Carrick ignored Liz’s reaction and concern, (he knew she would be) and slammed his forehead again and again until his fingernails reverted to their normal size. ”What does it look like?” he growled and then stepped away from the brick wall a little dazed. His footing was lost and he shook his head ignoring the little trickle of blood that started to form from the point of impact. He’d heal. No one got mauled either so there was that.

”Trial and error right? Figured this would be a good method if I started to lose control and look at that!” he said pointing to something that wasn’t there. Maybe it was a hornet from her bag? Carrick looked down and then did a ‘ta-da’ gesture as if he pulled off an impressive feat of some kind. In his mind he did. And in his mind it was a hornet, not a little floating black dot.

His head was swimming and then smirked, ”Right as rain.” he grumbled oblivious that the person who smelled of fear was currently conversing with some allies a few blocks over. Looking back to note the look of concern Carrick shook his head again, ”F*** there’s two of ya!?!?”

Liz held off on hitting the call button. Carrick was speaking. How rational and lucid he sounded was open to interpretation, since it was Carrick after all. It was consistent with his typical behavioral patterns though. Still, she didn’t put her phone away yet.

“It looks like you’re being an idiot,” Elizabeth said blandly. “And that you’re losing a fight with a wall.” She was masking her concern and worry. She took in the fresh wound and restrained her impulse to rush over and check it out. Not only would Carrick not appreciate that, he’d probably just use it to fuel further digs at her expense for the next several months. No, she wouldn’t give him the pleasure.

She looked at him with wary eyes before looking to where he was pointing. She saw nothing. On second thought, screw this whole pretending-to-not-be-worried thing. “Carrick, do you have double vision? Hey, hey. How many fingers am I holding up?” She held up two fingers and she moved in closer, although still warily. She couldn’t get a good look at his eyes from there, to see if they were dilated. Then she’d try looking for other signs of mental trauma - the very last thing a gryphon-shifter needed, when his willpower was all that held back a murderous beast.

“You’re damaging yourself to repress a shifting. You are clearly not right,” she said authoritatively. “Let me see your eyes - I want to check if you have a concussion.” And to see how much of the beast was in control.

”Yeah, well looks can be deceiving.” Carrick quipped back now rubbing the spot on his forehead where he decided to slam it against the wall. His head heard, that was all he could focus on meaning the beast form now had another way of controlling it. Carrick decided to squirrel away this bit of information for a rainy day.

Liz got closer, concern on his face and he avoided eye contact. Not because he was still seeing double but because he didn’t want to be that close to her anymore. ”Well one of you’s is holding up two so assuming that’s me magic number.” he said closing his eyes and shaking his head once before opening them again. His pupils were rounded, but that wasn’t a decent indication if he was about to shift or lose control, not anymore.

”I can always hand over the reigns to one of the others if ya prefer.” he said rolling his mismatched colored eyes and stepping back when she got closer. ”Sorry, love. I’m a taken man now.” he joked as he continued to avoid eye contact.

‘Fight!’ Carrick was shocked to hear the voice but snapped his wings open and shifted to the side as something large landed where he was standing. A mailbox. Carrick landed and looked up wondering if it was followed up by anything. It wasn’t. Not until something or someone barreled into his chest taking the wind out from under his wings and from his lungs. Carrick was sucker punched.

Liz rolled her eyes as Carrick continued to keep making lame jokes. “Correct,” she said, acknowledging only that he named how many fingers she had up and not bothering to respond to the rest of his inanity. SHe peered into his eyes only for him to shut them and look away as soon as he opened them.

Frustration flashed -across her face and the constant urge to throttle him reared back up. Her fingers unconsciously curled into claws before she breathed out in a huff. “C’mon, Carrick…” she said tiredly as the boy danced away, avoiding her gaze and letting out another vague innuendo. “I don’t have time for games. You could be seriously injured!” Even with whatever accelerated healing he seemed to have.

