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Even when the option for escape presents itself, a far worse fate lurks beyond those walls.\n\nJust as a heads-up: this one's more on the side of tasteless gore, rather than smut or somthing sensual.\n\nAlso, I don't want to hear anybody \"Actually!\" me about scaled vs feathered dinosaurs. I like scalies, so that's what I wrote. uwu", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Blake, a black-furred fox, wakes up accompanied by three strangers in a locked room. Even when the option for escape presents itself, a far worse fate lurks beyond those walls.

Just as a heads-up: this one's more on the side of tasteless gore, rather than smut or somthing sensual.

Also, I don't want to hear anybody "Actually!" me about scaled vs feathered dinosaurs. I like scalies, so that's what I wrote. uwu", "writing": "“Ah, last one to wake up, are we?”\n\nBlake heard the voice before he even opened his eyes. His sleep was a restful one, but he could tell there was someone rousing him. When he came to, he saw that he was in a dimly-lit metal room, surrounded by three people he’d never met before: A pink-wooled sheep nervously twirling a piece of down between their fingers, an Alolan Rattata whose attention seemed to be everywhere but on Blake, and a 6-point tan-furred deer, the one trying to get Blake’s attention.\n\n“Judging by the collar, I bet you don’t know where we are either,” the deer continued, gesturing to Blake’s neck.\n\nThe fox brought a black-furred paw to his neck. Sure enough, there was a metal collar there. Blake looked around and realized his three companions were all wearing similar collars, each adorned only with what seemed to be an electrocardiogram display. Come to think of it, that was the only article of clothing anyone was wearing, as though it were a nudist meetup.\n\n“Who are y’all…?” Blake asked as he warily rose to all-fours. The fox realized he was the only feral among three anthros. ([i]“If I could count an Alolan Rattata as anthro,”[/i] Blake mused in his head.)\n\n“I guess introductions are in order,” the deer replied. “My name’s Evan. The sheep already mentioned they don’t like to talk, but their name is Cherry.” Cherry looked up and gave a nervous wave at the mention of their name before returning their hand to its wool-twirling.\n\n“And I’m Casey,” the Rattata added, not even looking at Blake but instead continuing to observe the room. “I’d say nice to meet you, but these circumstances don’t seem very nice to meet in.”\n\n“Er… Blake,” the fox replied, taking a moment to shake the last bits of sleep off of himself. “Sorry, did I hear you mention y’all don’t know where we are?” \n\nEvan shook his head. “Casey said she was the first one to wake up,” he continued. “She tried to get us up too, but we wouldn’t budge at first. Something tells me we were all sedated, kidnapped, and put in these collars.”\n\n“Monitors,” Cherry suddenly spoke up, bringing everyone’s attention to them. “Being watched. Being tracked.” They didn’t continue, but they did point to the EKG display, which pinged with a green line for them. Blake looked around and noticed Casey and Evan had yellow lines on theirs, indicating a faster heart rate. The fox wondered for a moment what his display looked like, perhaps even if his was different.\n\nEvan crossed his arms and sighed, tapping his foot to the ground and getting lost in thought. “I’d rather you said that earlier,” the deer spoke. “Maybe we could’ve had more time to piece our situation together.”\n\n“H-hey, cut Cherry some slack,” Casey insisted as she walked up to Evan. Now that the two were close together, Blake could see the Rattata was exactly half the deer’s height. Taking a glance over, Cherry seemed to be shorter than Evan by a head. Blake, meanwhile, came up around Casey’s neck. “They said they don’t like to talk. Maybe they just wanted to say their piece once for all three of us to hear. Right Cherry?” The sheep gave a firm nod.\n\n“So, what? I’m supposed to believe that some lunatic with too much time and resources on their hands stuffed four strangers in a metal box just to see what happens next?” Evan asked. He looked around the room, eyeing everyone. “I’ve watched [i]porn [/i]with better plot hooks. There’s something else going on… and I think one of you is holding out.”\n\n“Oy, where the hell did that come from?” Blake spoke up. “What’s your angle jumping to there being an impostor among us?”\n\n“I think I have plenty of grounds,” the deer retorted. “Cherry here just knew what these collars were? Or maybe Casey was never asleep and just set everything up before rousing her captees.”\n\n“Do I look like I have the arm strength to drag all three of you in here?” Casey spat.\n\n“Scientific inference,” Cherry added, pointing again and their collar.\n\n“Besides,” Casey continued, “wouldn’t an impostor have something to gain by sowing distrust as fast as possible? I think you’ve tipped your hand, Evan, if that’s your real name-”\n\n“GUYS, STOP,” Blake suddenly shouted, causing all three to fix their gaze on the black-furred fox. “We’re all workin’ with a few pieces shy of a puzzle. It’s too early to start pointin’ paws. Er, I guess y’all have fingers…” Blake shook the tangent out of his head. “Point is, we can’t butt heads this soon. We need to check this room out and see if we can’t find anything. ‘Sides, we start bitin’ and clawin’ and splatterin’ blood everywhere, we risk covering some’n important.”\n\nThere was a tense silence in the air before Casey sighed and looked up at Evan, who met her gaze while maintaining an accusatory glare. “Blake’s right,” the Rattata admitted. “Whoever brought us here probably wants to watch us get at each other’s throats. Even [i]if[/i] one of us is in on it, knee-jerk reactions aren’t gonna get us anywhere.” Casey held out her hand towards Blake. “How about we agree to not kill each other for now while we search this room, yeah?”\n\nEvan rolled his eyes before reaching down and carefully grasping Casey’s hand with his own, gently yet firmly shaking. “Guess it’s a better idea than nothing,” Evan muttered.\n\n“Good,” Casey replied with a satisfied smile. “Now, since you’ve had your turn with a plan, here’s mine. We’ll each split up and take a wall to-”\n\nThe Rattata was cut off when an ear-piercing screech suddenly erupted from all four of their collars. Casey, Evan, and Cherry all covered their ears with their hands, while Blake had to drop to his belly to fold his ears tight with his paws. The screech lasted only for a moment, but when it ended, a panel opened high up on one of the walls, revealing a black monitor that flared to life. On it, an unfamiliar figure appeared: A Synth, clad in bronze plating, a silver underbelly, and piercing red eyes on their visor. Though all four attentions were fixed on the figure, Blake’s ear twitched as he swore he heard Casey make some kind of noise.\n\n“Good morning, sleepy heads!” the figure on the monitor teased in a sinister robotic voice, bringing their arms up in a perverted gesture of welcome. Each arm ended in five fingers that themselves ended in claws that looked sharp enough to cut through the screen itself. “I hope each one of you is rested, because the game is about to begin!”\n\n“Who the hell are you?” Evan shouted, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Blake looked over to observe the deer’s threatening stance, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that Casey was situated firmly behind the deer, crouched back and trembling while transfixed on the Synth. Cherry had already caught onto this and moved to try and hold the Rattata steady, so Blake figured he was free to turn his attention back to the monitor.\n\n“What? And let you die with one less question on your mind?” the Synth teased. “Where’s the fun in that? Regret spices fresh meat up [i]very[/i] nicely, and I only serve my pets the highest-grade cuisine at dinnertime!” The Synth brought a clawed finger up to their chin and tapped it, thinking for a moment. “I guess I could tell you that your first prediction was wrong. I didn’t bring you here just to kill each other while stuck in that little lockbox. My pets are here for a hunt, not a handout.”\n\n“Pets…?” Blake thought aloud. “Are you sicking Wilds on us?”