It was late at night. Nothing could be heard but the usual hum of traffic that is inescapable in the city. All was as it should be until, off in the distance the shriek of an alarm was sounded, drowning the city streets in a wailing groan. A cloaked figure scurried through the streets, darting from cover to cover. A child in her arms clung to her shoulder. The child looked strange, with overlapping white down wings resembling that of an angel’s and two pairs of amber colored eyes, one pair smaller than the other. The figure ran with the child in their arms with all of its might from the facility that had kept them trapped for so many years.

The sound of a vehicle approaching the duo was heard. Off in the distance, the familiar noise of police sirens followed it. The figure ducked into an alley, hiding behind a trash can, holding the child tight and a gun in the other even tighter as they waited. The vehicle passed slowly by, casting light into the alley. Light reflected from the alley’s walls and shined upon the figure's cloak, briefly illuminating a female pterodactyl, her skin a light teal, her eyes the same shade of amber as the child’s, blood splattered on her face. The vehicle, having missed its quarry, moved on. The pterodactyl woman held onto what could only be assumed to be her daughter. She tried to think of a place where she could hide with her until they could escape Volcadera city and leave their miserable lives behind, forgetting what happened to them there. With nowhere else to turn to, she went to the one place she could.

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It was the start of a new day. A bald human lay on the couch in the short-scale converted warehouse that he and his salmon-colored velociraptor friend have called home for six years. The noise of the TV against the wall could be heard throughout the room. Empty beer bottles littered the ground around him. The alarm on his phone went off on a side table, trying to wake him up. The man reached over, pressed the power button, and it went silent. A couple of minutes passed before the man’s left eye opened by itself. It appeared robotic in design. It started to make slight noises as it whirred to life; the hologram of a teal raptor in a white suit materialized in the middle of the room, his left hand turned into a microphone, and he tapped it before speaking through it.

“GOOOOOOOD MORNING VOLCADERA CITY! My name is Chuck Yates, and you’re listening to KVBR. I’ll be your host for this morning, evening, and night. Reporting the news and slinging tunes, We give the current look into your daily lives here in our lovely city. Today's date is May 5th, 201M2035.”

The man shot up from his slumber and fell on the hard concrete floor, shocked by the hologram of the broadcaster that began as it usually did every morning. He somehow always forgot about it. The hologram continued to talk as the man forced himself off the ground.

“In this morning's news, we have a juicy story for you today, ladies and gentlemen. As of this morning at around 6:32 AM, the prophet of the religious group the ‘God's Wings’ was kidnapped by her own mother and taken away from her loyal followers!”

Chuck began to laugh, followed by what sounded like an audience laughing with him. “But don’t worry, people, the woman didn’t get away without a little injury. As she was escaping, she was shot and wounded by one of the guardsmen while she made her escape. Sadly, he was shot and killed by the kidnapper in the ensuing gun battle. I would say give him a raise, but….” Another laugh escaped Chuck's mouth. “Well! Now she’s worth a total of one million claws, dead or alive! And if you can bring in the prophet, the church is offering a special bonus! So bounty hunters and people trying to score big, this is your chance! And with that, we will now switch to our mus-”

The sound of the radio star was cut off as the man turned off his eye and switched it to something more of his style: a forum about paper plane conspiracy theories where he began to shitpost. The words appeared in the text bubble projected in front of him as he thought them. He walked over to a door with his name on it and opened it. Inside was a single-sized bed, a desk resting in the left corner of the room decorated by a flatscreen monitor, and the newest gen Xrox. Next to it was a framed picture of a female ptero with teal skin and silver hair strumming a guitar with a melancholy expression. On the other side of the room was a small wooden dresser. Covering the walls were a variety of posters ranging from video game cover art to dino women, mainly pterodactyl.

