a dragon strapped to table with hundreds of needles and electrodes stuck on them, I shiver at the thought.

"Shane, I know you and that's not what's going to happen, I'm heading to Microsoft to try out some dragon-sized wrist computer/phone hybrid. Their paying me a lot of money to go and do this."

"And what about the family? That's what I was wondering about when I came over." He deflates a little at this.

"Dad's trying to find a reason to get rid of me but moms not having any of it, Sarah caught hell when they found out about her drugs so I guess I got let off easy compared to her." He sighs and I catch a wiff of something on his breath.

*Sniff* *Sniff* "Is that raw meat I smell?" His eyes widen at this, what had he been doing?

"They didn't feed you raw meat did they?" I say it casualy... I already knew were it was from.

"No..."

"Bambi?"

"What?" Alex didn't know what I was implying.

"Yes." He deflates even more at it.

"So... was it they didn't feed you enough or was it they didn't feed you at all,"

Alex catches on "Oh...what the f***?"

"Not enough."

I just shrug my shoulders "Okay then."

He looks confused at my statement "Wha-"

"They misjudged your needs Ty, I got hungry after an hour from a large breakfast so don't blame your parents for not getting you enough food. Lets close this topic 'kay?"

He agrees and we talk for a while until I decide that it's time to leave, I say goodbye and Head to fly home, Alex stays behind to chat with Tyler for a while longer before he left.

"Make sure to tell me the specs of that computer when you try it."

"You can be sure of that Shane. See ya in a few days."

I fly over for a while until I was about halfway home, then my wings start burning from the strain, apparently long distance flight will need to added to my new exercise list. I settle into a lazy glide until I get close enough to the ground to land, at around 13 feet I turn to the sidewalk and backwing onto the cement, I tense as I land but nothing goes wrong. I start walking... glances and double takes come from almost all the humans and even a few drakes on the street, guess that figures since I wasn't flying like every other dragon.

I keep walking for a few blocks till I get a prickle at the back of my neck signaling that I was being followed, I turn my head slightly and check... yep three brutes at 6'o clock. They were walking shoulder to shoulder and I could feel their eyes bore into my back, more than likely the were going to jump me... idiots, I decide it would be better to take them out in a secluded area so as I near the end of the block I duck into an allyway and come face to face with a gang. S***, six people lounged against the walls and railings of the back entrances... and they were all staring at me like I was satan, which is to say that they looked ready to tear me apart.

I hear a click come from behind me as the three who followed me block the entrance and whip out their knives. The leader in front was wearing shades and pulled a glock out from behind him and aims it at my chest, only one of the punks in front didn't have sunglasses on and when I make eye contact I see something insane... his pupils were dialated to near obliteration of the iris, just like Psycho! Ohh your f***ing kidding me, one of the others twitch and I knew that they weren't here to rob or rough me up... they wanted me dead and they were just like Psycho.

I needed a way out, I could bash the thugs behind me but that meant leaving my back and wings open to the bullets from that glock, I couldn't fly out with my wings being so big, what the hell was I going to do?

-Use your claws dumba**!-
-And get stabbed in the back?-

-Not like that you stu... your claws can cut steel, so what do you think?-

One of the front group was getting ready to charge, cutting steel isn't going to help me get ou...

-Finally get it?-

-Yeah-

I knew what I had to do, I fix my gaze on the charger and beckon him to rush me. He lets out a scream and rushes me... just like I planned. He gets close and I make a palm and deliver a powerful right hook that spins him around and breaks his jaw, I wrap my left arm around his neck and voila! Instant meat shield. I hear the shots ring out and they thud into chargers body, somone comes up behind me to try a backstab so I whip both wings back and feel the edges cut into something and their scream of pain is cut off. Leader runs out off bullets so I let go of charger and before he could crumple I kick him, sending him crashing through their ranks and knocking everyone down. I turn and do a takeoff leap into the brick wall. I use my claws and they sink all the way in and I slide down some as they cut through the brick, I brace and leap to the other building, just clearing the edge. Hearing a cop siren come on I start running, leaping from one building to the next, good thing they were all single story. I hear gunshots ring out from the allyway and I double my speed. I reach the end of the block and leap down onto the concrete, cracks spread out from the impact and several people stop and stare, I was doubled over and panting heavily, A orange drake walks up and asks if i'm alright.

