"Oh, you're going to stay awake this time?", asked Tute.

"How could I not? After what he told me…", said Emmi.

"This may get quite hard to watch, but you already know that don't you?", asked Tute.

"I can't abandon him now, not with the likes of you.", her words stabbed like knives.

"Very well Emmi, I will now start experiment sixty-five million six-hundred and twenty-six, test five million. Good luck little pigeon…"

Justin woke to a gentle light entering his hazy vision. It was a sliver of light radiating behind a black sphere and behind that, a sea of green and blue consumed the sky. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, but a metallic haze remained. For a brief flash he thought he saw a pair of butterflies land on a flower. Red pollen soared as they feasted.

His eyes adjusted to the shiny metal air surrounding him, and he fully woke just in time to see the raptors finish tearing someone apart. So, this was the meaning of a bloodbath. It was spraying everywhere. Despite being a couple hundred feet away he could feel the panic sweep through his body, a sharp wave of cold putting his hair on edge.

"Relax Emotion, we're invulnerable remember? I gotta admit I didn't see dinosaurs as an option, but honestly it's not so bad."

"Not so bad? They're killing people!"

He panned his vision and the world flooded in. A littered valley inside an autumn forest, covered in red leaves and white flowers. A small, jagged hill in the center. A distorted horizon stretching upward, surrounding the black sun. No, the sun was just covered by something orbiting it close. Another sphere with a wedge currently on the left side. Shadow Command.

Next the world entered his ears. Screams rang out, only to be replaced with snarling and the tearing of flesh. Feet pierced grass in every direction, and a gentle breeze brushed against his body. Lastly, the smell of copper drowned his nostrils, only to be replaced by a worse stench. Rotting flesh and entrails, it was such a unique kind of putrid he couldn't think of any proper way to describe it.

"Yea not so bad. Only man-sized raptors so far. Dinosaurs are stupid so the only thing we have to worry about is being swallowed whole. Then we would have to dig out or wait."

"Logic, I'm freaking out."

"Everything is fine, see the metal haze? Nanite shroud. Have you felt the need to breathe yet, despite holding our breath for so long? Nope, that's cause we no longer need to. Invulnerable."

"Right, we're on Quidvis. So, what's the objective? Why the dinosaurs? Does Tute want us to clear them out? Save people?"

"Who cares? We find Emma's space port and we win, piece of cake."

"And you're imagining it will be what? Just down the block?"

"Oh shit, Emotion you're right. We'll probably have to search for some time. This valley is covered in litter and bodies, hell it's probably what the hill's made of. This must be a regular drop point for people. Perhaps we can find survivors that know the terrain, short of that we should go to the hilltop to get a view over the canopy."

"Makes sense. What's poking my ass?"

"About that, I've got an idea and you shouldn't look.

Below him a broken rib cage tore at his pants.

"Too late.", thought Emotion.

"Alright screw it, let's search the body for supplies."

"We're invulnerable?"

"Emotion dirt is gross and eventually we'll need new shoes. Guns would help us too, easier to fight with, less chance of a swallowing."

"Just how long do you expect this to take?"

"No idea that's the problem, let's hurry to the hilltop and loot on the way."

"This isn't a game! People are dying as we speak."

"Exactly, and the only way to save them is to make it back to Shadow Command, unless you really want to hunt down every hostile dino in the forest…"

"Okay, okay, you're right. We can… search the bodies."

He stood above the hollow skeleton, no clothes or shoes to be seen, but a dirty M16 was present, along with a dog tag below the severed skull. He quickly checked the rifle's mag for ammo, then the chamber, but both were empty. Moving on to the man's pistol he quickly found it too was empty.

"Good thing you used to like these things. I never realized we might really need to use one."

"Knives were my favorite, surprised we didn't find one, but yes Emotion I remember how to handle a rifle. A loaded weapon would have been nice, but I'm sure there's more here. Now let's take it and get moving."

"Wait, the dog tag.", he thought while checking it, "Michael Donnovits, I wonder who he was."

