The Five Evolution
Monsters have always existed. Humanity only survives because the Institute finds them first. Unfortunately for Amara, monsters are easier to survive than all the bullshit that comes with being an Awakener. * The Gorgon suddenly swung, and Raj barely had time to react as a clawed hand caught him across the chest, launching him through the side of an abandoned pharmacy. The building exploded inward and dust billowed everywhere. A second later, Raj emerged from the collapsed debris. "I'm okay!" he shouted from somewhere inside. "Good!" Amara shouted back. Then she looked in Hiro's direction. "So!" Angel's Bane intercepted another snake head. "How'd it go with your parents?" Hiro winced, immediately looking guilty. "You couldn't do it, could you?" Sophia groaned. "What?" Hiro feigned ignorance. "Hiro?" Amara called. He sprinted across the street carrying another rod. "I haven't worked up the nerve yet, okay!" Amara stared at him. "You serious right now?" A serpent slammed into her but she held up her blade vertically, blocking it. The resulting impact shattered nearby windows. "We all agreed after what happened with Raj that we would come clean to our families." "I know!" Hiro slammed another rod into the pavement. CLANG. "I'm a wuss!" He crouched and started typing to activate it. "A big wuss!" Once he was done, he straightened. "In short, I'm the world's biggest wuss!" "At least you're self-aware," Sophia muttered. The Gorgon lunged again. This time Sophia ripped a traffic light from the ground as it glowed gold, and hammered it into the creature's skull with enough force to knock down a building. "My mom didn't take it well." Amara sighed. "She threatened to pull me out of the 'program' entirely and move us across the country." Everyone stopped. Even the Gorgon seemed confused. Raj slowly stepped out of the wreckage. "...You're twenty-two." "Like that's gonna stop her," Amara said, slicing through another attacking snake that hissed just before being severed, another already growing in its place. Ethan nodded. "I've met your mother." He took a sip of coffee. "I'd prefer to stay on her good side." "You should be more concerned about being on my good side." Amara grinned at him. Sophia shrugged. "I couldn't reach my mom..." Everyone looked at her. "So I had the Institute send her a letter," she finished. "You can do that?" Raj asked, dusting himself off. "It seems that's the only way to reach her nowadays." Sophia's eyes went distant for a second before returning to focus. "I know I'm gonna regret it, but we all made an agreement." Hiro stopped moving. "Great. Now you made me feel even worse than I already did." Before anyone could say anything else, the Gorgon made an escape attempt. "We have to keep her inside the containment Hiro's erecting!" Amara called out. The creature was slithering toward the edge of the evacuation zone when Raj grabbed her massive tail, planting his foot down as he tried to anchor her. "I got it!" For a second there, he actually had it. Right until the monster whipped her tail upward, taking Raj with it. "Woah!" Raj yelled. He looked down as it lifted him high into the air. "Okay, don't got it!" WHAM. The Gorgon slammed him into the ground so hard it created a crater. Thankfully, Ethan's shields absorbed most of the impact. "Containment complete!" Hiro suddenly shouted. Six rods now surrounded the battlefield. Upon activation, lights flashed and energy surged between them. An electromagnetic lattice erupted upward, and the containment field snapped shut around the Gorgon like a cage, causing the creature to scream out. Its massive body began to shrink down. Scales receded. The tail split into two. The serpent heads retracted, one by one, until there was nothing left of the creature. Within seconds, a young woman lay unconscious at the center of the containment field naked. The battlefield went quiet. Hiro stared. "Huh." Raj tilted his head. "...she's kinda cu