Of Sentience and Predator

A5: Hunted

Before I begin, we have places for art! Here are the websites: 

BuzzlyArt: https://buzzly.art/~OSAP-Stuff

Tumblr: https://of-sentience-and-predator-stuff.tumblr.com/

The next update will be on Saturday, like the other versions on other websites.

-()-

Also, I quick note since someone on Ao3 asked and I feel like I didn't clarify well enough: Each season is labeled with a letter (ie OS season 1 is A, AF season 1 is H, etc) and there will be at max five different time travel shenanigans in the entire series.

"Where are we going and why again?" Kevin asked, looking over to Afri.

Gwen answered, "Dragua wants us to train more, but he wants us to do it where we won't cause any major damage, so that's why we're heading out to the Dragoon Outpost in Sparksville."

"We won't get there very soon, so we'll have to stop at a different outpost for a night," EightEight added.

"How far is Sparksville from New York, anyways?" Ben asked.

"We're traveling nearly half of the United States," EightEight answered. "Where we're stopping, however, should be a fine place to train with your water-based forms."

"Cool," Ben replied. EightEight looked at a device in her hand, the other adjusting the African Wild Dog mask a bit.

"We're coming to the first outpost," EightEight stated, causing Ben to nod.

"Mind repeating?" Kevin deadpanned.

"We're stopping soon," Ben answered.

...

A stingray with a curved stinger and colored like it was cut out from a piece of the night sky swam through the water, being followed by Tiamat. Tiamat's legs were now a fishtail, the tail beating to keep up with the stingray. "Please slow down, Starray!" Tiamat asked, trying to catch up.

Starray's sun-like eyes looked behind him before refocusing on where he was heading. "You speed up," Starray suggested before suddenly making a sharp turn. The stinger nearly dodged Tiamat, causing her to screech a bit and stop.

A mutated blue tinted Piscciss Volann pushed her aside before speeding after Starray, causing Tiamat to yell, "Kevin!"

"Catch up, slowpoke!" Kevin yelled back in reply, tail beating to catch up with Starray. Tiamat growled and followed after them.

The two followed Starray until the Piscciss Nebula stopped near a pier. Tiamat and Kevin brought their heads above the water, Tiamat panting as they came closer to the dock.

EightEight looked at the two, then looked down to see Starray floating closer to the surface. Tiamat swam up to the dock and said, "Please say that Starray's species is always that fast."

EightEight signed, 'They developed to be faster than what you are to be able to catch your current species.' Tiamat frowned but nodded.

Kevin shook his head, water droplets falling off of his hair, before he asked, "So what now?"

"Starray, I want you to use your stinger against some of the animals here until you timeout," EightEight said. When she saw Starray swim away, she signed, 'Cobra, you and Crow hunt as well. Bring back anything you two or Rat kill.'

"Ok, Sister EightEight," Tiamat nodded. She turned to Kevin and said, "She wants us to hunt and bring back our kills."

Kevin gave a massive, toothy grin and dove back into the water. Tiamat followed, just to see Starray's stinger pierce completely through an unlucky bass.