"Obviously a U.S soldier considering the tag emblem, he's dead and therefore irrelevant, let's move. Unless you'd like to collect a thousand of those around your neck they should be ignored."

He hesitated before leaving the tag. Putting the pistol in his pants he found a black box in his pocket. A single button and antenna were on it. It was clearly some sort of radio, but there wasn't a battery opening.

"Might as well try it.", he thought.

He held the button, "Hello? Can anyone here me?"

Radio silence.

"Hello? Has anyone seen a spaceport?", he continued.

Only the sounds of agony echoing throughout the valley responded to him.

"Shit did we just give away Emma's plan?", thought Emotion.

"No, Tute can read our mind remember? Even if he just found out I'm sure it's fine. He never did define any rules after all.", thought Logic.

"Okay to the hilltop we go.", he thought, putting the radio away.

He threw himself into what he thought would be a light jog but was instead vaulted face-first into the dirt. He cringed as he spat dirt out his mouth and stood.

"Eww, what the fuck Logic?"

"Guess they're physically enhancing us as well. Now the question is are they like an exoskeleton or have they truly enhanced our muscles? Do they permeate our skin? Surely they must if we aren't breathing."

"Logic there's no time to science this, how should we move?"

"Oh, just walk and slowly increase speed, I'm sure we'll get the hang of it."

"Right, surely…"

He slowly inched forwards, pacing out each step.

"Ok nanites time to work with me, stabilize my movements please.", thought Emotion.

His legs took off on their own as his head fell back. His back and abs buckled to bring him upright while his legs continued forwards without him.

"Stabilize my whole body dammit! Enhancing my speed and running for me are two different things.", thought Logic.

The thought flushed threw his body, and he knew immediately his legs belonged to him again. He gladly accepted the control and continued running normally but looking around he was obviously running far faster than ever before.

"Perfect, thanks for working with me. We're going exceptionally fast now, faster than twenty miles an hour I'd say. Try to help me stop when the time comes.", thought Logic.

His feet tore into the ground as he flew through the grassy valley. He would reach the top of the hill in no time now, and hopefully see the spaceport.

"Huh?"

The hilltop was already occupied. Two furry humanoids, one red, one pink, were surrounded by raptors. They circled them, eight in total, bearing their claws.

"If we hurry, we can help them!", thought Emotion.

"How, with our fists? Let them distract the dinos while we look around."

"No, if our fists work like our legs then we can help, maybe…."

"I guess that's true, but we could get covered in blood. Blood is gross Emotion; it could give us an infection and… wait, did you just suggest we kill something?"

"Well, no. I was… maybe… suggesting that you suggest it."

"What?"

"Logic I know you haven't hunted or thought about killing since Aaron, but we can't let people die over a little blood. The raptors are just animals after all."

"We haven't done those things. We were afraid I would turn back into my old self. It wasn't just me Emotion. You're still afraid of us, of what we could become."

"You're right, and I'm sorry, but you already knew that. And now you know I'm willing to risk that to protect people."

"Pft, you just like them cause they're cat girls…"

"Logic you know that isn't true."

"Well think fast, we're here.", thought Logic as he approached the raptor circle at windbreaking speed.

"Oh, shit what should I do?"

"Relax, I'll handle this. It's ok to kill to save the innocent right? They're just animals too.", thought Logic as a spiraling grin swept up his squinting face.

The raptor he was coming up on managed to turn its head before Justin launched his right fist through its neck. Although he felt the spine crunch under his knuckles the movement was so fast it reminded him more of sticking his fingers into dip when one might lose part of a chip. He didn't see where the head went, but with the shower of blood coating him, he knew it went flying. Another raptor dove through the shower of feathers and blood, claws on all limbs about to strike. Logic commanded the nanites to balance his left foot as he shot his right into the beast's chest.

Now normally the body would have absorbed the energy and then went flying, but this wasn't a normal man's kick. His foot collapsed the raptors ribcage and tore right through its chest, leaving the riling body on his leg. He grimaced at the sight before hurling off the now fresh corpse. Putting down his soaking right leg he glanced left to find another target. Sure, enough another raptor had charged him but was in the process of panicking and turning away.