The man sauntered over to the dresser, taking off his previous outfit and putting on…The same outfit as before. He closed the dresser and headed back out into the common room. Making his way to the fridge, he opened it and took out a half-empty gallon of milk that had probably been sitting there past its expiration for a couple of days. Setting it on the counter and grabbing the off-brand cereal on the refrigerator's side. He opened the cabinet above him and gazed into it, realizing they had no clean bowls. Groaning, the man surrendered and instead grabbed a plastic cup, poured the cereal and milk into it, then started drinking it slowly. He walked across the room and opened a door leading to the rest of the warehouse that they’ve turned into a garage and workshop. Resting inside was a beat-up, heavily modified 2010 Masstang, and hovering over the engine was the salmon-colored raptor with the bionic tail that he had called his friend for fifteen years and co-worker for eight. The raptor stopped what he was doing and looked toward his friend, smiling.

“Anon bro, you’re finally awake! Did Chuck scare you again?”

I finished my cereal slush before responding. “Yeah, I can’t turn off that teal bastards' broadcast.” Reed let out a laugh. “He must have made a deal with Jurastech so that people have to listen to the start of his broadcasts. Just so he can get more viewers, sleazy scumbag.” I sat down and set the dirty cup on the table beside Reed. “So what are you up to, Reed? Trying to mod our car even more?”

“No, the serpentine belt broke this morning, so I have to fix it before the job.”

I stared at the state the car was in. Armored plates lined the outside, with a huge plate covering the passenger side window, having only a narrow slit to see through. The trunk had been taken off with multiple duffel bags sitting in it. The only thing keeping the duffel bags from escaping was bungee cords that stretched across from each side. Last but not least, a spiked bumper crowned the grille. Reed lifted the end of his tail to the grille, and a blinding blue flame suddenly burst from the tip. I covered my eyes as Reed's tail began to autonomously weld the bumper more securely while he continued to mess around under the hood.

“So…why are we madmaxxing our car again?”

“Like, dude, I’ve told you a hundred times now. We have a contract with Dinofinity to help escort some new shipments of theirs to an off-city research center.”

“Oh right, yeah, they hired us for that. When are we heading out so I can be ready?”

“About 2 hours to meet them on the outskirts.”

“Alright, I’ll be ready by then.”

As I headed back inside, the sound of our chain wire gate screeching open pierced through the air. I turned around; Reed looked confused.

“We uh… aren’t expecting any visitors today, are we?”

“No, we aren’t. Grab something!”

Reed hurriedly detached his tail. It crashed to the floor, and he ran to the side wall. Struggling to run there after losing his balance, he finally reached it and grabbed one of his different tails from the multiple racks, choosing one with a denser frame and a long curved blade at the end. He attached it before nodding back to me. I went to the back of the car, unzipping one of the duffel bags and pulling out a .357 Magnum before getting ready for whoever was outside our garage. Reed pressed the garage door opener, and the door sputtered to life; The old gears screeched as it slowly opened. As sunlight poured into the room, the silhouette of a figure emerged, its form haloed by bright light. I raised my revolver cautiously, and Reed took a stance that readied his tail in front of him. The door opened enough for us to see the entirety of the figure. They were wearing a tattered black cloak and had a familiar outfit on, and… they had a child with them? Reed and I quickly lowered our weapons before I called out to them.

“Who are you? Do you need help?”

The figure stumbled in, their child walking alongside them, holding the stranger's hand while following them; the stranger struggled to keep themself upright, a small trail of blood following behind them. They made their way to me before falling toward me. Their arms were outstretched. I caught them, and their hood fell down, revealing who they were… It's… Fang! My ex, what is she doing here now? And who is this child with her?

Reed snapped me out of my trance. “Anon! Bring both of them inside. Fang's bleeding bad! I’ll be a little bit. Let me shut everything down and secure the place. Then I’ll join you.” he looked at the child that was following Fang.

“Wait, is that the God's Wing’s prophet that she brought in?”

