Chapter 1 – First Problems
No PoV
It was a warm spring day and the window was open in the classroom, letting in a fresh, crisp breeze.
A paper airplane tumbled across the room, drifting silently behind Mr Dome's back, before setting its figurative sights on a snoozing Pac-Man. More specifically, Pac-Man's gaping mouth.
Pac had his head propped up on his left hand, his right hand folded across the desk. His light snoring signified his light doze – the heavier he snored, the deeper he was asleep.
Spiral, sat in front of Pac, lazily followed the path the airplane took, then did a double-take. Now wide-eyed, he blinked before vaulting over the back of his seat quietly. He tried to snatch the paper plane out of the air before he landed, but something hooked around his ankle and he fell heavily to his hands and knees behind his desk. Spiral glared up at the source of his denial: Skeebo, with his arms crossed and his own leg tangled with Spiral's at the ankle, a cruel grin leering down at him.
Cylindria had watched the entire happening from beside Pac and behind Skeebo with annoyance; she had watched Skeebo make the paper plane and had guessed that he would have flown it at Pac, Spiral or herself. When Skeebo had tripped Spiral and hindered his save, Cyli grit her teeth in anger. Her anger had instantly dissipated and was replaced with worry as both herself and Spiral gasped.
Pac had inhaled the paper airplane and had woken up, disoriented.
Pac started choking.
Skeebo almost fell off his chair laughing as the choking attracted the attention of the rest of the class and Mr Dome.
The entirety of the classroom, apart from Spiral, Cyli and Skeebo, were frozen, shocked.
Spiral leapt forward and shouted in fear, Cylindria doing the same.
"PAC!"
Pac's wide eyes widened a little more as his best friends' voices broke through his frightened haze.
They were there for him. He shouldn't have to worry them.
Hacking harshly, the orange-gloved hand reached waveringly towards his back. But he couldn't reach.
Cylindria grasped Pac's other hand and nodded at Spiral; her eyes never left Pac's, conveying trust and confidence without words, even as she whispered little reassurances to him.
"Sorry, Bro, but I need to get that thing outta you!"
Pac's eyes watered as he nodded quickly, then braced himself.
Spiral's hand raised, then slammed down hard on Pac's back.
A crumpled ball of paper, soggy with spit, tumbled off of the tip of Pac's tongue.
As he panted heavily, tears welling up in his eyes, Pac could hear Skeebo laughing breathlessly.
Pac whimpered quietly and that was the last straw.
Spiral leapt up from where he was kneeling beside Pac and snarled, his body lengthening and thickening into his hybrid Beast form.
His silky red fur rippled, almost delicately outlining his predatory, humanoid form, thickly striped with the same blue that his hair was; the white made up his underbelly and whatever else was white on a tiger. His paw pads were the same colour as his gloves and his wristlets stretched to their maximum to encircle his wrists.
The hair on his head was no longer there, but the end of his tail was tightly curled in the same fashion.
Skeebo growled at what was technically a challenge to his pride as a "noble" lion.
He began morphing into his hybrid Beast form; a royal blue lion with a coarse, yellow mane, spiked up like the flare of yellow at the end of his tail.
Fangs were bared and the rumbling of their growls shook the room, claws and whiskers flashing, the tips of their tails whipping around in an agitated frenzy. Both pairs of ears wear laid almost flat against their heads, contrasting to their rising hackles.
"Spiral, stop!"
Spiral, against his Beast's instinct, glanced back at Cyli's voice; the momentary lapse in concentration gave Skeebo those few precious seconds that it took to leap forward and sink his canines into the muscle just above Spiral's collar bone.
Chaos ensued as several of the herbivorous Beast students dashed away, while the rest – being mostly omnivores – cowered in the corners of the room.
Spiral's fangs quickly found Skeebo's shoulder and the two carnivores grappled with each other, claws carving bloody furrows through the fur on their stomachs.
Pac gasped, diving out of the way as Spiral's tail slammed down on his desk, breaking it in two. The tightly curled tip could be tensed, forming a heavy hammer of muscle and bone; anyone would know that tails are a dangerous weapon.
"Skeebo! Let him go!"
Cylidria was now in her hybrid Beast form: a humanoid crow, jet black wings and velvety feathers covering her torso, shoulders and forearms; they also formed something akin to a pair of shorts around her lower body to her mid-thighs. Her tail feathers were long and stiff; the two feathers furthest to the sides of the fan of her tail were long and supple, streaked through with pink, just like her pig-tails. The primary feathers on her wings were also pink. Like the stripes on her knee-high socks, her scaly legs were also banded with pink and black; her feet were pink and the look was completed with long, black talons.
She sprung up into the air, then grabbed Skeebo by the shoulders with her talons. Skeebo screeched and let go of Spiral in the same motion.