"I'll... be... fine." He just shrugs and walks off, I look up and see a 7/11 across the street. I sit there for a minute before staggering across the street and heading inside. The cashier stared at me when I walked in... figures, I grab a cup and fill it with strawberry fanta, and then pay for it.

"You've got something on your wings." I look up and see her staring still, she looked a little over 30, but I already knew what was on my wings...blood.
"Is it red?" She just nods her head.

"Don't mind it then." Again she just nods.

I walk to around the store, gratefull for the cold air, I look at my arm and notice I didn't have any sweat, I flashback to when I was panting... great, looks like saunas are obsolete and now I was going to have to pant to stay cool. I was halfway through the cup when I get a call, I see it as an unknown number... normaly I would ignore calls from people I didn't know but what the hell, what's the worst that could happen right?

"Hello?"
"Shane Smith?" What do you know, it was Ray.

"Yeah, take it you got the red tape cut?"

"Hmph, I just went under the red tape. Your best friend Psycho just kneeled over an hour ago."

"Say what? How?"

"Brain hemmoraging along with his heart exploding, most of the rookies down here are still puking from the mess."

"D***, you find out what caused it?"

"The only thing in his stomach when we pumped it was a liquid, we didn't know what it was until..."

"Until what?"

"One of the rooks brought in a vial of that stuff that turned you into a dragon." What the f***?

"Are you saying that that s*** caused him to go nuts?"

"More, I'm saying this is what killed him also."

I just stand there shocked... the blood had caused this guys insanity and death, why the hell did it turn me into a dragon yet make him go psycho? I finaly reply...

"Do you have any idea why it killed him yet did this to me?"

"The lab rats are going berserk with theories, the first one is age, they seem to think that age is the key factor for this... mind you that the gov has had these samples for a lot longer than us and probably know more, but again there's that classified BS that they have going on."

"Thanks for the info."

"We never had this conversation." He hangs up as someone in the background yelled "Ray take a look at this!"

I stand there thinking. Age... what the hell does age have to with this? I took enough science to know how biological stuff works, but this? My brain was just a blank. I snap out of my thoughts when the cashier's cell rings.

"Hey John what's-" She gets a weird look on her face as something is said to her. She listens for a full minute before...

"Your sure?" She hears a reply before saying goodbye and closing the phone, She looks up at me and asks...

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What's it like being a dragon?" Odd question coming from someone who didn't get a vial.

"Lots of benefits, flying, fire breathing, natrual abilities enhanced, along with the obvious downsides, you'll need new clothes and you will be hungry much more often... can I ask why your asking me this? I thought no one over 25 got the vials."

"Thank you for the insight. But my husband just told me that he just got a package holding those vials, and there was one adressed to me as well... he says that there are packages going out to everyone who was over that age."

Oh no, oh god no... Ray said the key factor was supposed to be age, and that psycho was in his late-thirties. My mind makes connections, death, age, vials... S*** s*** s***, I flip out my phone and speed dial my parents... no answer... No, no, no... not my f***ing parents. I trash the soda as I dash out the door, rush to the street and take a step jump off of a car stopped at the light, I snap open my wings and kick it into high gear, I step jumped higher and higher off of incoming traffic. I step jump off of a semi's trailer and get high enough to fly streight to my house,the edges of my vision blurred as I raced home at top speed. I land in a full sprint and bash the door open...
"MOM! DAD!"

I run into the livingroom to see my mom on the floor...

TO BE CONTINUED...