\n\n“Ah, the feral’s got a keen intuition,” the Synth replied, clasping their hands together. “I think I’ll have my pets leave your brain intact. Been a while since I’ve had some fresh intellect to work with.”\n\nA chill went down Blake’s spine as those words were spoken. What the hell was that supposed to mean?\n\n“They’re not Wilds like you’re used to, of course. Better just to show you. I think my darling Magenta is getting restless from all this preamble.”\n\nJust as the Synth said this, a crashing sound was heard against the wall beneath the monitor, like something was banging against a door. Then the sound came again, and again, over and over.\n\n“Best not to let the poor girl hurt her head.” A blue window appeared on the Synth’s visor, and they held a clawed hand up to pantomime a handgun. “Let’s not waste any more time. Blake, Evan, Cherry… my dear Casey… are you all ready? On your marks…”\n\nThe whole room shifted, and a vertical fissure appeared down the center of the wall beneath the monitor. The wall began separating, like giant factory doors, and the banging stopped, as though whatever was making the noise knew its efforts paid off.\n\n“Get set…”\n\nThe walls separated enough to reveal the dimly lit exterior of the box: A decrepit, windowless factory with sporadic lighting and rust-covered machinery. But the environment wasn’t what caught the group’s attention. It was the creature standing patiently at the center of where the door opened: A velociraptor, clad in dirty-brown scales as though adapted to camouflage against the rusted environment, broken only by the occasional purple stripes along its body and a piercingly-bright purple stripe down the center of its face, between its two eyes.\n\nTwo eyes that locked onto their prey.\n\n“GO!” The Synth pretended to fire their hand-pistol. The velociraptor let out a roar, as though to acknowledge its master’s permission, before charging forward at the group. Evan was at the front of the party, and could see the raptor was after him, jumping forward with its talons bared.\n\nThe deer wasn’t about to take this lying down, however. He firmly planted one foot, then whirled around with the other to roundhouse kick the raptor perfectly on its neck, choking it and sending it careening to the ground. However, due to the way the raptor’s body folded, its talon tore into Evan’s leg on its way down, dragging him to the ground and causing blood to immediately gush out of the limb. He cried out in pain and collapsed, gripping the wound to try and stop the bleeding.\n\n“Evan!” the group shouted in unison, rushing to his aid. Cherry was quick to rip a chunk of their wool out, spit on it, and hold it to the deer’s leg to try and stop the bleeding like a wad of gauze. However, there wasn’t any time to tend to him. The raptor was quickly regaining itself.\n\n“Fuck this… you three run,” Evan muttered, pushing Cherry away and gesturing the rest off. He then turned and lunged towards the raptor antlers-first, stabbing as many of his points as he could into its hide to impale it. “I’m not getting away like this, but I’m not going down limping either!”\n\n“Evan, no!” Blake called, but Cherry was quick to pull both him and Casey back to reality, gesturing to both that they had to run.\n\nCasey shook off her stupor from seeing the Synth and nodded in agreement. All three then got up and ran out of the room. They didn’t get very far, however, when they were stopped by an unpleasant surprise: A second velociraptor, this one similar to the other’s pattern but with green stripes, jumped out of hiding and in front of the group, hissing menacingly.\n\n“Casey, you’re a Pokemon, use magic or somethin’!” Blake insisted, unsure of what else to suggest.\n\n“I can’t do anything to it without getting close…” Casey replied.\n\nThe green raptor was about to pounce, but it stopped and perked its head when the other raptor made a noise like a desperate cry. The group was quickly abandoned in favor of helping its sibling first. The hunt could continue in a minute.\n\nEvan was struggling to keep his antlers pinned in the raptor’s hide. Its thrashing claws tore Evan’s flesh in several places, but he was determined to stay where he was until this thing bled out, even if he did so first. He was at least thankful the position he had kept that thing’s teeth away from him.\n\nThat was, until another set of teeth tore into his side.\n\nThe deer cried out in new pain as the jaws of the second raptor clamped onto and yanked him away from the first, his stomach tearing open from the force. He gasped for air as blood poured out of him. Meanwhile, the new raptor went over to help its sibling up, licking blood off of its wounds.\n\n[i]“The bastard did say pets, plural,”[/i] Evan thought to himself as he gritted his teeth and rose to a kneel with his good leg while using his less-injured arm to try and stem the bleeding in his side. He looked down and saw something hanging out that probably wasn’t meant to be exposed to air, but his vision was starting to get blurry, so he could barely even make out his own hand, let alone whatever that was. When he looked back up, both raptors were on their feet, stalking close to him.[i] “Whoever the traitor was, they got me good… but if I can help the other two get away, I can meet you with my head held high.”[/i]\n\nThe raptors pounced. Evan braced his fist. “I’m coming for you, Liza.” He swung at one as it came down, but he couldn’t hit the other, and it clamped its jaw down on his shoulder, tackling him to the ground. Evan let out a groan of pain as its claw tore into his chest, slicing him open like a zipper. The first raptor dug a foot talon into his leg, reaching down and biting into Evan’s stomach, effortlessly ripping more of his insides out and chowing down. The deer didn’t even shout in pain, partially out of resignation to his fate, but also partially because of the blood accumulating in his throat made anything but strained gargles impossible. Even as his arm and leg were ripped off, even as he was hollowed out like an empty bowl of ramen, he met his death with as much dignity as he could. Even when one raptor came up to his face, he used the last of his effort to spit blood at it. This did nothing, of course, and the last thing he saw was two jaws clamping down on the sides of his head, the last thing he felt was crushed bones and a torn neck.\n\nAnd Evan was no more.\n\n…\n\nBlake, Casey, and Cherry didn’t even stick around to watch Evan’s fate. He helped them get away, and they were gonna make the most of it. As they ran through the browns and grays of the dimly-lit factory, they found themselves out of the open air of the machinery area and inside a labyrinth of corridors. Some hallways were lit, but others were pitch black, and the group unanimously opted to go for the former at each decision without even needing to deliberate. After some distance, they started checking any doors they came across for a place to hide. They had no luck for a while, however, as every door was either jammed or locked. They they found a flight of stairs and made it to a second floor, but still no doors granted them entry. Eventually, however, one door finally opened, and they piled inside, closing the door behind them as tight as it would go.\n\nAll three sunk to the ground, panting heavily. Blake looked around and saw they were in what used to be some kind of doctor’s room, the walls lined with shelves of dubious substances and machinery that hasn’t worked in ages. There was barely any light in the room, but the feral fox could somewhat see from what trickled in beneath the door and the now-red glow from their collars.\n\n“Shit…” Casey muttered, coughing a little as she gasped for air. “I guess Evan wasn’t an impostor. Now I feel like I should’ve been nicer…”\n\n“Not to bad-mouth the dead… but he accused y’all first,” Blake replied, also gasping. “We need a plan. Those things are gonna finish him off soon, and they’ll come lookin’ for us next.” The fox looked around the room. None of the medical equipment looked like it’d be much use as makeshift weapons against two natural-born predators. He looked over at Cherry, who was curled into a ball and looking at nothing but the ground. The sheep was a diurnal prey animal, so of course they didn’t have night vision like Blake. He looked over at Casey, who was scanning the room intently. He knew little about Pokemon, but he hazarded a guess that she was nocturnal, based on her fur patterns. Her night vision had to be way better than Blake’s if that was the case.