His smile returned as he imagined himself as a slingshot. Squatting and then trusting he dove through the air at the raptor before it could even fully turn around. His right hand grappled its neck and slammed the creature to the ground like the end of a whip. It of course, died from a crushed neck before impact. Gazing up for another target he was surprised to find only the two furry men remaining, thinking back he had heard some gunshots.

The bodies of the other five raptors laid around them as one held a rifle and the other brandished a pair of bloody double-bladed swords protruding from boxes on his outer forearms. The rifle man shivered in terror, aiming at him, while the other took a stance reminding him of a professional swordsman.

"Those blades are awesome! I wonder how they compare to regular swords. More importantly, cat MEN Tutelarius? You meming bastard."

"Logic what now? We're covered in blood, god I can feel it oozing down me."

"That was your choice, now let's look around for the…" his thought ended as his head spiraled.

All around the valley was forest, nothing but autumn forest stretching out to that blurry horizon. Sure, far behind him was on open plain, and in front was a winding river passing a lone plateau, but that was it. No spaceport, or any buildings for that matter.

"Tutelarius….", he hissed.

"Don't worry Logic, we knew it might take some time. For now, let's team up with the cat men."

"What for?"

"Well, I can't just leave them here, and we um… might get bored."

Justin sighed and turned back to the two men, who hadn't changed their stances. He stepped towards them and tried to say "Hey", but his voice was drowned out by the gunshot. He looked down to the simmering whole in his shirt and then to the shaking red man with the rifle.

"Dude this is like, one of my favorite shirts.", he said.

The men didn't move.

"Screw it.", he said, walking towards them, "Listen my name is…"

The pink man with the arm blades charged him.

"Well duh, you guys don't know English and I'm scary. What was I thinking?", he said, casually pondering what to do next.

"Oh, yea I guess I could try that.", he said, grabbing his radio.

"Yo, your blades can't cut my flesh and I'm not going to hurt you guys so chill.", he said while holding the sole button on the radio.

The pink man stopped, along with his blade, mere inches from his throat. The man was breathing heavy, still ready to fight, but knowing he was untouchable, Justin's calm demeanor hadn't changed. He had also clearly heard his voice exit from the man's shorts, although in some other language.

"You can try if you'd like, but if you guys wanna make it off this kill box I suggest we get moving. One-time offer.", he said through the radio again.

The pink man stepped back and turned to the other who had frozen with fear and confusion. Unlike the pink one the red one's hair was on edge like a cat, which part of Justin found quite funny. Taking a second to look them over allowed him to glean some information. They were both just over five feet tall, hairy all over besides their faces, and were wearing quite minimalist, drab clothing. The rifle itself though gave away that they must be at least early to mid-tear in the industrial age, due to having a magazine. The use of what was probably ceremonial blades though made both their culture and tech level debatable.

The pink man, who he could now tell was quite muscular, spoke to the red one, but the red man simply shook his head, his teeth chattering. The pink man sighed and reached for his back pocket, revealing another radio mirroring his own.

"Listen you hairless, silver freak, I appreciate you helping us but unless you can return us home just as magically as we arrived I doubt there's much more help you can offer us.", said the pink man through his radio.

"Damn harsh crowd. My name's Justin by the way, but I guess the metallic shroud doesn't do much in terms of trustworthiness. I actually can help you guys get home, if we somehow make it off this hilltop. There's over a hundred raptors down there, maybe two, and there could be more waiting at the tree line. At least Tute gave everyone these radios, but their range is outright laughable.", said Justin as he scanned the valley.

"You know how we can get home?", the pink man asked before pointing his blade back into Justin's face, "Then tell me!"

"Well I would have to find a, hopefully nearby, spaceport. Then travel up to that dark mass covering the sun, then convince Tute to let ya'll take a ship home. Of course, it might take some time as I would have to form a plan as to how our people would cohabitate this area of the galaxy….", he rambled.

"Stop wasting my time you freak of nature, just tell me what me and my friend need to do to get home already!"

"Morcant maybe we should listen to him.", said the red man with his radio as he slowly approached them.