I looked at him, confused by his question. Why and how would he know or care what that stupid religious group’s ‘prophet’ looks like right now? When I have Fang In my arms, and she is bleeding out. I struggled, but in time I was able to hook my left arm under her legs and my right under her back to start to carry her inside. As I started to head away, I stopped when I felt a tug on my shirt, followed by a high-pitched squawk. I turned around and saw the child that was with Fang staring up at me; she continued to squawk at me, pulling at my shirt in protest to me carrying Fang away. She didn’t let up until Fang opened her snout.

“It's ok, Amber. I’ll be fine. These people are good….”

The child stopped squawking but still held onto my shirt, making it awkward for me to carry Fang inside. After struggling for a bit, I got Fang indoors. I took her to the couch and laid her on her side to make it easier to see her injuries. I turned to the child and looked down at her, finally noticing that she looked exactly like Fang. However, she had an extra tiny set of Amber eyes above her primary set, and when she extended her wings in the garage, she had two sets of wings, and they didn’t look artificial. The eyes looked natural, too. She had no implants. What kind of mutant is this child? Whatever she is, she shouldn’t be here watching while I help Fang for how bloody it might get. She should be fine with Reed until I’m done.

“Uh… how about you go back outside and sit with Reed for a bit?”

The child stared at me, still holding onto my shirt. I decided to ignore her and return to taking care of Fang. I removed her cloak and saw that the backside of her shirt was almost completely stained with blood. I I sharply inhaled through my teeth as I saw the damage. She was missing half of her right wing, and it was still bleeding quite a bit. I had to take her shirt off to see if there was any further damage. She groaned as I lifted her shirt, and after making sure she didn’t have any other injuries, I lowered it back down. I needed to get the first aid kit. I think it was under the sink in the bathroom. I tried to move but again felt the tug of the ankle-biter at my side. Fed up, I decided to pick her up and sit her in one of the chairs. I turned on the TV and switched it to one of those shitty cartoon channels. Immediately, her attention was turned toward the colorful characters on the screen.

I sighed. "Of course, that'd work." With her distracted, I got the first aid kit from the bathroom and brought it to Fang. I set it on the small coffee table and opened it, taking out what I needed to patch her wing. I took a cloth and applied pressure to her wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. She continued to groan while I kept it pressed on the wound. After a while, besides some faint splotches of blood, it stopped bleeding. Confirming that she wasn’t bleeding that much anymore, I wrapped her wing in a sterile dressing. Not knowing where to stop, I covered what was left of her deformed wing, too scared to miss a spot. After wrapping her entire wing in bandages, I put away what I didn’t use. I turned back and checked on Fang. She was out cold. I carefully checked if she was breathing still… She was. I exhaled. At least she was alive. With confirmation she was alright, I grabbed a blanket draped over the couch and laid it over her. With Fang resting on the sofa, I took the last chair available, pulled it up next to her, and sat there watching her. Thoughts swarmed my head. Why is she here? Why now? My head turned to face the child, still mesmerized by the cartoons. Is this why she is here? Who did she have this kid with, and where was he? Why is the only noise she makes squawking? A hand gripped my shoulder, grabbing my attention. I turned to face who it was. It's Reed. I didn't even hear the door open.

“How’s she doing, bro?”

Reed looked down at me with worry in his eyes. I was worried too, but I didn’t want to admit it.

I put on a fake smile. “I think she’s doing fine. I was patching her wing, but she passed out halfway through.”

Reed looked over at her. His expression changed when he saw her wing. “Man, that looks horrible. So she’s the one that ran from the church after kidnapping her own kid.”

What? Why would she even kidnap her own child? “What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t heard? This morning, the mother of the ‘God's Wings’ prophet took her child and ran away from the church. She must have been running all night to get here. How did you not hear about it from Chuck's radio broadcast?”

I looked back at Fang and shrugged. “Must have tuned him out, not like I signed up to listen to his news anyway; they were forced onto me by the stupid deals that he made. But why would Fang run from the church where her child was a prophet? She must have been praised like a goddess there.”