\n\n“Scent,” Cherry suddenly spoke up, drawing the other two’s attention. “Hunters. Find our hiding spot easily.” They twirled their wool in their fingers again, keeping close to the spot where they tore a chunk off for Evan. “Distraction. Idea.”\n\n“Wait, we might be thinking the same thing,” Casey said. She looked around and saw several machines had cylindrical rods. There were also rounded flasks and empty jars. “Blake, how precise are your jaws?”\n\n…\n\nThe two raptors stalked the halls. They could pick up the scent of sweat, fur, and fear. Their claws left bloody footprints, but that mattered none. They sniffed at the ground to make sure they kept on the trail of their prey. Invigorated by one successful hunt, their hunger for the remainder of the group only grew.\n\nGreen spoke up. Magenta turned to see its sibling gesture up towards a set of stairs. They climbed effortlessly to the second floor, where the scent only grew stronger. Their prey slowed down. Their next meal was close.\n\nMagenta’s eyes locked onto an almost invisible piece of debris on the ground: A strand of pink wool. The sheep would lead them closer. A trail of more pink wool, zig-zagging between doors. Both raptor siblings began sniffing around each one, on and off the trail. Finally, Green caught a scent. Their prey was in this room.\n\nMagenta had the harder head of the two. Green was better at stealth and tracking. The current situation called for force. Green backed off as Magenta bashed itself against the door, swinging it wide on its hinges with a single tackle. Its eyes and nose scanned the room. Their prey had [i]been[/i] here. There was a pile of wool and some droplets of blood.\n\nGreen spoke up again. Magenta returned to its sibling. The two found a fork in the hallway and two trails of pink wool, each with occasional drips of blood. The raptors recognized this as a trick, but knew one trail had to be real. They silently agreed on which path to follow and split up, taking off in opposite directions. This was the hunt. This was what they lived for.\n\n…\n\n“They’re gone,” Casey whispered as she brought her ear away from the door of the new room they hid in. She turned to the other two, and all three afforded themselves a sigh of relief.\n\nCherry rubbed the parts of their body where wool was sheared off by Blake’s teeth. A few spots bled, but nothing broke skin. The fox, meanwhile, turned and licked at the wound on his shoulder, covered by another clump of wool and adhered by a bandage Casey found among the abandoned medical equipment. Still, the three collected themselves and carefully slid out of the room. The raptors were indeed gone, so they hurried back the way they came, hoping both that a way out was in that direction and that their assailants wouldn’t think to double-back.\n\n“Rollin’ vials o’ blood-soaked wool down two hallways…” Blake mused as the three ran. “You’re a genius, Casey.”\n\n“No, it was Cherry’s idea first,” the Rattata replied. “Plus, you didn’t need to volunteer your own blood. I was ready cut myself.”\n\n“But you were the one who put everything together,” the fox retorted. “Cherry had to offer their wool. I wasn’t just gonna tear it off of them and contribute nothin’ else. ‘Sides, neither of us could’a gnawed those notches in the bars so they’d hold wool in addition to the vials on the ends, nor actually fit everything together like puzzle pieces. You’re somethin’ else, Casey.”\n\nThe three hurriedly stalked in silence for a bit longer, constantly checking over their shoulders to make sure the raptors weren’t still following them.\n\n“Hey Casey…” Blake finally spoke up. “You acted like you knew that Synth on the monitor. Is there a story there?”\n\nThe Alolan Rattata’s expression turned grim. “Their name is Lancaster,” she spoke firmly. “Let’s just say I’ve escaped their clutches once already. They’re a sadistic machine who knows only how to kill and how to find perverted joy in all the different ways they can end lives. If somebody built them, I can’t imagine how much more twisted that architect is.”\n\n“And they just… trap people in here to feed their raptors?”\n\n“I’m not sure.” Casey shook her head, her expression suggesting she was racking her brain for an answer. “I only know so much about them. I didn’t even know about the raptors.”\n\nThe trio finally came to a fork in the hallway. One path was stained with bloody footprints that led towards the way they came. This had to be where the raptors came from after they finished Evan. The other path led to someplace unknown entirely. The corridor was pitch black, so the trio definitely hadn’t checked here, but there seemed to be a faint glimmer of light at the end that Blake could make out in the distance.\n\n“Which way should we go?” Blake asked, trying to peer down both hallways.\n\nCasey was about to speak up, but her ear twitched suddenly. She jerked her head around to look back the way they had just came. The sounds of claws tapping against metal and low growling came from the distance, and the Rattata knew exactly what that meant. “The jig is up,” she warned. “We need to get out now.”\n\n“Let’s go this way, then,” Blake quickly replied, indicating towards the dark hallway. “Cherry, stay close to us.” The sheep nodded, and the three started running once again.\n\nThey ran in pitch darkness for what felt like forever, and Casey was cursed with the sounds of the raptors getting closer with every step. Blake led the way, but that light at the end of the tunnel seemed to never get any closer. Doubt started to fester in his mind with every stride. [i]“Was this the right way?”[/i] he thought. [i]“Did I just march these two to their death?”[/i]\n\nCasey kept her gaze fixed on Blake. She could see better than him, but there was no time to decide which of the two should lead. The Rattata followed the yellow glow of Blake’s collar as his heart rate increased and the display shifted to red. Hers was probably red too, but she wouldn’t be able to tell. If this run was pushing the two this hard, how was Cherry holding up?\n\nShe turned to check on the sheep, but the glow of their collar was nowhere to be found.\n\n…\n\nGreen ran ahead of its sibling. It was quieter on its feet than Magenta. The two were no strangers to deception. Their prey got a head-start on them because of it, but they were strategists. Magenta was heavier. It stayed back to make noise as though both were further back. Green was lighter. It sprinted on like a shadow among darkness. They’d fight deception with deception.\n\nWithin the darkness, three yellow lights ran. Green focused its eyes to make out the shapes of its prey. The light furthest back turned red, and the figure staggered further behind. This was Green’s chance. It continued to close the gap, and with a mighty leap, slashed into the neck of its prey. Both hit the ground, but the other two prey ran ahead, oblivious. Green’s takedown was silent. The sheep couldn’t scream without its throat. One of the flock was successfully separated. Another meal was secured.\n\nMagenta finally caught up to its sibling as Green held down the flailing sheep. They didn’t even need to exchange looks nor growls to know it was time to eat. Magenta was first to take a bite, tearing into the sheep’s flailing leg. It yanked its head back and forth until the limb tore off. Greedily did it lean back and gulp the leg down, barely chewing it with serrated teeth that shredded the morsel effortlessly.\n\nGreen was next to take its bite. It tore into the back of the sheep, crunching through the spine and ripping out a chunk of meat. The prey would die quickly without their spine, but that was a given with life draining from their neck already. None of that mattered to the raptors. All that mattered was the meal.\n\nFlesh and blood. Blood and bone. Bone and flesh. Every bite the two raptors took was like a miniature orgasm from their tongues. They tore further and further into the sheep, which had long since ceased its struggle. There was no life left to snuff, only meat to devour. Limbs to tear. Bones to crunch. Blood to indulge like sacred wine. An orgy of once-living matter, now only sustenance for the two predators. Even the wool was devoured, hardly even seen as an obstacle to the meal.