///On Hiatus\\\ [Stories That Never Took Off]

The Examination

"Attention Team Alpha." The voice blared through my dream, ripping my beautiful white wings from my back, sending me spiraling back down to the harshness of reality.

I awoke in a flurry of movement. All around me was a blanket of darkness. There was no sound, nothing in sight. It was just plain black. Flailing around, my hand smacked into something breathing.

"Ow!" the voice grumbled, the voice emanating from somewhere to my left. A blurred figure rose to it's feet and staggered around.

"Xander? Is that you?" I muttered dazedly.

"Yes it is, thank you very much." I blinked, focusing in the gloom. Suddenly everything came back in sharper focus, like I had infrared goggles on. Xander was still stumbling around, feeling for the walls.

"Halia!" he yelled, trying to locate me.

"Idiot," I whispered, "this is a training procedure. Keep your voice down!"

"Right," he whispered back, blinking vigorously. "Much better." He sighed as his vision adjusted.

Suddenly, all senses were on hyper alert. A quick movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. Like a wraith, it slunk through the shadows, growing closer and closer. Faint footsteps echoes around me like a slight tremor to my extra sensitive hearing.

"Set," I hissed to Xander as he readied himself.

The figure entered the clearing and I launched myself at it. I threw a quick punch, but a palm came up just in time to stop it from connecting. Swinging around, I spun a side kick that hit the intruder in the gut. It sent him flying to the side, crashing into the undergrowth. Turning to Xander, I tensed to run away as a voice growled out.

"Halia Sterna. How dare you attack me!" I turned slowly to find myself staring into the angry eyes of Jase.

"Sorry?" I squeaked out under his terrified glare.

He took a menacing step forward, but before he could say anything, the speaker blared again.

"Team Alpha. Welcome to your Examination."

Welcome indeed. What's next? Throwing us to wolves tied up in meat sacks and see how many body parts we keep strung together?

"Shadows, please enter the arena."

Ice ran through my veins. It couldn't be...

There were no blaring horns, no wild spotlights. The only thing that announced the arrival of the Shadows was dead silence.

"Move!" I screamed. I pushed Xander and Jase forward. The time for secrecy was lost, in any other battle situation, going incognito would've been beneficial. But, for Shadows, everything was within their sight. The Shadows were another part of the equation of: us + locked up = not escaping. The Shadows are... creatures. If I turn around, the shadow casted would be comprised Shadows. In the Codex, there was no such thing as a silent Shadow. They were living, breathing, thinking creatures. They were the stuff of nightmares. If you've ever been in a dark room and you think your mind is playing tricks on you because you see a figure rising up from the corner... You're not dreaming, your mind is working fine because that figure is there. It's a Shadow. They are silent and deadly, once they wrap themselves around you-you've done for. You die. Done. Finished. Just. Like. That.

We sprinted through the examination room. For the moment, everything was programmed to look like a forest. Although, at some point, you were sure to run into a most-unlike-forest-wall.

"Xander," I hissed.

"Way ahead of you," he shot back. Holding his hands aloft, he focused all his energy.

"Raido (Track)." He stared blankly ahead reading the mental map now laid out in front of his eyes.

"They're moving west, cutting off our path. Another group is splitting up, bringing up the rear."

"Okay," I cut in swiftly, "So the plan is-"

"Wait." Xander's voice had gone slightly flat, "there's another group. Pushing from the west. That means-"

"It's a trap," Jase surmised, "There's something on the east side."

I narrowed my eyes, "So what is it boys? Flight or fight?"

Pulling back his lips to reveal pointedly sharp teeth, Xander's gait elongated until a five foot long wolf was running at my side. His strides were ragged and ferocious, long black nails digging into the ground, sending tufts of earth flying behind us. He threw back his head and howled. The sound rebounded around the stadium were countless eyes were probably fixated on us. A sound of defiance.

"Fight," Jase said, a predatory smile on his face, "It's always gonna be 'fight'."