"Stay back Braun, who knows what else this weirdo is capable of?", commanded Morcant.

"Who indeed? Tute I guess, but you really should consider trusting me, at least to get you guys out of the valley. Also, I'll have you know that on my world I'm perfectly average looking!"

"Your world?", asked Morcant.

"After seeing this place, you didn't just assume I was from yet another world? Or this one? Well I guess we do look similar, cosmically speaking. Anyway, we need to move fast, those things might leave survivors to hunt later, but considering their numbers, they probably don't.", Justin continued.

"Morcant he seems to know what's going on…"

"Dammit Braun give me a minute!"

"We don't have a minute. Those things are running out of food fast, their food being possible allies for us I might add. Decide now, trust me or don't. It's a risk for me to you know. You guys could be murderers, or villains of some kind. Let's head for that plateau, there's a river nearby and it's got at least one defended side.", Justin explained.

Morcant's eyes darted back and forth as he probably considered his options. "Fine but try anything funny and I'll cut your head off! Don't think you're faster than me you freak!"

"I'd be curious to see you try but it will have to wait.", Justin said as he finally found something he was looking for.

A shiny piece of metal protruded from the ground and there he found another pistol, this one loaded. He tried blowing the dirt out of the muzzle, but eventually just changed the mags and threw his hand forward before he began walking down the hill. The men followed at a slight distance and he thought about their situation.

"A hot head and a coward, clearly friends, no wait. Maybe the coward is a slave, or family? There's no telling, I guess. Our situation? Let's see, we've got a rifle, two pistols, one pistol mag, and an unknown amount of rifle ammo. Then there's fucking sensei over here. Regular swords might be better, but if he's an expert then I guess it's fine. A strait shot to the plateau reduces our encounters to just a dozen or two raptors, hopefully including outside of the valley, but there's once again no telling. Objective? Gather survivors, look for signs of civilization, find higher ground for another look for the spaceport. After that we're down to grid searching. Gathering more recruits from the valley would help, particularly the flying bug like things I saw earlier. Although who knows what benefits the other varied aliens I saw could have.", Logic puzzled out the situation.

"I'm glad you're up to gathering allies, but I don't like where this high ground idea is going…", thought Emotion.

"Well it might be unwise to rescue everyone we find… And come on, it'll be fun!"

"I knew it! Absolutely not! Unacceptable! I won't do it."

"We're invincible, it'll be fine."

"Logic we are not climbing that mountain!"

"Plateau."

"Invulnerable.", Emotion mocked.

"Looks like we'll have to decide later.", thought Logic as he noticed the scene before them.

What could only be described as an enormous weasel, or possibly a ferret, was holding a side-ways bow with its mouth. It had bags on its neck and sides, but no other clothes to speak of. Its hide was the same browns and reds as the autumn leaves sailing throughout the valley, and most importantly, the damn thing was the size of a sedan. Most of its body was maybe four or five feet tall, but with a span of over a dozen feet, and its long neck, it towered above the circle of raptors surrounding it.

Just behind him was something stranger, and far less comical. It looked like a giant hand, only with a massive, drooping stalk eye instead of a forearm, six legs, and two chelicerae or mouth hands as his sister would call them. She would probably also say it looked like a giant spider, but its body wasn't segmented. This thing was a living nightmare, bigger than his kitchen table, maybe possessing a six feet radius and with the stalk it towered at least eight feet tall. If that wasn't enough it was holding a spear with one of its front legs, trying to push back more raptors. The two groups raptors circling them were the real threat though.

"Guys I don't know if we can get around these clowns unscathed. I say we help them and move on from there.", he said with his radio.

"Help them? Those things! They're people too?", shrieked Braun.

"No way let's just go around!", shouted Morcant.

"We could get pinched by another raptor formation and led into theirs. There isn't much time to debate. I'll shoot the ones on the right and Braun here can take the left.", he said.

"And just why am I being left out?", Morcant bellowed.

"Huh? You don't have a gun, right? Cover us or charge their center. Just don't get in between me and my shots. Braun cover him if he runs in there.", he said.