\n\nMagenta ate the previous prey’s brain, so Green earned that treat this time around. It reached down and clamped its jaws, crushing skull inside flesh and ripping the weakened neck in a single fluid motion. Flashes of memory appeared in Green’s mind as it chomped down the gray matter that once housed Cherry’s personality. That was their name, Green learned. The deer whose mind Magenta devoured was Evan. The fox was Blake. The Alolan Rattata was Casey. Memories of an Awakened flowed through the raptor for a brief time as it chewed. People Cherry knew. Pleasures they afforded themselves. Vistas they’d seen. The the memories were fleeting, but for one brilliant moment, the Wild predator had a glimpse of life beyond these corridors.\n\nThen the destroyed brain slid down Green’s throat. That life faded away. The raptor might not even remember any detail of what it just experienced. Magenta got its sibling’s attention, and the two looked down to see their meal reduced to a few meatless bones. That was two prey down. It was time to finish the hunt. It was time to finish what they lived for.\n\n…\n\nBlake and Casey finally got into a lit area. The room they came out to was huge, but there were only two exits: The way they came, and a door on the opposite side of the room. They ran to the door and tried to get it open, but there was no give. All that stood between the two and potential freedom was a heavy padlock that kept the door in place. One tiny lock that threatened to seal their fate.\n\n“I can gnaw through this,” Casey declared, reaching up and taking the lock in her hands. “I don’t know if I can do it fast enough, though. They’ll be done with Cherry soon…”\n\nBlake grit his teeth as he thought of Cherry. He should’ve been more vigilant and kept the sheep in his sight. How long did the two even run after they were taken? There was no sign of them when Blake and Casey turned, but the two had no time to search, either. They had to keep going.\n\n“I’ll keep an eye down the hall and shout up if the raptors get close,” Blake replied, turning back towards the hallway. He scanned the room to see if there was anything he could use as a weapon when the raptors came. All he found was a discarded metal pipe thin enough to hold in his jaws. [i]“That’ll have to do,”[/i] he thought as he picked it up and stood back at the ready.\n\nCasey, meanwhile, set to work gnawing at the metal lock. Her teeth were powerful, able to chew through metal with just a bit of effort. They weren’t effective in a fight, though. She’d need to get her neck too close to her opponent, and that’d leave her wide open. Claw attacks were more her style, considering her agility, but claws couldn’t tear through metal, so that’s where she focused her teeth. She made steady progress through the padlock, working not just to break a hole that could get it off the hinge, but also turning it into a sharp, makeshift weapon for what was coming.\n\nThe two weren’t getting away, she knew. The raptors were already approaching.\n\nBlake saw the raptors emerge from the darkness, steady in their stalking now that they knew their prey was cornered. Cherry’s blood dripped fresh from their mouths and claws. Their eyes had a wild glint as they focused on the fox. He was their next target, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.\n\n“They’re here, Casey!” Blake shouted through the bar in his teeth. He didn’t dare move his focus from the raptors, though. He was going to stand and fight until-\n\n[i]Shk! Shrrrk![/i]\n\nBlake didn’t even register the pain at first. He heard the noise of flesh tearing, and his first thought was that a third raptor got the drop on Casey. But then he felt it. The deliberate gash down his hind leg. The blood gushing out. He dropped the bar as he cried out in pain and completely lost balance, his torn leg unable to keep him upright. Before he could even turn around, a similar gash was torn into his other leg, and he was completely immobilized.\n\nHe finally did turn, and there was Casey, staring down at him with the bloodied padlock-blade in her hand. “Sorry, Blake,” she said in a cold yet teasing tone. “But we got too close to the end. I wasn’t gonna let those two go hungry. You understand, I’m sure.”\n\nBlake grit his teeth as he glared at the Alolan Rattata smugly staring down at him. “What the fuck is your problem, Casey…?” he tried to shout, but his words barely came out as whimpers. “They’ll kill both of us…!”\n\n“Will they?” Casey asked, bringing her free hand to her chin and pretending to think. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The EKG on her collar was blinking red, but it gradually softened to yellow and then green. She opened her eyes again, and they were a searing crimson. Her smug expression transformed into an outright sadistic grin. “They won’t bite the hand that feeds them,” she continued in a voice that wasn’t quite her own.\n\n“The hand that feeds them…?” Blake asked. He turned and saw the raptors standing patiently at the entrance to the room, staring the fox down. They weren’t advancing anymore. Blake turned his attention back to Casey… or whoever this was. “Who or what are you?”\n\nCasey chuckled, tossed the padlock across the room, and casually strode towards the two raptors. “Why, Casey already told you who I was,” she said. “That machine she was oh so happy to badmouth when you asked her to.”\n\n“No way… Lancaster?”\n\n“That’s the one!” The Rattata turned towards Blake and clasped her hands together once, as though applauding the fox’s memory. She then pointed to her collar. “I’ve waited in here the whole time, with a front-row seat to the hunt my pets were on. Evan was pretty darn close when he accused ‘me’ of being the impostor among us, but he was also close when he suspected Cherry… and even when he thought to accuse you.” The Rattata’s hand pointed towards Blake’s collar. “Nothing was special about Casey. All four of the collars were designed to let me possess a wearer once there were two left standing. I could give a slight nudge to anyone without them noticing, but I like to take an organic body for a spin once the hunt's over, and who better than my dear Casey? Of course, that’s not my only reason.” Casey then brought her hand up to her head and gave it a few taps. “I don’t meet too many Awakened ferals. Your brain is one I [i]really[/i] want to study, and these collars have a tendency to fry brain cells when I mind control someone.”\n\n“My brain…? What the fuck does that mean!?”\n\nCasey chuckled and walked over to Blake, reaching down to pat his head. The fox reared up and snapped, snatching the Rattata’s hand in his jaws and clamping down, but she didn’t react. “Oi, rude! I can still feel pain through her body.” The Rattata then reached down and chomped Blake’s muzzle with teeth that could break steel, causing him to yelp in pain and recoil back. Casey shook the blood off of her bitten hand and scoffed. “And here I was about to compliment how smart you seemed. Eh, water under the bridge.” She then turned back to the raptors. “Green. Magenta. Chow time… but leave the brain.” The two raptors growled in reply and started advancing towards the downed black fox.\n\n“C-Casey! Do something! Fight him!” Blake used his two good legs to try and back away in one last feeble attempt at escape, but even this was cut short when one of the raptors stepped forward and tore its talon into his last uninjured leg, pinning him to the spot.\n\n“Sorry, friend, Casey’s out of office for the day.” She didn’t even look back as she walked down the corridor. “I’ve gotta get back to my body. My pets will deliver you once they’re done eating. Oh, and one more thing.” Casey finally turned back towards Blake, whose attention was on the two raptors as they leaned towards him with drooling maws. Her eyes flashed bright with Lancaster’s glow as she gave the fox one last sadistic grin. “They’re gonna avoid your vital organs at first to keep your brain alive and fresh as long as possible. You’re probably gonna stay conscious for a good while as they chow down. Try to show my girls a little respect, yeah?”\n\nBlake was about to retort, but he couldn’t get the words out before the first bite tore into his flesh.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "“Ah, last one to wake up, are we?”

