Blend the Light

So, What Happened?

"Hawk! Get up!" Someone pulls on my arm.

"Wha?" I sleepily blink as I'm dragged off the bed.

"Get up! Adrien wants to talk to you in fifteen minutes, and you need to eat breakfast!"

"What the hell, Jay? I was sleeping!" I land in a heap of blankets on the ground. 

"Yeah, and now you're not."

"In case you were wondering, I haven't been doing much of that lately. I'm going back to bed. Tell Adrien he can come down here if he wants to talk to me."

"He'll be mad..." Jay warns.

"Tell him it was my idea if he asks." I crawl back into bed, curling up after replacing the blanket that was over Rex's sleeping form. Once Jay realizes I'm not getting up, he replies.

"Sure," He sighs, leaving to tell Adrien.

"Goodnight." I pull the blankets tight around me, and drift off.

The door opens only a few minutes later. "You'd better have one hell of a reason for waking me up," I growl.

"Good morning to you too, Hawk," Adrien says with a pleasant smile as he sits down comfortably on the edge of my bed. He sets his hands folded in his lap with a cheerful smile. Who is that cheerful in the morning?

"Sorry, Adrien. I'm pretty tired." I yawn, sitting up and wiping the sleep from my eyes. Rex doesn't move from where he's snoring softly. His paws twitch as he dreams.

"Don't worry about it. Do you want me to come back later?"

"I'm already up, so ask away."

"Let's start at the beginning. How'd you get caught?"

"I was chasing after some Wasteland guards, then I went into your office to make sure there wasn't anything the Wasteland guards shouldn't find. I burned most of the papers on your desk as you probably found out later. Sorry if you're mad about that. The Wasteland guards went into your office, and I killed all but one of them. They chased me outside where I climbed into a tree, then fell out of it. I ran towards the back entrance, and that was where things went downhill. I was outnumbered, then I got hit on the back of the head by one of the Wasteland guards. Yeah... After that, I never stood a chance. I think I took out a few of them, but my head was just... Swimming. I, like, couldn't focus on anything."

"What happened when you first woke up?"

"That was when they split Rex and I apart. I was barely conscious. The Wasteland guards were talking, I think. Then there was just this, like, insane pain. It continued for a while before trailing off, and then it came back practically tenfold. I remember feeling like I was Blending myself, except that I wasn't in control. I shrank until I was invisible and I was frozen in place until I was ripped apart and thrown against the wall. After that I was out of it, and I don't remember it except for seeing Rex a little ways in front of me." Adrien writes something down on a notepad that had suddenly appeared in his hands. He nods when I finish.

"What else happened? Sorry these aren't particularly specific questions, but I just want to know anything."

"Alright... Lemme think. The Wasteland guards were hard set on figuring out who was the leader of T-LOOT-D, and if it was you. Oh, Rex bit off a bit of one of the Wasteland guard's wrists, and the next day their whole hand was replaced by a robotic one. They've also got a fully robotic Rottweiler named Mars who can be controlled. I think if they've got a flashing red light in their eye, they can be controlled. He's a monster. I'd compare him to Bear, except that he's got a bit more thought into his attacks. Mars is relentless, though. It's insane. Like, he won't rest until he's finished his job. He's that determined." I shudder at the thought of his blood orange eyes, his oily black coat, his flashing fangs. I force back the memories behind a brick wall before I can get caught up in them.