"Eh? Don't tell me what to do hairless!", spat Morcant.

"That spider's stalk eye is moving rapidly as the raptors approach. It can't possibly cover the whole side. I should shoot the ones closest to me, but if it turns to me it'll get flanked. So, I'll shoot the ones in the back first, as for the other one… Jesus it's drawing the arrow with one foot and holding the bow with its mouth? What a G. Okay, okay ignore that, start shooting.", thought Logic.

He aimed his pistol as they got within forty feet of them and silently asked the nanites for an assist. He had already counted the rounds when he noticed the pistols were luckily the same kind, thank you Berretta. A whopping seventeen rounds were ready to go downhill as he took aim just beyond the spider's stalk. Once he stopped, he pulled the trigger, something he had practiced thousands of times, but that was almost always with a Glock, and never intermittently running downhill shooting at moving targets.

The raptors face popped like a balloon, leaving the body to quickly fall to the ground, and his familiar grin twisted up his face. The nanites were helping, he was sure of it. Within that second, he could hear Braun shoot, and Morcant start screaming as he charged past him, but he didn't bother looking. He had to get another target as the spider was turning towards him and ignoring the raptors. He fired again, this time not bothering to stop running, again getting a perfect headshot.

Just four more raptors were looking at the spider, as two had turned to what he figured was Morcant charging them. He could wait a few seconds to shoot those, although knowing that man, maybe he would just let him kill them. He decided to try rapid fire on the rest, with mixed results as he whiffed two shots, and grazed another before bringing the four down. Morcant's move was far more impressive, as he entered his vision.

The little pink bastard ran right up to the two raptors and slid under their combined pounce attack. With his front blades he caught their tails and pulled himself back up, turning around in the process. He jumped forwards and turned his arms in whilst ducking under the front blades, using his back blades two decapitate them both before they could blink. Justin's smiled opened wide as he realized just how wrong he had been about the blades.

He heard Braun catch up to him and glanced back. They were clear of raptors for now. Turning to the weasel… damn, that weasel though. A few arrows stuck out of the corpses and it was clear now that the other end of the bow doubled as a bludgeon. He was just in time to see its massive paw K.O the final raptor.

"Hey, you two know each other?", he asked the aliens through the radio.

The aliens turned to him, as his voice echoed from them. The weasel began looking for the voice, but the other one just shivered at the sight of him. Its tan wrinkly skin moved like waves, and its hairy legs buckled. It held the spear up between them, but thinking back, he hadn't actually seen him use it.

"See? No gun needed.", Morcant smiled while walking to Braun.

"Relax we're friendly. Only those feathered things are dangerous. When ya'll woke here you should have had one of these on your person.", he said waving the radio, "These will allow us to overcome the language barrier."

The weasel opened one of the pouches on its sides to find its radio, "Is this magic? Where in the moons are we?"

Justin smiled again, "This is no moon. I'll explain this world once we're safe, for now let's go. These raptors are on a diet of us.", he said gesturing to the bodies.

"Hello?", the stalk-eyed alien gasped, holding a radio below its body.

"Yo.", Justin waved.

"Why can't I hear any of you? Or anyone? Or the Mind?", the alien asked.

"Um, maybe your ears were sensitive to the gunshots? Can you hear us now?", asked Justin.

"This is ridiculous!", Morcant whispered into his ear.

"I can hear your voices yes, but your thoughts, where are they?", the alien asked.

"It's a telepath?", he thought.

"We can't hear each other's thoughts. This is the only way we can communicate, at least for now. Anyway, we should get going now…", he began.

"This only? But where is the Mind? How will I move my parents?", the alien whined as his stalk darted about.

"Whoa, whoa relax big guy. Where are your parents?"

"They died over there, protecting me. If we don't move their bodies to the Mind how will they join it?"

"Eh? This is getting too weird for me guys, let's move. Now!", said Morcant.

"But my parents!", the creature insisted.

"Child I'm afraid the place your looking to bring them isn't here. These little creatures are right. We need to seek safety. I'm sure your parents would have agreed.", the weasel interjected.