Blake heard the voice before he even opened his eyes. His sleep was a restful one, but he could tell there was someone rousing him. When he came to, he saw that he was in a dimly-lit metal room, surrounded by three people he’d never met before: A pink-wooled sheep nervously twirling a piece of down between their fingers, an Alolan Rattata whose attention seemed to be everywhere but on Blake, and a 6-point tan-furred deer, the one trying to get Blake’s attention.

“Judging by the collar, I bet you don’t know where we are either,” the deer continued, gesturing to Blake’s neck.

The fox brought a black-furred paw to his neck. Sure enough, there was a metal collar there. Blake looked around and realized his three companions were all wearing similar collars, each adorned only with what seemed to be an electrocardiogram display. Come to think of it, that was the only article of clothing anyone was wearing, as though it were a nudist meetup.

“Who are y’all…?” Blake asked as he warily rose to all-fours. The fox realized he was the only feral among three anthros. (“If I could count an Alolan Rattata as anthro,” Blake mused in his head.)

“I guess introductions are in order,” the deer replied. “My name’s Evan. The sheep already mentioned they don’t like to talk, but their name is Cherry.” Cherry looked up and gave a nervous wave at the mention of their name before returning their hand to its wool-twirling.

“And I’m Casey,” the Rattata added, not even looking at Blake but instead continuing to observe the room. “I’d say nice to meet you, but these circumstances don’t seem very nice to meet in.”

“Er… Blake,” the fox replied, taking a moment to shake the last bits of sleep off of himself. “Sorry, did I hear you mention y’all don’t know where we are?”

Evan shook his head. “Casey said she was the first one to wake up,” he continued. “She tried to get us up too, but we wouldn’t budge at first. Something tells me we were all sedated, kidnapped, and put in these collars.”

“Monitors,” Cherry suddenly spoke up, bringing everyone’s attention to them. “Being watched. Being tracked.” They didn’t continue, but they did point to the EKG display, which pinged with a green line for them. Blake looked around and noticed Casey and Evan had yellow lines on theirs, indicating a faster heart rate. The fox wondered for a moment what his display looked like, perhaps even if his was different.

Evan crossed his arms and sighed, tapping his foot to the ground and getting lost in thought. “I’d rather you said that earlier,” the deer spoke. “Maybe we could’ve had more time to piece our situation together.”

“H-hey, cut Cherry some slack,” Casey insisted as she walked up to Evan. Now that the two were close together, Blake could see the Rattata was exactly half the deer’s height. Taking a glance over, Cherry seemed to be shorter than Evan by a head. Blake, meanwhile, came up around Casey’s neck. “They said they don’t like to talk. Maybe they just wanted to say their piece once for all three of us to hear. Right Cherry?” The sheep gave a firm nod.

“So, what? I’m supposed to believe that some lunatic with too much time and resources on their hands stuffed four strangers in a metal box just to see what happens next?” Evan asked. He looked around the room, eyeing everyone. “I’ve watched porn with better plot hooks. There’s something else going on… and I think one of you is holding out.”

“Oy, where the hell did that come from?” Blake spoke up. “What’s your angle jumping to there being an impostor among us?”

“I think I have plenty of grounds,” the deer retorted. “Cherry here just knew what these collars were? Or maybe Casey was never asleep and just set everything up before rousing her captees.”

“Do I look like I have the arm strength to drag all three of you in here?” Casey spat.

“Scientific inference,” Cherry added, pointing again and their collar.

“Besides,” Casey continued, “wouldn’t an impostor have something to gain by sowing distrust as fast as possible? I think you’ve tipped your hand, Evan, if that’s your real name-”

“GUYS, STOP,” Blake suddenly shouted, causing all three to fix their gaze on the black-furred fox. “We’re all workin’ with a few pieces shy of a puzzle. It’s too early to start pointin’ paws. Er, I guess y’all have fingers…” Blake shook the tangent out of his head. “Point is, we can’t butt heads this soon. We need to check this room out and see if we can’t find anything. ‘Sides, we start bitin’ and clawin’ and splatterin’ blood everywhere, we risk covering some’n important.”

There was a tense silence in the air before Casey sighed and looked up at Evan, who met her gaze while maintaining an accusatory glare. “Blake’s right,” the Rattata admitted. “Whoever brought us here probably wants to watch us get at each other’s throats. Even if one of us is in on it, knee-jerk reactions aren’t gonna get us anywhere.” Casey held out her hand towards Blake. “How about we agree to not kill each other for now while we search this room, yeah?”

Evan rolled his eyes before reaching down and carefully grasping Casey’s hand with his own, gently yet firmly shaking. “Guess it’s a better idea than nothing,” Evan muttered.

“Good,” Casey replied with a satisfied smile. “Now, since you’ve had your turn with a plan, here’s mine. We’ll each split up and take a wall to-”

The Rattata was cut off when an ear-piercing screech suddenly erupted from all four of their collars. Casey, Evan, and Cherry all covered their ears with their hands, while Blake had to drop to his belly to fold his ears tight with his paws. The screech lasted only for a moment, but when it ended, a panel opened high up on one of the walls, revealing a black monitor that flared to life. On it, an unfamiliar figure appeared: A Synth, clad in bronze plating, a silver underbelly, and piercing red eyes on their visor. Though all four attentions were fixed on the figure, Blake’s ear twitched as he swore he heard Casey make some kind of noise.

“Good morning, sleepy heads!” the figure on the monitor teased in a sinister robotic voice, bringing their arms up in a perverted gesture of welcome. Each arm ended in five fingers that themselves ended in claws that looked sharp enough to cut through the screen itself. “I hope each one of you is rested, because the game is about to begin!”

“Who the hell are you?” Evan shouted, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Blake looked over to observe the deer’s threatening stance, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that Casey was situated firmly behind the deer, crouched back and trembling while transfixed on the Synth. Cherry had already caught onto this and moved to try and hold the Rattata steady, so Blake figured he was free to turn his attention back to the monitor.