“I don’t know, but we’ll ask her when she’s awake. For now, we should just watch them. I already called off the job. They weren’t happy about the last-minute cancelation, but that doesn’t matter.”

 

I just shrug. “Oh well; we’ll find more work. Dinofinity would probably come back to us anyway after how well we did on the previous jobs, but right now, what matters is Fang.”

Reed and I sat there watching Fang while she lay on the couch, her chest rising and falling. Reed suddenly turned his eyes downward. I followed his gaze and saw the little menace pulling at Reed's coat. As soon as she had our attention, she pointed to the fridge, pulling on Reed's coat while letting out a small chirp. We both looked at each other before shrugging.

“I guess she’s hungry?”

“I guess, man, I’ll go see if we even have anything left in the fridge.”

Reed walked over to the fridge, and Amber followed close behind him. I watched Reed as he opened it for a few seconds before slamming it shut. He turns around with an annoyed expression.

“We’re out of food. The only thing in there is expired milk, hotdogs, and beer. So uh… I guess we’re going out?”

“Sure, let's go.”

I started heading toward the garage. Reed stopped me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Nah, man, I’ll go get the food. You stay here and watch them, ok?”

I nodded. “Alright, sure, but please pick up something good, ok?”

“Of course, broski! I always get the good stuff. It's what I’m good at. But I do have to fix that belt first, so give me 20, and then I’ll go get the grub.”

He gave me a thumbs-up before heading out the door. After half an hour, I heard the car start and Reed cheering before he started to back the car out of the garage. After a second, I heard him speed off, and the garage door closed again. With nothing else to do since I didn’t want to leave Fang's side, I decided to watch cartoons with Amber, periodically looking over at Fang. Besides making small groans, she didn’t seem to be doing too badly. After almost an hour, I heard the car pull back into the garage and go silent. Reed opened the door carrying three pizza boxes.

“I’m back with the grub brochachos!”

The smiling raptor places the boxes on the table, opening one of them. Amber turned around and saw the food. Her eyes lit up before she hopped off the chair and rushed over to the table, looking quizzically at the pizza. We both stared at her, puzzled.

“What? Never seen pizza before?”

Reed pushed the box toward her, and she stared at it dumbfounded. She started to poke at it before looking back up at us. Reed and I laughed while we watched Amber try to figure out what to do with the pizza. Eventually, Reed decided to help her and show her how to eat it by grabbing a slice and pulling it from the box before biting into it. She followed what he demonstrated and bit into it, her eyes widening as she started to devour the slice in three bites before going for another one. As we were sitting there eating, I heard a groan coming from Fang, and I turned around to see what was happening, and I watched as Fang slowly propped herself up on the arm of the couch, holding her head. Reed and I both stood there in silence.

“What are you two dorks staring at?” She spread her right wing around her, inspecting it, gliding her hand across the remaining feathers before reaching the bandaged section and touching the spot where her wound sat, wincing as she felt it.

“Fuuuuuuuuuck, that hurts! Fuck that piece of shit guard!” Fang spat. She then turned her gaze toward Reed and smiled. “Thanks for helping Amber and me. We just showed up out of nowhere, but I appreciate that you guys didn’t throw us out.”

She struggled to move, but after a couple of seconds, she was able to sit up entirely, and she watched as Amber continued to devour the pizza, an actual smile starting to appear.

I continued to stare at her before turning to Reed. He had the same shocked expression as me. I turned back to Fang, and she was facing us. “And don’t worry, we won’t be here long, only a couple of nights if that’s fine.”

She turned back to Amber. Her eyes appeared hollow. My mind finally grasped Fang waking up, and I’m finally able to form a sentence:

“Fang… You can stay here as long as you need, but you need to tell us precisely what happened to you. You appeared from nowhere, no warnings, limping into our garage with half of your wing missing! And a child who is apparently a prophet!?! And I thought there was no way you would ever want to see me again after that night, but… Our past doesn’t matter right now. What does, though, is an explanation.”