"If we could just find the Mind, we could ask them!"

A low rumble erupted from the trees. No, a roar. Its pitch was like a distant base, almost too low to hear, but it could be felt. The entire valley shook like an earthquake, his very skeleton vibrated beneath his skin. Braun shrieked like a lost child, putting his hands over his big cat ears.

"Hairless we need to move with or without these freaks!", yelled Morcant.

"Okay kid we'll deal with your issue later, listen to the weasel's advice.", said Justin as Braun ran past them, screaming.

Morcant yelled to him and took off after him. Justin sighed and followed them, waving to the weasel. After a moment he could hear them catch up, the weasel's heavy steps, and the spiders terrifying skitter.

"My names Yujark by the way! I don't know what a weasel is.", the weasel said as they caught up to their run.

"It's an animal on my world that you slightly resemble. No offence!", Justin yelled as they ran.

"Oh, and I'm Churburret! Hello little things!", the spider bellowed.

"The man up there that's scared shitless is Braun, the sword guy is Morcant, and I'm…", he began.

"Justin! What the hell was that?", Braun screeched like a banshee.

"Probably some kind of Tyrannosaur or variant, imagine the raptors but like twenty feet tall and forty feet long. Hopefully they're the scavenger kind and just telling the raptors that they'll be coming soon."

Braun suddenly hit the brakes and the whole group came tumbling to a stop behind him. He just sat there, frozen.

"Braun?", asked Morcant.

He slowly turned his head to Justin, his teeth chattering as if it were freezing. "Oi! Tell me you're kidding right! Nothing gets that big! How did they get that big! How many people did they eat to get that big?", he rambled on.

Morcant slapped him and began berating him in their language. Meanwhile Justin felt something slimy on his foot. Below them were the bodies of several raptors and torso sized bees, or maybe beetles, they were all too torn apart to tell. They did however clearly have clothing similar to Yujark's, it was simple, just some straps with pouches on them. Their little spears rested by them, covered in blood and feathers. Grass rustling caught his attention.

Morcant shook Braun as his feet were planted into the ground, and Yujark was comforting Churburret so he took just a moment to look. There in a bloody patch of white flowers rested a larger bug, dead, with one of the others still alive.

"Jesus, all of its friends are dead.", he thought.

He took out his radio but failed to find the proper things to say, only managing a, "Howdy."

The bug turned its horrifying head towards him and wasted no time at all in taking out its radio to respond. "Greetings stranger."

"Um, you look a little lost there.", he said.

"Yes, my queen is dead. We failed her. The feathered ones arrived before we woke in this strange land. I seem to recall dying yesterday, odd thing to happen twice to someone.", the bug spoke.

"Yea, after death some people wake here, or elsewhere."

"We're dead?", Braun interjected.

The others had joined him, but Yujark kept his head on a swivel.

"Well…", he began.

"Eh? Hairless do you really know what's going on here? I mean come on, clearly, we're not dead. Just look at us!", Morcant ranted.

"But Morcant, yesterday, on the trail, we… we slept in the desert. I could have sworn seeing a scorpion, I think.", Braun recanted.

"So, they have a scorpion equivalent?", he wondered.

"Braun there's no way in hell I died to some scorpions. Now I can't remember last night, but now we're here with these freaks, so if we want to survive, we've got to move. Now!", said Morcant.

"Please continue strange creatures. As one of my queen's guard I must now commit ritual suicide.", casually remarked the bug.

"Suicide?"

"What? No! Why would you do that?", Justin raised his voice.

"Why wouldn't I? That's the duty of a guard. I cannot go on without my queen."

"Bullshit!", he yelled, his piercing squint starring into the bugs five eyes.

"I'm confused.", said the bug.

"You can still go on living, there's more to life than this role you had!"

"There is?"

"Hairless this isn't the time to get serious. Forget the bug!", whispered Morcant.

"Of course, there is.", Justin ignored him, "I could use someone that can fly, cause I'm on an important mission. Help me and I will help you choose a new purpose."

"But there are rules.", the bug looked away.

"Whose rules?", he asked.