“What? And let you die with one less question on your mind?” the Synth teased. “Where’s the fun in that? Regret spices fresh meat up very nicely, and I only serve my pets the highest-grade cuisine at dinnertime!” The Synth brought a clawed finger up to their chin and tapped it, thinking for a moment. “I guess I could tell you that your first prediction was wrong. I didn’t bring you here just to kill each other while stuck in that little lockbox. My pets are here for a hunt, not a handout.”

“Pets…?” Blake thought aloud. “Are you sicking Wilds on us?”

“Ah, the feral’s got a keen intuition,” the Synth replied, clasping their hands together. “I think I’ll have my pets leave your brain intact. Been a while since I’ve had some fresh intellect to work with.”

A chill went down Blake’s spine as those words were spoken. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“They’re not Wilds like you’re used to, of course. Better just to show you. I think my darling Magenta is getting restless from all this preamble.”

Just as the Synth said this, a crashing sound was heard against the wall beneath the monitor, like something was banging against a door. Then the sound came again, and again, over and over.

“Best not to let the poor girl hurt her head.” A blue window appeared on the Synth’s visor, and they held a clawed hand up to pantomime a handgun. “Let’s not waste any more time. Blake, Evan, Cherry… my dear Casey… are you all ready? On your marks…”

The whole room shifted, and a vertical fissure appeared down the center of the wall beneath the monitor. The wall began separating, like giant factory doors, and the banging stopped, as though whatever was making the noise knew its efforts paid off.

“Get set…”

The walls separated enough to reveal the dimly lit exterior of the box: A decrepit, windowless factory with sporadic lighting and rust-covered machinery. But the environment wasn’t what caught the group’s attention. It was the creature standing patiently at the center of where the door opened: A velociraptor, clad in dirty-brown scales as though adapted to camouflage against the rusted environment, broken only by the occasional purple stripes along its body and a piercingly-bright purple stripe down the center of its face, between its two eyes.

Two eyes that locked onto their prey.

“GO!” The Synth pretended to fire their hand-pistol. The velociraptor let out a roar, as though to acknowledge its master’s permission, before charging forward at the group. Evan was at the front of the party, and could see the raptor was after him, jumping forward with its talons bared.

The deer wasn’t about to take this lying down, however. He firmly planted one foot, then whirled around with the other to roundhouse kick the raptor perfectly on its neck, choking it and sending it careening to the ground. However, due to the way the raptor’s body folded, its talon tore into Evan’s leg on its way down, dragging him to the ground and causing blood to immediately gush out of the limb. He cried out in pain and collapsed, gripping the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

“Evan!” the group shouted in unison, rushing to his aid. Cherry was quick to rip a chunk of their wool out, spit on it, and hold it to the deer’s leg to try and stop the bleeding like a wad of gauze. However, there wasn’t any time to tend to him. The raptor was quickly regaining itself.

“Fuck this… you three run,” Evan muttered, pushing Cherry away and gesturing the rest off. He then turned and lunged towards the raptor antlers-first, stabbing as many of his points as he could into its hide to impale it. “I’m not getting away like this, but I’m not going down limping either!”

“Evan, no!” Blake called, but Cherry was quick to pull both him and Casey back to reality, gesturing to both that they had to run.

Casey shook off her stupor from seeing the Synth and nodded in agreement. All three then got up and ran out of the room. They didn’t get very far, however, when they were stopped by an unpleasant surprise: A second velociraptor, this one similar to the other’s pattern but with green stripes, jumped out of hiding and in front of the group, hissing menacingly.

“Casey, you’re a Pokemon, use magic or somethin’!” Blake insisted, unsure of what else to suggest.

“I can’t do anything to it without getting close…” Casey replied.

The green raptor was about to pounce, but it stopped and perked its head when the other raptor made a noise like a desperate cry. The group was quickly abandoned in favor of helping its sibling first. The hunt could continue in a minute.

Evan was struggling to keep his antlers pinned in the raptor’s hide. Its thrashing claws tore Evan’s flesh in several places, but he was determined to stay where he was until this thing bled out, even if he did so first. He was at least thankful the position he had kept that thing’s teeth away from him.

That was, until another set of teeth tore into his side.

The deer cried out in new pain as the jaws of the second raptor clamped onto and yanked him away from the first, his stomach tearing open from the force. He gasped for air as blood poured out of him. Meanwhile, the new raptor went over to help its sibling up, licking blood off of its wounds.

“The bastard did say pets, plural,” Evan thought to himself as he gritted his teeth and rose to a kneel with his good leg while using his less-injured arm to try and stem the bleeding in his side. He looked down and saw something hanging out that probably wasn’t meant to be exposed to air, but his vision was starting to get blurry, so he could barely even make out his own hand, let alone whatever that was. When he looked back up, both raptors were on their feet, stalking close to him. “Whoever the traitor was, they got me good… but if I can help the other two get away, I can meet you with my head held high.”

The raptors pounced. Evan braced his fist. “I’m coming for you, Liza.” He swung at one as it came down, but he couldn’t hit the other, and it clamped its jaw down on his shoulder, tackling him to the ground. Evan let out a groan of pain as its claw tore into his chest, slicing him open like a zipper. The first raptor dug a foot talon into his leg, reaching down and biting into Evan’s stomach, effortlessly ripping more of his insides out and chowing down. The deer didn’t even shout in pain, partially out of resignation to his fate, but also partially because of the blood accumulating in his throat made anything but strained gargles impossible. Even as his arm and leg were ripped off, even as he was hollowed out like an empty bowl of ramen, he met his death with as much dignity as he could. Even when one raptor came up to his face, he used the last of his effort to spit blood at it. This did nothing, of course, and the last thing he saw was two jaws clamping down on the sides of his head, the last thing he felt was crushed bones and a torn neck.

And Evan was no more.

…

Blake, Casey, and Cherry didn’t even stick around to watch Evan’s fate. He helped them get away, and they were gonna make the most of it. As they ran through the browns and grays of the dimly-lit factory, they found themselves out of the open air of the machinery area and inside a labyrinth of corridors. Some hallways were lit, but others were pitch black, and the group unanimously opted to go for the former at each decision without even needing to deliberate. After some distance, they started checking any doors they came across for a place to hide. They had no luck for a while, however, as every door was either jammed or locked. They they found a flight of stairs and made it to a second floor, but still no doors granted them entry. Eventually, however, one door finally opened, and they piled inside, closing the door behind them as tight as it would go.

All three sunk to the ground, panting heavily. Blake looked around and saw they were in what used to be some kind of doctor’s room, the walls lined with shelves of dubious substances and machinery that hasn’t worked in ages. There was barely any light in the room, but the feral fox could somewhat see from what trickled in beneath the door and the now-red glow from their collars.

“Shit…” Casey muttered, coughing a little as she gasped for air. “I guess Evan wasn’t an impostor. Now I feel like I should’ve been nicer…”

“Not to bad-mouth the dead… but he accused y’all first,” Blake replied, also gasping. “We need a plan. Those things are gonna finish him off soon, and they’ll come lookin’ for us next.” The fox looked around the room. None of the medical equipment looked like it’d be much use as makeshift weapons against two natural-born predators. He looked over at Cherry, who was curled into a ball and looking at nothing but the ground. The sheep was a diurnal prey animal, so of course they didn’t have night vision like Blake. He looked over at Casey, who was scanning the room intently. He knew little about Pokemon, but he hazarded a guess that she was nocturnal, based on her fur patterns. Her night vision had to be way better than Blake’s if that was the case.