Spiral tore himself away, then watched Cylindria grab hold of Skeebo's wrists as he reached up to try and grab her legs. Waiting till Cyli had lifted the cowardly lion high enough, Spiral tackled Skeebo out through the window behind him. They tumbled across the damp grass, ripping at each other, until Spiral managed to manoeuvre his legs between the lion and himself. With dangerously explosive power, he kicked the blue Beast high into the air; Spiral smirked, knowing that tigers are bigger and stronger than their often pompous cousins.
Skeebo yowled as he was thrown straight upwards, then the wind was knocked out of him when Cylindria flew at him and thrust the bony ridge of the front of her right wing into his solar plexus.
Dazed and winded, Skeebo fell from the dizzying height.
Cylindria didn't like him, but she knew she couldn't leave him to die. Instead, she folded her wings, falling into a steady stoop; reaching out, she grasped the scruff of Skeebo's neck, bringing him down gently onto the grassy grounds.
Landing softly besides the curled up "King of Cats", she turned, wings melding back into the sphere of her back, feathers floating to the ground. She watched as Spiral stood over the smaller cat, fur shedding itself, sloughing into heaps of fine hair and puddles of blood. His ears melded back into his head and his hair grew back in springy curls. The fur bristled before blowing away in the wind as dust. Cylindria watched her feathers wisp away in the same manner.
Skeebo groaned, before melting away into his Pac form.
Pac sped out over the rubble that was left of the window, calling, "Spiral, Cyli, are you guys okay?"
Spiral grinned, "Perfect health, bro; you know when we slough, we heal."
Cyli smiled widely and agreed, "True that."
True to their word, not a scratch remained.
Pac sighed in relief, then looked away.
Spiral and Cyli frowned at each other, then Cyli spoke up.
"Pac, it wasn't your fau-!"
"It was my fault! If I had a Beast form, I could look after myself!"
The crow and the tiger were shocked.
Pac continued, frustration leaking through like his tears, "I wouldn't have to be such a useless 'hero', hiding behind my friends! I can't even stand up to Skeebo without my Berries!"
He gestured wildly at the bully led at their feet.
Spiral held out his hands in a placating manner, as Pac leapt forward; for every step Spiral and Cyli took back, Pac stalked forward one, eyes unfocused, hands alternating between clutching at his head and tearing at the air before him.
"If I wasn't so useless you guys wouldn't have to get hurt!"
Cyli bit her bottom lip, before trying at calming Pac down.
"Pac, listen, you will find your Beast, it just takes time. Right now," she continued sternly, "you're not being reasonable-!"
Pac gave an enraged scream, launching himself forward; Cyli gave a cry and Spiral jumped to intercept him.
The moment Pac touched him, Spiral flew across the grass as if he was tossed by an elephant Beast.
Panic broke out, people screamed and Pac roared.
His crystal blue was now an icy white, pupils constricted to the size of pin-pricks, teeth no longer neat and square; they were sharp and dangerous.
Cyli was once again in her hybrid crow form.
Spiral staggered upright, panting as the broken ribs snapped back into place, thanks to his transformation.
He bared his fangs slightly, still apprehensive as to hurting his friend; as was Cyli.
She flew to Spiral, tugging at his arm; Spiral's ears laid flat against his head again as Pac thundered over and tackled him. Spiral grabbed Pac's shoulders, gasping as he was thrown backwards off his feet, crashing into a lamp-post; Pac kept pushing and shoving with his shoulder and with every shove, Spiral's ribs flattened, lungs crushed, the air left. Spiral grunted as something snapped and Pac slipped forward from where he was gouging trenches through the earthy ground; he choked as blood welled up through his lungs. He just wasn't breathing now.
"PAC!"
Pac whirled around at Cyli's scream, then grabbed Spiral's lifeless body and tossed it at her. He fell to the ground with a dull thud, and Cyli screamed.
She flew down, kneeling on the floor next to him, tentatively petting Spiral's gargantuan tiger head. Pac ground his teeth at her, growling as he prowled around the two prone teens. Cyli's tears were rolling through Spiral's dusty fur now and she turned and shouted, "Pac, stop it! What happened to not hurting us…?"
She trailed off at the end, sobbing softly; she hadn't meant to guilt him so, but she had to stop him somehow.
Pac froze.
He fell to his knees.
And clutched at his skull.
And threw back his head.
And he screamed.
He cried.
He hurt his friends.
This was the worst fit he'd had.
He collapsed, energy and anger spent.
Cyli was in shock.
This was a first for them all.
The first time Cyli could do nothing but stand and watch.
The first time Spiral had properly lost a fight, or come so close to death, by a friend, no less.
The first time Pac had come so close to killing anyone, never mind it being one of his friends.
The first time one of Pac's "seizures" had gotten so bad, so out of hand.
Cyli cried into the sheets on Spiral's hospital bed, hoping nothing permanent happened to her best – her only – friends.
She wanted to know what had happened to their happy-go-lucky Pac.
She wanted him back.
She wanted their happy little family back again.