Then the mail came, violently and aggressively all over the place. The box shattered and letters flew everywhere. Liz jolted backward and out of the corner of her eye she saw a brawny woman take Carrick down. Another person approached to assist.

A hand grabbed Liz’s shoulder and she quickly whirled around, stepping into forms she’d been taught. She used her spin to power an uppercut right into the chin of a man who was just fading into sight behind her. Two more people were fading into sight beyond them and one of them, most likely the one who’d hidden their approach, looked faint and leaned against the wall. He was also covered in wasp stings.

Elizabeth’s feral smile returned and she flashed the guy a predatory smile. He gulped, despite his anger and weariness.

The shifter already had a handful of sassy comments about how he healed and how he wasn’t collapsed on the ground so he’d be alright. If the shifting and the spare time with Zek didn’t kill him well. Carrick was feeling pretty bullet proof. Not literally, those still hurt.

Before he could react, a woman the size of a house came knocking, on his stomach. The contents of it erupted as he doubled over holding his stomach. ”****eurgggghhhh.” one of Sam’s fancy steaks littered the pavement where he was standing and before he could finish emptying his lungs he felt a kick to the side. Forcing the rest of the air to leave. His attacker was at least helpful.

Rolling over his wings and into a building Carrick righted himself and opened his eyes, they were no longer shaken up from his headbutt to the wall, no adrenaline kicked into over drive and his fight or flight response appeared in the way of a quick inhale and a growl. ”**** ******* ******* Jesus, yer a big lady.” Carrick said looking at his attacker with slitted pupils. His heartrate was beating quickly and he felt the sudden urge to scream or rather roar. ‘Fight! Mate!’

”Not now....” “What’s wrong with being a big lady? Not into it?” the woman asked standing a few feet from Carrick cracking her knuckles. Even her hands were massive. ‘Dnager! Fight!’

”Not at all, in fact if I wasn’t already seeing someone and you didn’t just kick the **** out of me I’d ask ya out.” he said trying to calm down. Deep breathing didn’t really help with control when you’re ribs were cracked. ‘pain! Fight!!!!!!’

”I’d suggest ya leave now, less I mark that pretty face.” he said to the big lady who looked like she could bench press a bus. She didn’t seem to take the bait. In fact her arms got bigger.

”Lizzy....” he growled his teeth growing pointer along with his ears. The skin around his body started to pull and tighten until the point they started to rip. ”R-------uuurrrggghhhhh” his teeth clench and his now sharpened claws started to rip at the skin pulling the clothes and eventually his skin so his fur could now breath.

Elizabeth’s eyes flickered back to the guy she’d just uppercutted. His surprise was wearing off and Liz had the sense this wasn’t his first fight by any means. Just great. He reached for her again and this time the blonde snagged his wrist with one hand, spun around and back until she was inside his reach and then neatly bent forward.

The guy flipped over her and thudded against the ground in a most satisfying manner. She yanked on his arm, hoping to either twist it or hurt some muscles, and then moved to savagely drive her knees into his chest. Or at least that was the plan.

A hand grabbed her back by the hair and yanked down, arresting Liz’s movement and hurling her to the ground. She gasped in sudden pain and outrage and then shrieked in fury. She abandoned her hold on the wasps. She abandoned her hold on the downed guy’s wrist. Instead she writhed and reeled and slid her purse off her shoulder and tossed it at his face.

Bloodlust burst out of her and reignited inside the wasps. Her previous victim, hearing the miniature roars of dozens of once-more angry wasps, whimpered in terror, but it was just music to Liz’s ears.

But the guy didn’t release his hold on her. “Stop it, you ---” Liz didn’t hear anything else. She blindly reached above her and caught hold of a leg. She grabbed it with another hand and pulled herself toward him, his grip on her hair less painful due to the reduced leverage and her blood boiling anger, and anger that kept feeding on itself. The first wasps began making their way out of the purse.