“Scent,” Cherry suddenly spoke up, drawing the other two’s attention. “Hunters. Find our hiding spot easily.” They twirled their wool in their fingers again, keeping close to the spot where they tore a chunk off for Evan. “Distraction. Idea.”

“Wait, we might be thinking the same thing,” Casey said. She looked around and saw several machines had cylindrical rods. There were also rounded flasks and empty jars. “Blake, how precise are your jaws?”

…

The two raptors stalked the halls. They could pick up the scent of sweat, fur, and fear. Their claws left bloody footprints, but that mattered none. They sniffed at the ground to make sure they kept on the trail of their prey. Invigorated by one successful hunt, their hunger for the remainder of the group only grew.

Green spoke up. Magenta turned to see its sibling gesture up towards a set of stairs. They climbed effortlessly to the second floor, where the scent only grew stronger. Their prey slowed down. Their next meal was close.

Magenta’s eyes locked onto an almost invisible piece of debris on the ground: A strand of pink wool. The sheep would lead them closer. A trail of more pink wool, zig-zagging between doors. Both raptor siblings began sniffing around each one, on and off the trail. Finally, Green caught a scent. Their prey was in this room.

Magenta had the harder head of the two. Green was better at stealth and tracking. The current situation called for force. Green backed off as Magenta bashed itself against the door, swinging it wide on its hinges with a single tackle. Its eyes and nose scanned the room. Their prey had been here. There was a pile of wool and some droplets of blood.

Green spoke up again. Magenta returned to its sibling. The two found a fork in the hallway and two trails of pink wool, each with occasional drips of blood. The raptors recognized this as a trick, but knew one trail had to be real. They silently agreed on which path to follow and split up, taking off in opposite directions. This was the hunt. This was what they lived for.

…

“They’re gone,” Casey whispered as she brought her ear away from the door of the new room they hid in. She turned to the other two, and all three afforded themselves a sigh of relief.

Cherry rubbed the parts of their body where wool was sheared off by Blake’s teeth. A few spots bled, but nothing broke skin. The fox, meanwhile, turned and licked at the wound on his shoulder, covered by another clump of wool and adhered by a bandage Casey found among the abandoned medical equipment. Still, the three collected themselves and carefully slid out of the room. The raptors were indeed gone, so they hurried back the way they came, hoping both that a way out was in that direction and that their assailants wouldn’t think to double-back.

“Rollin’ vials o’ blood-soaked wool down two hallways…” Blake mused as the three ran. “You’re a genius, Casey.”

“No, it was Cherry’s idea first,” the Rattata replied. “Plus, you didn’t need to volunteer your own blood. I was ready cut myself.”

“But you were the one who put everything together,” the fox retorted. “Cherry had to offer their wool. I wasn’t just gonna tear it off of them and contribute nothin’ else. ‘Sides, neither of us could’a gnawed those notches in the bars so they’d hold wool in addition to the vials on the ends, nor actually fit everything together like puzzle pieces. You’re somethin’ else, Casey.”

The three hurriedly stalked in silence for a bit longer, constantly checking over their shoulders to make sure the raptors weren’t still following them.

“Hey Casey…” Blake finally spoke up. “You acted like you knew that Synth on the monitor. Is there a story there?”

The Alolan Rattata’s expression turned grim. “Their name is Lancaster,” she spoke firmly. “Let’s just say I’ve escaped their clutches once already. They’re a sadistic machine who knows only how to kill and how to find perverted joy in all the different ways they can end lives. If somebody built them, I can’t imagine how much more twisted that architect is.”

“And they just… trap people in here to feed their raptors?”

“I’m not sure.” Casey shook her head, her expression suggesting she was racking her brain for an answer. “I only know so much about them. I didn’t even know about the raptors.”

The trio finally came to a fork in the hallway. One path was stained with bloody footprints that led towards the way they came. This had to be where the raptors came from after they finished Evan. The other path led to someplace unknown entirely. The corridor was pitch black, so the trio definitely hadn’t checked here, but there seemed to be a faint glimmer of light at the end that Blake could make out in the distance.

“Which way should we go?” Blake asked, trying to peer down both hallways.

Casey was about to speak up, but her ear twitched suddenly. She jerked her head around to look back the way they had just came. The sounds of claws tapping against metal and low growling came from the distance, and the Rattata knew exactly what that meant. “The jig is up,” she warned. “We need to get out now.”

“Let’s go this way, then,” Blake quickly replied, indicating towards the dark hallway. “Cherry, stay close to us.” The sheep nodded, and the three started running once again.

They ran in pitch darkness for what felt like forever, and Casey was cursed with the sounds of the raptors getting closer with every step. Blake led the way, but that light at the end of the tunnel seemed to never get any closer. Doubt started to fester in his mind with every stride. “Was this the right way?” he thought. “Did I just march these two to their death?”

Casey kept her gaze fixed on Blake. She could see better than him, but there was no time to decide which of the two should lead. The Rattata followed the yellow glow of Blake’s collar as his heart rate increased and the display shifted to red. Hers was probably red too, but she wouldn’t be able to tell. If this run was pushing the two this hard, how was Cherry holding up?

She turned to check on the sheep, but the glow of their collar was nowhere to be found.

…

Green ran ahead of its sibling. It was quieter on its feet than Magenta. The two were no strangers to deception. Their prey got a head-start on them because of it, but they were strategists. Magenta was heavier. It stayed back to make noise as though both were further back. Green was lighter. It sprinted on like a shadow among darkness. They’d fight deception with deception.

Within the darkness, three yellow lights ran. Green focused its eyes to make out the shapes of its prey. The light furthest back turned red, and the figure staggered further behind. This was Green’s chance. It continued to close the gap, and with a mighty leap, slashed into the neck of its prey. Both hit the ground, but the other two prey ran ahead, oblivious. Green’s takedown was silent. The sheep couldn’t scream without its throat. One of the flock was successfully separated. Another meal was secured.

Magenta finally caught up to its sibling as Green held down the flailing sheep. They didn’t even need to exchange looks nor growls to know it was time to eat. Magenta was first to take a bite, tearing into the sheep’s flailing leg. It yanked its head back and forth until the limb tore off. Greedily did it lean back and gulp the leg down, barely chewing it with serrated teeth that shredded the morsel effortlessly.

Green was next to take its bite. It tore into the back of the sheep, crunching through the spine and ripping out a chunk of meat. The prey would die quickly without their spine, but that was a given with life draining from their neck already. None of that mattered to the raptors. All that mattered was the meal.

Flesh and blood. Blood and bone. Bone and flesh. Every bite the two raptors took was like a miniature orgasm from their tongues. They tore further and further into the sheep, which had long since ceased its struggle. There was no life left to snuff, only meat to devour. Limbs to tear. Bones to crunch. Blood to indulge like sacred wine. An orgy of once-living matter, now only sustenance for the two predators. Even the wool was devoured, hardly even seen as an obstacle to the meal.