"I… I don't know. No, I've always known, all of us did. They were never spoken. We always knew them. Since birth, we knew how to protect our queen. The drives, the rules we follow, they are ancient and transcendent I am sure. I know what I must do.", the bug turned it's spear inward.

"Justin, many different groups of feathered ones are moving in this direction.", warned Yujark.

"No, no, no! There must be time, there must be a way.", thought Logic.

"Logic, I almost forgot, how much you can feel for others."

"I won't let this little idiot throw it's life into the trash! I have to make up for it, I'm responsible! I can't let him die!"

"Logic, I agree but… this isn't Arron, or me, or anyone we know. I want to help everyone too, but if the bug doesn't want our help well, we can't control everything."

"Watch me."

"Your queen! What did she say to you last?", he desperately breathed.

"Fight.", the bug said, looking back to him.

"Then fight. If you want to be punished for your failure, then living is the only real punishment. Killing yourself is the easy way out. If you truly wanted to serve your queen, then you would help me and spread her good name far and wide!", he touted.

"Logic that was way too harsh. You can't pretend to know how it feels or should act."

"Well I know damn well it shouldn't end its own life. Besides it could be useful to us."

"Logic, there's no need for pretext with me…"

"Buzz off."

Another rumble waved out from the tree line, shaking them all again. Only this time several Carnotaurus emerged and began marching slowly towards the hilltop, scooping up carcasses along the way.

"Ahhh!", Braun screamed.

"Hairless!", Morcant began slapping his backside.

"Why are they here? Shouldn't they be hunting in plains? Did this family of Carnos just happen to stumble across this feeding ground? Why though?", wondered Logic.

"Logic, the bug, the others."

Justin turned back to the bug and shouted, "Last chance, come with us! Guys, let's move out!"

Quickly running to the tree line, the groups footsteps weren't far behind, and hopefully he would hear the bugs wings soon, but he couldn't risk the others safety for it any longer. At the edge of the valley was a group of scaled people with lizard heads but walking upright with two pairs of arms and each having a fat tail. They were easily eight feet tall, despite all being hunched over, and garnishing medieval armor. No that wasn't right, there weren't any reasons to believe that beyond human history, and the fact that their only weapons were swords and whips.

Surrounding them were over two dozen raptors. They were broken up into smaller groups, but clearly, they could have at least basic etiquette or structure beyond the groups of about six he had been seeing. Like the raptors they were all vibrantly colored, hell if they didn't have six limbs, he might have thought they had evolved here. They even fought in a similar way, groups with slicing objects, but the raptors kept baiting them out of their defensive formation and pouncing them, before dragging them away.

Just then six hairy, spiky legs wrapped around his back. A wave of terror swept up from his toes, gliding up his spine and coating his brain. He couldn't help but scream and leap forward. Luckily the bug had jumped off before his enhanced swing sliced the air behind him.

"I realized something!", the bug person from before said cheerfully.

"Keep moving!", Morcant growled as the group ran past him.

He spun around and caught up to them instantly, with the bug flying behind him. Only now could he hear its wings buzzing, since he wasn't drowning in thoughts.

"I remembered that other queens could accept members from the outside. So technically I can follow you as my new queen bipedal hairy fleshy.", the bug explained.

"Bipedal hairy fleshy?", he asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh yes, how should I address you my queen?"

"Jesus H Christ.", thought Logic.

"Oh, it's not so bad. It's kind of cute when you don't look right at it. Like a flying dog.", thought Emotion.

"I don't want to manipulate it, but I could really use it."

"Then we won't. I trust you to make the right decisions in times like this Logic."

"Times like this…. Right."

"Listen I meant for you to find your own reason to live and survive, not swear fealty to me."

"I don't know what you mean but I will try my queen!", the bug screeched.

Justin sighed. "Fine we'll discuss it later, I'm called Justin by the way."

"I am Tacktay, your new honor guard, ready for orders."

"Just stay with us for now Tacktay."

"Hairless can we go around these new freaks? We've only got seven rounds left in Braun's magazine and one spare one with twelve. There's about twenty feathered things up there.", asked Morcant.

