Hybrids

Raid

Right after walking out of the arena and back into the room full of caged children, Rez was met with amazed stares.
A raccoon looking kid sat up in his cage and tapped on the bars "Oi, did you really beat the Snake?" he asked, tilting his head to one side.
Rez looked to him and nodded his head "Yeah. I did"
Whilst he knew he didn't win entirely fairly, if he was going to go back in there he wanted everyone to know that he was the one who beat the Snake.
He glanced around the room at every single pair of eyes watching him, before he stretched, cracked his knuckles and sat down on an empty cage. He wasn't sure where to go from here, but eventually he was returned to his room. Not in a cage however, but by a simple escort by the guards.
He was in thought, has he replaced the Snake as the arena 'champion'
Was he going to start getting treated more fairly?
Many questions spun around in Rez's confused and changing mind, but he sat on his bed and closed his eyes. He was tired from the fight and wanted to sleep, and he would for nearly a whole day.

The next day he was awoken by the enticing smell of meat. His nose scrunched up and wiggled as he sat and took a look at the door. There on the sliding grate was a plate of juicy meat, still bloody.
He wasted no time and jumped up off of his bed, the mattress squeaking beneath him. He ran over to the door and dug his nails into the big slab of flesh. It was cold and clearly raw, but it didn't matter to Rez. His canine changes had given him a stomach of steel. And even if it hadn't, he was too hungry to pass up a piece of meat like that.
He dug his teeth into it and tore out chunk after chunk of red, bloody meat. Swallowing whole bites without even chewing. Blood got over his face and lips, and small scraps fell on the fl oor beneath him. All he could hear was the squishy sound of the cold meat getting mashed up by his teeth, and the sound of it sliding down his gullet and into his starved stomach.

It only took him a minute to devour the food. But he set the plate down on the floor, and crawled onto the bed where he laid his head down and stared at the plate. He was still starving, and he would give anything for more of it. He imagined whole pallets full of meat he could engorge himself with. And the thought of it made his tail wag. He looked to it curiously, as e wasn't telling it to do that. But he remembered a common fact about tails when an animal is happy. Dogs anyway.

He let out an exhausted breath and sighed, looking up to the ceiling and the flickering light. It might not be a very good way to live, but if he could get fed like that and not forced around by guards for winning an arena fight, then he figured life would be a lot easier than it would have been for the last however long he was here. He still hadn't quite figured that out yet.

Hours seemed to pass by like a blur, and all he did was lay on the bed and look up at the grungy ceiling. But just as he closed his eyes, the entire room shook and rumbled, causing Rez to jump up in shock. Awoken from his daze, he ran over to the metal door and peered out of it and into the dim hallway. Not moments after the place shook, a loud, obnoxious alarm began to blare. It was deep and raspy, like it was struggling to breath, but trying its best to warn people. There was another quake, and this time it flung Rez to the ground with how violent it was.
He didn't know what was going on, but he began to hear gunfire ringing out somewhere in the facility. The sharp, heavy sounds of bullets firing echoed through the ventilation and sparse corridors. 
But Rez didn't know what to do. He couldn't leave the cell, he couldn't escape. All he could do was sit and wait. Whoever is fighting above however, must be well prepared.

Rez sat and listened to the alarms and gunfire. The alarms stayed still as they were attached to the walls, but the gunfire was moving around. He must have listened to it for ten minutes. It got closer and closer, until suddenly there was an explosion right outside of his door. It knocked the piece of metal right off of its hinges, it landed on the floor of the hallway with an ear shattering slam, and bullets were exchanged right in front of his now open doorway. He hid behind the wall, not daring to peek out and risk losing his life. He w aited for bullets to die down, and then he looked out, to see two soldiers in different uniforms wrestling for a gun, and another pair punching each other.

One uniform was sleek, black and angular. It had red lights and accents all over, and its helmet had no obvious visor. Its chest piece had a large circle in the middle, where a big red light sat, and it led down to its waist where two sharp inclines where, leading to the legs. Placed on its knees were sharp spikes made of the same black material, and its boots were heavy, black and red combat boots with sharp edges.