Magenta ate the previous prey’s brain, so Green earned that treat this time around. It reached down and clamped its jaws, crushing skull inside flesh and ripping the weakened neck in a single fluid motion. Flashes of memory appeared in Green’s mind as it chomped down the gray matter that once housed Cherry’s personality. That was their name, Green learned. The deer whose mind Magenta devoured was Evan. The fox was Blake. The Alolan Rattata was Casey. Memories of an Awakened flowed through the raptor for a brief time as it chewed. People Cherry knew. Pleasures they afforded themselves. Vistas they’d seen. The the memories were fleeting, but for one brilliant moment, the Wild predator had a glimpse of life beyond these corridors.

Then the destroyed brain slid down Green’s throat. That life faded away. The raptor might not even remember any detail of what it just experienced. Magenta got its sibling’s attention, and the two looked down to see their meal reduced to a few meatless bones. That was two prey down. It was time to finish the hunt. It was time to finish what they lived for.

…

Blake and Casey finally got into a lit area. The room they came out to was huge, but there were only two exits: The way they came, and a door on the opposite side of the room. They ran to the door and tried to get it open, but there was no give. All that stood between the two and potential freedom was a heavy padlock that kept the door in place. One tiny lock that threatened to seal their fate.

“I can gnaw through this,” Casey declared, reaching up and taking the lock in her hands. “I don’t know if I can do it fast enough, though. They’ll be done with Cherry soon…”

Blake grit his teeth as he thought of Cherry. He should’ve been more vigilant and kept the sheep in his sight. How long did the two even run after they were taken? There was no sign of them when Blake and Casey turned, but the two had no time to search, either. They had to keep going.

“I’ll keep an eye down the hall and shout up if the raptors get close,” Blake replied, turning back towards the hallway. He scanned the room to see if there was anything he could use as a weapon when the raptors came. All he found was a discarded metal pipe thin enough to hold in his jaws. “That’ll have to do,” he thought as he picked it up and stood back at the ready.

Casey, meanwhile, set to work gnawing at the metal lock. Her teeth were powerful, able to chew through metal with just a bit of effort. They weren’t effective in a fight, though. She’d need to get her neck too close to her opponent, and that’d leave her wide open. Claw attacks were more her style, considering her agility, but claws couldn’t tear through metal, so that’s where she focused her teeth. She made steady progress through the padlock, working not just to break a hole that could get it off the hinge, but also turning it into a sharp, makeshift weapon for what was coming.

The two weren’t getting away, she knew. The raptors were already approaching.

Blake saw the raptors emerge from the darkness, steady in their stalking now that they knew their prey was cornered. Cherry’s blood dripped fresh from their mouths and claws. Their eyes had a wild glint as they focused on the fox. He was their next target, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.

“They’re here, Casey!” Blake shouted through the bar in his teeth. He didn’t dare move his focus from the raptors, though. He was going to stand and fight until-

Shk! Shrrrk!

Blake didn’t even register the pain at first. He heard the noise of flesh tearing, and his first thought was that a third raptor got the drop on Casey. But then he felt it. The deliberate gash down his hind leg. The blood gushing out. He dropped the bar as he cried out in pain and completely lost balance, his torn leg unable to keep him upright. Before he could even turn around, a similar gash was torn into his other leg, and he was completely immobilized.

He finally did turn, and there was Casey, staring down at him with the bloodied padlock-blade in her hand. “Sorry, Blake,” she said in a cold yet teasing tone. “But we got too close to the end. I wasn’t gonna let those two go hungry. You understand, I’m sure.”

Blake grit his teeth as he glared at the Alolan Rattata smugly staring down at him. “What the fuck is your problem, Casey…?” he tried to shout, but his words barely came out as whimpers. “They’ll kill both of us…!”

“Will they?” Casey asked, bringing her free hand to her chin and pretending to think. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The EKG on her collar was blinking red, but it gradually softened to yellow and then green. She opened her eyes again, and they were a searing crimson. Her smug expression transformed into an outright sadistic grin. “They won’t bite the hand that feeds them,” she continued in a voice that wasn’t quite her own.

“The hand that feeds them…?” Blake asked. He turned and saw the raptors standing patiently at the entrance to the room, staring the fox down. They weren’t advancing anymore. Blake turned his attention back to Casey… or whoever this was. “Who or what are you?”

Casey chuckled, tossed the padlock across the room, and casually strode towards the two raptors. “Why, Casey already told you who I was,” she said. “That machine she was oh so happy to badmouth when you asked her to.”

“No way… Lancaster?”

“That’s the one!” The Rattata turned towards Blake and clasped her hands together once, as though applauding the fox’s memory. She then pointed to her collar. “I’ve waited in here the whole time, with a front-row seat to the hunt my pets were on. Evan was pretty darn close when he accused ‘me’ of being the impostor among us, but he was also close when he suspected Cherry… and even when he thought to accuse you.” The Rattata’s hand pointed towards Blake’s collar. “Nothing was special about Casey. All four of the collars were designed to let me possess a wearer once there were two left standing. I could give a slight nudge to anyone without them noticing, but I like to take an organic body for a spin once the hunt's over, and who better than my dear Casey? Of course, that’s not my only reason.” Casey then brought her hand up to her head and gave it a few taps. “I don’t meet too many Awakened ferals. Your brain is one I really want to study, and these collars have a tendency to fry brain cells when I mind control someone.”

“My brain…? What the fuck does that mean!?”

Casey chuckled and walked over to Blake, reaching down to pat his head. The fox reared up and snapped, snatching the Rattata’s hand in his jaws and clamping down, but she didn’t react. “Oi, rude! I can still feel pain through her body.” The Rattata then reached down and chomped Blake’s muzzle with teeth that could break steel, causing him to yelp in pain and recoil back. Casey shook the blood off of her bitten hand and scoffed. “And here I was about to compliment how smart you seemed. Eh, water under the bridge.” She then turned back to the raptors. “Green. Magenta. Chow time… but leave the brain.” The two raptors growled in reply and started advancing towards the downed black fox.

“C-Casey! Do something! Fight him!” Blake used his two good legs to try and back away in one last feeble attempt at escape, but even this was cut short when one of the raptors stepped forward and tore its talon into his last uninjured leg, pinning him to the spot.

“Sorry, friend, Casey’s out of office for the day.” She didn’t even look back as she walked down the corridor. “I’ve gotta get back to my body. My pets will deliver you once they’re done eating. Oh, and one more thing.” Casey finally turned back towards Blake, whose attention was on the two raptors as they leaned towards him with drooling maws. Her eyes flashed bright with Lancaster’s glow as she gave the fox one last sadistic grin. “They’re gonna avoid your vital organs at first to keep your brain alive and fresh as long as possible. You’re probably gonna stay conscious for a good while as they chow down. Try to show my girls a little respect, yeah?”

Blake was about to retort, but he couldn’t get the words out before the first bite tore into his flesh.", "pools_count": 0, "title": "The Raptor's Game", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/plain", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "102" }