“What the hell?” the buff woman asked as she watched in horror as the kid that she had been knocking around started to change by tearing chunks of flesh from his body. She took a step back and had a look of disgust and confusion. Someone was going to pay her more to deal with this.

Carrick’s skin dropped to the ground with his clothes as his wings snapped open. Another roar echoed outward letting all know who was the alpha. It should have been clear he was. None could roar louder or fight better! ‘Fight!!!!!’

A feral growl echoed outward as he looked at the men who were there then to ‘her’ then to the woman who was beating him moments before. She was the most confusing. He wasn’t sure if she was trying to establish dominance over him or not but he didn’t like it. He would have preferred to mate instead. However she was making him look weak in front of the others and he couldn’t have that. He was alpha!

Slinking forward on all fours Carrick’s beast form opened his wings making himself look bigger than he was as he lunged for the woman that was attacking him. Claws extended and grabbed onto the woman who immediately started to pull at him to get him off. Carrick’s fangs brought low on the woman’s arms when she tried to swat at him.

Elizabeth sharpened her focus on the guy grabbing her by the hair and she opened her mind wider to the wasps. Some of them were damaged from the jostling of her purse, but this only fanned the flames of their anger. Liz peaked into the mind of one and glimpsed the man through the wasp’s eyes. A headache emerged as the compound vision assaulted her briefly, but it was enough. She knew how the wasps perceived this person. She communicated those impressions to the rest of the swarm.

She could not control the creatures, but she could whip them into a frenzy and give them a target.

All of that passed within seconds though and Liz continued to lash out. A foot caught the head of the guy she’d already taken down and a cry of pain was the source of fierce joy. Then she used her hold on her primary assailant’s leg and flipped around, allowing her to get her feet under her.

By now the wasps were once again boiling out of her purse, which was falling to the ground. She felt sparks of pain as more insects were injured, even as her attacker yanked her to the side and threw a punch at her. She couldn’t dodge and maintain balance so she took it right in the face.

True pain exploded and Liz howled in shock and rage. Then she grabbed the guy’s wrist and suddenly yanked forward and down, twisted around again and nearly repeated the exact same flip she had earlier. He went down as well and Liz kicked him in the head for good measure. And then the wasps were upon him and the other guy.

Liz stepped back and whirled to face the third guy, the one who’d cloaked them and had been the first victim of her insectoid allies. She barely even registered the other roar, not with all the blood pumping in her eyes and the sound of dozens of wasps buzzing in her mind.

She looked the guy straight in the eye, her own starting to swell up a bit. She smiled at him for a second time. “This is the part where you run,” she said as she started to charge at him.

Fang and fury was his current attack mode. While he was fighting a woman, one he wasn’t sure if he should mate with he saw a few people attacking the other woman and loosing badly. This two confused the shifted form of Carrick. Seeing her made him sad and angry and he didn’t know why just that that when she was fighting he tried not to pay much mind.

There was a punch in the gut, the wind was knocked out of him and for a moment he released his jaw enough for the woman to yank him off of her. Carrick yelped and was thrown into a few garbage cans and a black garbage bag that shattered when the shifted beast form crashed into it. Carrick roared and then rolled causing the garbage cans to turn over and his claws to puncture the garbage bag. Something smelled bad. He looked down and got a strong whiff of the garbage as he inhaled filling his lungs.

‘Fight!’ Carrick shook his head then ducked as the woman who was attacking him swung for his head and missed. “Hold still so I can break you!” Carrick responded with a growl and lunged upwards pouching the muscled woman. “Fine! I’ll break you here!” she said stumbling backwards over a can. This time the beast form was more prepared for the skirmish and kicked off of her as she fell sending here into the other cans as well.

Ignoring the pain Carrick inhaled and let out another roar alerting all around that he was the Alpha! Turning he lunged to the next closest challenger from the pack that encroached on his turf.

The guy, covered in angry red stings, widened his eyes in horror and turned to run. Liz had no more wasps with her - they were bound up in assaulting the men she’d taken down. They were sluggish and not moving well, but she figured getting kicked in the head after flipped onto concrete could do that.