The other uniform was more blue and white, and was much bulkier than the sleek black ones. Their suits seemed to be motorized to a degree. Their helmets were rectangular, with simple triangular patterns on the sides. Its chest piece came out much further and ended in a flat stomach. On its hands were large gauntlets, protecting their hands, wrists and forearms. Their feet were much heavier, with each step causing the metal doors to reverberate.

Rez wasn't about to stick around and see if either of them were friendly, so he took off past them and ran down the hall, narrowly avoiding chunks of concrete that had been blown off the wall by bullets. He heard shouting come from behind him, and a quick "zip" sound followed by a slight gust of air over his shoulder. It took a moment to register that he was being shot at, but he turned a corner and hid between two metal containers that were left by the side.
He held his knees to tuck his feet in, and he waited to see if he was being followed. He didn't hear anything, but he wanted to be sure.

So he waited, listening to the distant, echoing gunfire and the low rumbles that shook the building, causing dust and loose pieces of stone to fall down. He must have waited five minutes before anything happened. The sound of multiple heavy footsteps were fast approaching, and it wasn't till they walked by that Rez noticed they were wearing the much heavier looking white and blue armor. He wondered who they were, as he had never seen anyone dressed so brightly before.
But he wasn't taking any chances, he sat up and ran the way they came from after they turned the corner. His feet slapping against the tiled floor.

Eventually he came across another kid. A small brown haired girl with large bunny ears on her head, and a bunny tail too. Although it was matted and covered in dirt. She was hiding behind a fallen vending machine that the guards used on breaks. 
Rez couldn't just leave her there, but he didn't know what to do. He leaned down and looked around to make sure they were safe. Before gently reaching out and tapping her. 
This made her jump and squeak, but Rez just held his hands out and hushed her.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you. But we need to get out of here, okay? What's your name?" he asked, trying to sound as calm as possible for her.

The girl sniffled and rubbed her wet eyes, she struggled to get the words out, and choked up on herself "T-T...Tameen" she said, her voice rightfully scared. 

Rez just smiled at her "I'm Rez" he held out his hand, gesturing for her to come with him "Let's find a way out of here, okay? Stay behind me"

Tameen nervously looked to his hand, then to his face. She alternated between the two for a few seconds before taking his hands, albeit hesitantly "O-Okay"

And with that, Rez began to lead her through the halls, but the further they walked, te air seemed to get thicker and harder to see through. It must have been smoke from whatever battle was going on above getting pulled down to the lower levels.
He remembered things taught by fire safety, and he turned to the timid bunny girl.

"Okay, I need you to take your shirt off, or rip a scrap of it off and cover your nose and mouth with it. Okay? There's smoke, and we can't breath it in. It'll make us very sick" he tried to make it understandable for her, and he didn't want to scare her more than she already was.

Tameen simply nodded at the instruction and took off her shirt, revealing her badly starved stomach, and bruised body. Rez simply grimaced at the sight of someone so young being so mistreated. He took off his own shirt, and he wasn't much better. Both of their bare bodies were starved, scarred and bruised. He made sure that she held her ragged shirt up to her mouth and nose tightly, before doing the same.
He gripped her hand a little tighter than he needed, and began to lead her through the smoke filled corridors.

Dead bodies were strewn all over, and blood pooled out of them and onto the tiled floor. Not having any shoes, they were forced to walk through the puddles of blood, which was still warm. Rez couldn't imagine what Tameen was thinking. She was too young to see all this.

Eventually they came to an elevator, and they were both quick to climb in and press the button for the highest floor it had. Their bloody footprints trailed with them, and stained the elevator floor. But they didn't care, they were going to get out.

He felt his heart warm up seeing Tameen's little feet gently hop in one place. He held her hands as the door opened, but the sight would drive Rez into a frenzy.

In the hallway in front of the elevator was a beautiful white haired woman with the same animal features as him. Her eyes were pure red, and glaring. Two of the guards in the sleek black armor were holding her down, as a third was kicking her in the face.

All Rez could think of at the moment was the word Riza.

Tameen looked up at her new friend, worried at the fact her hand was being squeezed like a vice. She whimpered at the pain, but Rez was blind to everything except his sister.

Then he lunged.