Fang glowered at me. I know that look too well. She’s pissed.

Fang sneered at me, “The only reason I came here, Anon was because Reed was here, not you. For all I care, you aren’t here, and the last thing I owe you is an explanation.” Fang tried to stand up but immediately lost her balance and almost fell; luckily, Reed was there to catch her. Fang stood there for a moment before falling back down on the couch, putting her hands on her eyes, groaning.

Reed rubs his neck and sighs. “Fang, we don’t want you to leave. We only want an explanation of what you were doing. And I’m still your friend! I wasn’t pissed off when you said not to talk to you again. I was just confused. We’ll help you any way we can, right Anon?”

I nodded. “Yeah, Fang, we’ll help you two in any way possible; tell us what you need. I’m sorry I lashed out at you. I was just confused and scared when you showed up injured like that.”

Fang slowly retracts her hands, a small smile on her. “Thank you, both of you,” she turns towards me. “I’m sorry for taking my anger out on you, Anon. It's not like you dumped me on good terms and not to mention the fact you left me with something to take care of by myself” Fang stared daggers into me.

I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t leave you with anything, Fang. What are you talking about?”

Fang gestured toward Amber, “You left me to take care of my-no OUR daughter Anon, so I’m a little pissed off at you.”

Wait… Did Fang just say that Amber is my child? I didn’t even know dinos could have children with humans… Fuck, they probably explained that in biology class back in high school…Whatever! I’m a dad!… A dad that wasn’t there for either of them. But now that she’s here, I can try to make up for that, right? I can try to be a part of Amber's life, and I’ll try to reconnect with Fang. I don’t want to be distant and not care about my child's future like my father. I have to make things right.

I brought my hand to my forehead, holding it there. “Fuck, Fang, I’m… So sorry I left you to take care of her all by yourself. And that I wasn’t there to help you take care of her and spend time with her. I'll never be able to make up for that lost time, but I want to be here for you and her. I want to be a part of her life!”

Fang scoffed. “A little bit too late to be a part of her life, wouldn’t you say?” Fang's face started to contort into anger. “You think you can just leave us for six years and expect me to want you in her or my life again?”

Fang's fists started to grip the couch as tears appeared in her eyes. She tried to cover herself with her wings, but after being unable to hide because of her disfigurement, she retracted them, instead putting her face into her hands, and started to cry. I reached my hand out and placed it on her shoulder. She flinched but didn’t pull away.

“Fang…” I sat down on the couch next to her. “I’m so sorry that I put you through this much pain for so long… I can’t take back what I did, but I want to be here to support both of you. Please give me a chance to make it up to you.”

She brought her hands down and turned to face me, her amber eyes puffy and glistening from her crying. She looked broken.

Reed decided to speak up. “I think you should give him another chance, Fang, I think he regrets what he’s put you through, and he clearly wants to be there for the both of you.”

Fang stared at me, seemingly judging me, trying to figure out if I’m lying before turning away and sighing.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t trust Anon just yet. I want to, I want to believe that he will be there, but after being alone for so long, I can’t really trust that he won’t leave me again after this is all over.”

“...Fang,” I place my hand on hers, “you don’t need to trust me again immediately. All I’m asking for is a chance to regain that trust that we once had and try to show you that I can change because I want to be there for you and our child.”

I softly gripped her hand, and I felt her lightly squeeze my hand before slowly pulling it back to her side.

Fang turned her head away from me and put one of her hands on her other arm. “I’m sorry, but I think I just need some time to think about it”

“That's all I’m asking for, Fang. Think it over, and I’ll show you that you can trust me again when you’re ready.”

After that, silence returned as Reed headed back into the garage to continue working on the car, leaving Fang and I alone with Amber, who was napping on a chair. A couple of hours passed, and nothing really happened. Fang didn’t try talking to me unless she needed help in the bathroom or asked for something to eat. I was just screwing around with my eye roaming different forums trolling whoever I could, but after that got tired, I just decided to sit in silence next to her.

