Vasili stood amongst the rubble, thinking about his life's trajectory, what was his new goal beyond basic freedom? What was he going to DO with the power he now possessed?
He pondered these ideas before, just after he 'was revealed' to have been a Chimera all of his life.
Closing his eyes, he felt stirring within his chest, the three instincts were gathering there in a spiral.
Ignoring that for the moment, he couldn't help but look at the destruction around the room and feel empathy for the poor building. It wasn't alone in being destroyed this week.
Shaking his head at his little joke, he paid attention to the swirling his instincts were doing, 'What is going on? Are we in trouble?' he asked the Ram in particular.
The Ram offered no advice, its entire focus being consumed by the task it was in the process of completing.
Vasili grew more concerned when the force began to cause discomfort, "Uh?! Hey, guys, my instincts are doing something. They are swirling in my chest, what is happening?' He said as he was struck by the sudden change in his body. The Dragon, Ram, and Lion were gone.
Feeling their absence, he panicked once more as he began shouting for them in his mind.
The trio either couldn't or refused, to respond to him, which caused his heart to begin racing.
Suddenly, fire was flowing through his veins, making him feel like something was changing within him. Each beat of his heart sent the flame searing down new arteries, eventually returning and being cycled at an even higher temperature.
Cassie and Maranda stood, watching in shock, as Vasili's body began to glow from within. His blood vessels shone through his skin like it wasn't even there.
Maranda jumped into action, calling Elias over as she began dialing a number that answered on the second ring, "Mrs. Jenkins! I am sorry to interrupt your busy-", she was cut off as the woman on the line spoke, "Get on with it, girlie. Is this about that 'boy' you found?!"
The woman on the phone, Mrs. Jenkins, sounded out of breath as she began coughing while Maranda explained the situation, "It appears he is undergoing an Evolution. His veins are glowing white hot as we speak, but he seems 'fine' for the level of heat that I feel."
Maranda took a step back as she smelt her clothes begin to smoke while listening to the woman's advice, "Evolution so soon?", genuine surprise overtaking the crotchety tone she maintained.
Silence had a brief reign as Elias appeared and got too close, receiving a wicked burn to the hand for touching Vasili's body.
Maranda could have intervened, but Elias learning to 'not touch' what he didn't understand was vital for his future health.
Yanking his hand back and letting out a painful whelp, he looked at the phone Maranda was using to take a photo. She sent it and said, "There, do you see what I am looking at?"
The older woman sighed and started fidgeting, trying to 'get the damn thing to load,' when Vasili burst into flame.
The only thing he felt at this moment was the increasing heat in his veins and the growing chill in his chest that represented his missing instincts. 'What did I do?' He asked himself over and over.
The flame grew hotter, quickly becoming a dazzling white that took over the room. Elias heard a loud pop and realized that Vasili's heat was causing the rubble he was standing on to pop.
"Damn, he is HOT." Elias took out his phone and began making calls when the fire flickered.
Vasili inhaled slightly, feeling the process about to end. But just then, a wicked itching began along, what would have been his old hairline, when he was human.
The flesh was 'moving' and something was protruding out of his skull.
Touching the spiky lumps that were forming, he looked around the room and instantly felt something resonate with him.
He looked back and forth, but he couldn't find whatever it was until he looked outside the building and down the street. There, was a woman who was sprinting at him on all fours, with a lion's top half and a ram's bottom half.
Her hooves sparked along the asphalt as the entire room and street stared at the monster charging Vasili.
She covered 60 yards in less than 3 seconds, breaking traction with her hooves multiple times, as they weren't sufficient for 'city' running.
Approaching the gaping hole in the wall, she leaped 30 feet through the air, her lion claws and fangs bared for all to see as she landed and took a swipe at Vasili's blazing form.
Vasili made no effort to dodge, his confidence that he would be fine remained even if the Dragon had disappeared.
Their noses crinkled in disgust when her fur singed as she yelped in pain, retreating and obsessively checking her paw. Vasili noticed the woman's paw was missing multiple claws, only for them to be recovered through a quick swipe of the floor.
He squinted, wondering what had provoked this attack from a fellow Chimera when she attacked again, only for her claws to do nothing once again.
Vasili could hear discussions happening around him, listening in, he heard Elias give strict orders for nobody to interfere.
A few moments pass, her lesson clearly being learned, but her ire remained wholly directed at him for some reason.
'It has to be a dominance thing.'
He reached within out of habit, trying to ask for help with this situation. At first, there was no response, his instincts gone, but then he felt a whisper from beyond himself.
'Claim her, child.', the voice whispered.
Vasili's heart stopped beating for a moment, the heat reaching a crescendo as it was sucked in through his nose via a great inhalation.
The flames were his own to command, he just needed to ask them to remove themselves-instinctual magic that he didn't understand.
Once the flames were gone, his improved form was beheld by everyone as they mistook him for a solid gold statue that had been polished to within an inch of its life.
His scales once again glistened on their own when he stepped forward, oddly hearing nothing from the crowd. He wanted to look, but he knew taking his eyes off of something trying to kill him was a bad idea.
'Something? Someone.'
He wasn't aware of it, but his eyes began glowing a harsh red hue as he stepped closer to the increasingly frightened Chimera.
Reaching out at what felt like Mach 1, he locked his talons around her right humerus bone within an instant, squeezing his left hand and causing a cracking sound to ring out.
She whimpered as her beastial eyes grew wider and wider, not responding to the pain she felt, only focusing on Vasili's pupils.
Their foreheads slammed together with enough force to kill a regular human multiple times over, Vasili's new horns digging into her forehead, leaving gouges in the bone and skin.
He felt better, noticing that his instincts had returned at some point during the encounter.
The Ram nodded in approval as the woman's form began to change.
Golden scales began to appear on her body as she collapsed to the ground and writhed with pain. Flesh melted off of her torso as she began what appeared to be, a molt in front of them all.