The last guy started fading out of sight, as if he’d never been there. Wait. Had he been there? Someone had been there. Right?

Liz snarled as she dashed the paces to get to where he’d been. She reached out and snagged the guy’s neck and suddenly he was visible and easy to remember. She laughed, the way an alligator might. “Outta tricks, buster,” she said, hooking her hand behind his head and pulling her other fist back to strike.

“No don’t, please!” Terror flashed across his face as Liz swung.

But her fist never connected.

She froze. The man was shaking, cowering, his hands up in front of his face, tears starting to form. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he was saying quickly and repeatedly, like a mantra. “Just let me go! I’m sorry!”

That wasn’t right. “Why should I,” she spat at him, her fist still clenched and ready to strike.

“I’ll never take another person’s purse again! I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” he blubbered, his knees starting to quiver.

“You shouldn’t have tried to take it in the first place. And you shouldn’t have brought your friends back to attack us. You deserve this for what you’ve done.” Again she brought her fist back, but then her words reached her ears. They were...harsh. THey....weren’t her.

Then roaring. It registered in her, touching something primal. It seemed to snap something in the guy she was about to smash into a wall. An acrid smell filled the air and Liz realized the guy would need to change his pants.

Oh God. He was terrified.

Liz let go of him and jumped back, not from what he’d done, but what she’d done. “Oh God, oh God, oh God oh God oh God!”

The man was scared. Good. He should be. No one was more terrifying than him! The Alpha! The scared one took one last look at the woman who stood over him. Got up and started to run. Carrick’s wings flapped once and he was upon him giving him a large gash on his back as he tried to run away. He stumbled and Carrick growled letting him flee before getting struck by a large trash can.

The aluminum bin let out a loud ‘ding’ as it impacted around the shifter causing him to stumble forward. “We aren’t done!” the beefy woman shouted now more upset than anything already grabbing another garbage bin. “I don’t care they ran off. They were cowards. Got a reason to find a new group now.” Carrick’s shifted form shook off the first can then dodge a second as it flew past him into the street and hit an oncoming car.

Carrick roared again and then charged dodging the first blow to his head and pounced the woman. Wings flapped heavily as he tried to lift the woman off the ground. All Carrick managed to do was upset her more because she finally grabbed hold of his wing and then threw him into the brick wall behind her. Hard. There was an audible crack. Pain. Fight! Flee? …. No mate.

Elizabeth did not have time to linger with her dawning horror, for as soon as she’d realized what was happening and what she was doing, a monster leaped onto the guy she’d swarmed. The monster savaged him oh so briefly and then left, allowing the now-bloodied and wounded man to try to get away. Even as she watched the man just faded from…

What was she thinking about? Liz blinked and then refocused on the monster in front of her. The monster that had haunted her dreams and nightmares.

“Carrick!” she cried out, only to see him assaulted with a trash can. Things began moving quickly then. As Carrick came under fire from the brawny woman who’d attacked him, Liz tried to reassess the situation. Her assailants were on the ground, wisely not moving. But hopefully they could move. They were still covered in attacking wasps so Liz dealt with that first.

She slashed her hand and a wave of satisfaction rolled over the wasps, drowning out their lust for violence and vengeance. She bombarded them with a sense of victory and safety and they settled down, no longer stinging and biting. As Carrick roared, Liz hurried over to where her purse still laid by the guys and she quickly picked it up.

The sickening cracking of bone snagged her attention and she immediately started moving. One stride, two strides, three then leap! She landed on the woman’s back and immediately wrapped her legs around the woman’s waist and one arm around her bull-like neck.

Then she jammed her stun gun in the side of the woman’s neck away from her own arm and electricity started pouring into the woman.

His wing was limp, his body ached but he had to get up or he’d be killed. Eaten. Such was the way of the world to think he had been an alpha for so long just to come across someone more fit for the role than he? No.... he’d fight! He’d win!