I tried to make conversation with her: “Hey, if you want, you could take my room tonight? Give you and Amber more room to sleep. I don’t use it anyway, and I thought you two would like an actual bed to sleep on.” She ignored me. That sounds about right. She was probably still considering if she wanted anything to do with me, but I thought she would at least respond to something like that.

Fang spoke up, “Sure, that sounds good. Thanks, Anon…Though I’ll need help getting there,” I saw her look at me for a split second before looking away again.

I nodded. “Sure, when you want me to help you, simply tell me.”

She turned her head to face me. “It’s uh getting pretty late, so how about now?”

“Sounds good” I got up from the couch and held my hand out to her. “Let's go!”

Fang hesitated for a second before taking my hand. I pulled her up, and she hooked her arm around my neck while I put one around her back, and we started making our way to my room. When we arrived, I opened the door and turned on the lights; I suddenly remembered the posters I had hung up… FUCK… Fang looked at the posters around the room and then at me with a surprised look.

Fang grinned. “Seems like you have a type? Did you really find me so attractive that you can only find pterodactyl women attractive now?” She let out a small laugh.

“I-it was a gift from an f-friend” I turned away from her before she could see me blushing.

She laughed again. “Come on, we both know the only friend you have left is Reed.”

Well, she was right, but damn, if that didn’t hurt. We made our way over to the bed, and I helped her sit down. Fang looked up at me.

“Could you go get Amber for me, and please try not to wake her up? She’s a pain to put to sleep when she's up.”

I nodded. “Sure”

I headed into the common room again and approached the sleeping Biblical angel. I knelt down and picked her up, gently carrying her into the room; I set her down next to Fang; she then adjusted the child, moved her under the blankets, and slid a pillow under her head; Fang then made herself comfortable and closed her eyes. I turned off the light, closed the door, headed to the fridge, took out two beers, and headed back into the garage. Smiling, Reed looked up at me and took one of the beers. He cracked them open with his claws, and we started to drink.

“Thanks, amigo” His expression changed. He got serious, “I’m glad you came out here because we have to talk about Fang and Amber.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What's there to talk about? Besides the two new roommates, I just learned I’m a dad, with her mom probably wanting nothing to do with me.”

 

Reed shook his head. “It's not specifically them, Anon; it's who's after them. The entirety of the ‘God’s Wings’ are looking for them! They even put up a one-million-claw bounty for Fang, Dead or alive, and a special award for whoever brings Amber in.”

I sighed. “Yeah, our future is about to be very busy until things die down. If they ever do, but we aren’t going to be giving them up.”

Reed shook his head. “No, we aren’t,” he grinned, “not without a fight, at least.”

I raised my bottle. “Damn straight.” Reed raised his bottle to mine and clinked it.

After that, Reed and I made small talk until we finished our beers. After our bottles were empty, I headed back inside while Reed closed everything down and ensured every lock was secure. I went and got comfy on the couch as Reed bid me good night and headed into his room; I turned on my bionic eye and started browsing through different things to do or places to visit tomorrow before heading to the forums to troll some retards. After a while, I shut down my eye and headed off to sleep, hoping tomorrow would go well.

 

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Outside Anon and Reed's warehouse, a car sat idling in one of the many alleyways in this part of town; a masked stranger lies in wait, watching the warehouse from the vehicle through a thermal scope. Suddenly a voice echoed in their head.

“Jaguar, this is Father. You read?”

“Loud and clear, Father, send it,” the stranger replied.

“Any sign of the target?” The voice asked.

“Negative, still watching our suspect's place, probably here.”

“Keep watching for another day. If nothing shows up, move to your next target,” Father responded.

“Roger that, Father. Jaguar out.”

With that, the silence returned, and the figure continued watching the small warehouse sleeplessly into the night.