"And far more bearing down on us. All the ones I can see if I'm not mistaken. I cannot see any other people, just feathered ones and those giant ones.", Yujark interjected.

"If we go around them, we could get pinched.", he responded.

"If we go into them, we will for sure you Goon head!", argued Morcant.

Justin bit down on his lip, hard, but he couldn't draw blood. He couldn't bring any pain to reset his thinking, and he had to think fast. They were about to crash into the raptors surrounding the lizard people after all. Should they really go around and leave them to die? He slowed his breathing, hoping to slow down time through willpower alone. Morcant was right, it was safer to go around and leave them to die, but could he do it?

Glancing at them before he gave the call to go around, he saw one wearing a light cloth, maybe a gown, instead of armor. Her scales weren't large and bulky like the others, she was smooth like a gecko. She had breasts and a big belly under the gown but slouching the way they all were made them all have large bellies. Despite her being a few shades of blue, having six limps and a lizard head, their slouched stance made him think of kangaroos. She was pulling on one of the men, desperately screaming.

"Logic, we can't just leave them. Isn't there something we can do? Anything?"

"Our group will be killed you idiot."

"Their group will be killed!"

His face cracked, "We'll attack on right and hope they follow us!", he commanded through grinding teeth.

He ignored Morcant yelling at him and began firing. He imagined a pause in the running while shooting, finding better accuracy then before, and downed six raptors with his eight remaining shots. Now charging the remaining six, two caught Yujark's arrows and downed, leaving just four to pulverize as he ran ahead of the team. He smiled again as they pounced on him, not knowing their fate had been sealed.

He caught two by their legs and hurled them into his feet which he kicked into their backs. They snapped and fell to the ground with him, however as soon as he touched the ground he spun around, mimicking Morcant's move from earlier. The remaining two raptors had landed and were facing him now, but the group had caught up to them. Morcant casually ran up to them and sliced through their necks.

"Move Goon head!", he said, running past him.

He turned around again to follow them and wave to the lizard people but two had already approached him. One whose armor was covered in blood, and the female he saw before. The male was pushing her onto him, but she was pulling him and shrieking. The man dropped his shield and pulled out his radio.

"Save her!", he yelled, warding off raptors with his sword.

The swarm of raptors was heard before being seen, sounding more like trampling buffalo than like the overgrown chickens they were. They had arrived, dozens of them, maybe hundreds as a roar from a Carno shook the valley again. There was just three lizard men left between the horde and this screaming woman being pushed in his face.

"Run you idiot!", he said, confused.

"Legs broken. Save her!", said the man.

Sure, enough his left leg was torn to shreds, with more bone and muscle than skin remaining. Just how was this man standing? As the woman continued pulling on him it became obvious that he was out of time. He grabbed her, throwing her massive body over his left shoulder, and ran. This was all he could do; he could only save one of them.

The woman kicked and screamed and the idea that she really was pregnant and he had hurt her baby slipped his mind but holding her out in front of him seemed impossible considering her height. He caught up to the group just before they breached the tree line, just as a large green raptor burst out of some leafy ground and nabbed Braun. His face broke, from a screaming mad man into a scared child as the claws carried him into the depths of the pit.

"Braun!", Morcant screamed, turning around.

He bolted to the raptor nest, despite the sounds of gnawing and tearing flesh. Braun never screamed; he never had the chance. Justin caught Morcant running past him with his free arm, knowing he would die too otherwise. They couldn't stop now. Morcant howled and beat him with the woman.

"Hairless! Let go of me! Let me go!"

"Morcant stop! Don't slice the girl!"

"Stop it! Stop it!"

He turned back to see a blood red raptor decapitate the lizard man he just spoke to and streams of blood fly around the leafy trap Braun fell prey to. The woman fell quiet, her body drooping as though she had died as well, but Morcant didn't stop. He began stabbing at him with his blades, to no avail.

"Hairless!", he raged, foaming at the mouth.

"Their eyes… we couldn't shield them.", he thought.

"Tutelariusss", he hissed.

The team of strangers barreled forward into the howling forest full of…