Carrick’s body surged with rage as he growled and pulled himself upwards standing on all fours he was backed into a corner. The woman clearly didn’t want to mate. Meaning there was just the one option now. He was going to have to kill her. A feral smile formed, teeth bared. The shifter was about to lunge then stopped as the blonde woman ran to the other alpha and jumped on her then dropped said alpha. Carrick watched as the woman seized then dropped heavily onto the pavement.

She didn’t move. Looking to the blonde woman he growled at her for taking his kill. Did she want to fight now as well. This woman.... made him sad. The beast form couldn’t figure out why but he felt sad when he looked at her. His cat like eyes slowly rounded as he studied her. She took out the alpha who gave him trouble did that mean she wanted to fight? Mate?

His wings flapped, well one of them did the other one was just painful to move so it didn’t. He couldn’t fly like this, he couldn’t keep his territory protected like this. He backed up slowly till his backside hit the wall growling all the while letting the blonde woman know he would not be an easy kill.

Elizabeth clung frantically as the woman convulsed and then buckled. She maintained an iron grip with three limbs and rode the woman down to the ground, her own weight smashing the woman even harder into the ground. In doing so, Liz felt like her own leg was being crushed underneath the woman.

“Ahh!” she gasped as she too struck the ground, despite the woman breaking most of the fall. She finally dislodged the stun gun from the woman’s neck (after a few more seconds for good measure) before trying to extricate herself.

It wasn’t working well. Her leg was pinned. The woman was heavy, but less in a fat way and more in a probably-packed-with-super-dense-muscles-enabling-enhanced-strenght-and-durability mutant kind of way.

Crud.

She pushed at the woman but Liz had absolutely no leverage to work with and the woman’s angle was too awkward to just roll over. And there was still the matter of Carrick.

Liz froze when she heard the roar and then she turned slowly to stare back into those feline eyes. Those were eyes she’d woken up screaming from night and night. Long before she knew they were Carrick’s, and sometimes even after that. They’d finally started going away after she moved away to college, but still. There was a lingering part of her, that terrified teenage girl inside of her that wanted to scream and run away.

But Liz wasn’t that girl anymore.

Also, her leg was trapped under the other woman so running wasn’t an option anyways.

So instead Liz sat up and turned toward Carrick as best she could and looked him straight in those terrifying eyes. She took in his stance, his movements, his posturing out of her peripheral view and added them to her catalogue of Carrick’s past mannerisms, as well as every similar experience she’d had when working with birds and cats and other predators.

“Enough,” she said slowly but firmly, squelching down the shake that was trying to chop up her voice. No weakness. Show no fear. She looked at him with the face of someone who remembered what a panicked, frightened, injured, angry hawk felt like. “It’s over.”

And her hand was near her stun gun. Just in case.

Back against the wall Carrick’s beast form looked to the wall then back to the blonde woman. His fear subsided for a moment when there was a look of fear in the woman’s eyes. Good she knew he was formidable. Meaning his fur lowered a little making him look a little less imposing. She didn’t move meaning he didn’t either. His fangs still bared Carrick’s beast form waited.

She made eye contact and Carrick’s expression softened slightly he was no longer baring his fangs. She spoke and something in him changed he wasn't thinking about his pain or his territory. He was thinking about Liz. Liz said enough, it was over. His feline eyes shifted again surveying the scene, she was partially under the woman who attacked him and her hand was on the device. He studied it trying to figure it out.

Realization swept over him and his stance changed slightly to a more relaxed position on all fours he sat and sighed loudly, ”O-ver......” his vocal cords rumbled. It was still a struggle speaking in this form but it showed Carrick was back in control or at least as much control he had in this form. Leaning forward and taking a step towards Liz he grabbed the foot of the large woman with his claws and pulled her slightly so Liz wasn’t under her.

”F-Fight?” he shook his head and looked to his wing when he tried to move it. There was pain again. ”F-F-****”