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Scythe looked around the place for a while, in fact he was there most of the day and well into the night. Eventually everything had been seen and Scythe was about to make his way out when one of the stores on the lower sections exploded. There was a loud bang and lots of screaming as humans and other creatures fled the area, then there were a series of loud popping noises and a few humans holding strange weapons walked through the destruction. 

Scythe watched as one of them motioned in a few different directions, of which a few other humans would head in and soon the entire place was full of screaming people. Scythe, however, was watching in mild fascination and a massive interest in what those weapons were as well as why they decided to come through the side instead of the front. So he decided to go and ask. 

It was around five minutes later and most of the people had stopped screaming by now but they were all huddled in the center of the food area, which had no windows and only two places people could exit strangely enough. You'd think that the place would be built with this in mind but Scythe guessed that this doesn't happen often. Why was that group here in the first place actually? Surely master didn't find him again and order Scythe to be captured and brought back. He was not going back. The very thought caused Scythe to growl quietly and then he realized that the new friend he made was in the food area. 

Time slowed to a crawl as Scythe's focus turned deadly and he was in the food court in the next moment looking around at what was happening. Everything returned to normal as he stopped to look around and he saw that there were a half dozen masked humans wearing animal masks and everyone that was in the area, or everyone that had been captured were directed there to sit against the walls and close together. 

There were so many people that even though Scythe could smell Jenny he had a hard time finding her in the crowd and when he did find her he saw that she looked alright. Although she didn't seem scared or even surprised and while that made Scythe happy that she wasn't he was confused as to why she looked so bored. 

"Hey where'd that come from?!" a voice shouted catching everyone's attention and Scythe saw Jenny's face look over and then turn into something of shock but Scythe didn't get to see the next expression as two of the people standing to the side came up on Scythe's sides aiming guns at him. One was aimed at his head and the other was aimed at his wings and flank. 

"Hey boss what do we do with this thing?" the one on Scythe's left yelled back towards a kitchen area of one of the food places and a large man with hair all over his face, arms, and legs came out and looked over. From Scythe's position he looked about four to five feet tall when really he was just under seven. After looking at the small seemingly unthreatening dragon the boss guy waved a hand and then pointed over to the hallway. 

"Just find an empty area and lock the thing inside." He yelled and Scythe's tail lashed again as the person on the right yelled out this time. 

"And if it doesn't want to follow?" they, now identified as a 'he' asked and Scythe looked at the boss guy again and he just huffed. 

"Then just kill it and move the body somewhere else! Do I need to tell you all how to do every little thing around here?!" He growled and the two 'guarding' Scythe moved. This time one of them went in the front and another went behind, but both were aiming at his head this time and while that didn't matter to Scythe it was a grave mistake. Trying to get him to move that is. 

"Get!" The one at the front yelled and Scythe's tail lashed again, but this time it wasn't air that it cut through. One moment the guy standing in the back had legs, and then the next they had been cut off at the knee without so much as a hint of pain. Until they were already severed that is. 

"Aahhhhhh" The man in the back fell backwards screaming in pain as Scythe lept forwards. Both guns went off, but only one continued firing. However that stopped after a moment as well when the weapon was cut in half. The other man had been savagely decapitated and along with his head being a few feet away, half of the man's chest had been eaten leaving no stump of a neck and the top half of the heart and lungs had been severed. 

The man on the floor kept on screaming in pain, but no help was going to come for him, he was bleeding too fast and without a good enough healing factor that came along with his power he was not going to make it anyways. Scythe just sat there in the middle of two bodies as two of the six people guarding the humans turned their weapons at him and four more along with the boss came out from behind the middle food place. When they saw that Scythe was just waiting there the boss turned to a near-by masked person and took their rifle before aiming it at the crowd threateningly. 

"Who does this beast does this belong to?!" He roared and Scythe sneezed at 'beast'. A shot rang out because of this and the bullet hit the ground directly behind Scythe. The creature didn't even seem to move, so bullets passed through it harmlessly and it could rip apart two grown men so easily!? "Who's this things master?" The man was running out of patience. 

"I don't have a master" Scythe said and tilted it's head curiously. "Why are you making all of the humans stay so close together like that? Did you want the food here too?" Scythe watched as the humans with guns spread out a little more into a sort of line with the boss guy in the middle but still slightly behind all of them. 

"The food here is disgusting! There's nothing here even worth looking at." The leftmost weapon-holding creature said and Scythe's head twitched and a lash from his tail cut three inches deep into the concrete behind it. Scythe stared at that man with a deadly blank stare until his attention was caught by the leader stepping past the line of weapons and now Scythe could see that this man was powerful, physically anyways. It was built like those Nomu that he was forced to kill over and over as they were rebuilt stronger and stronger and yet still so incredibly weak. 

"So why are you here then little creature?" The man asked, "The authorities are still a while out and while you are certainly an anomaly that we failed to predict you shouldn't be here." 

"I asked first." The little dragon pouted and the next second there was a tray of cold chicken in front of it from the place that Scythe first got some food here and he ate it whilst staring at the being that had insulted the food here. 

"Okay sure. I'll play, we're here because there is someone of interest to the organization I was hired by here. You wouldn't happen to know who that is would you?" The large man said and Scythe shook his head 'no' and continued to eat his chicken while staring at the same man. "Your turn." 

"I'm here shopping!" Scythe said stopping from eating the chicken to look at the large man excitedly before going back to eating the chicken, and the tray it was on. The Steel sounded like aluminum foil as the dragon's teeth shredded through it like paper but other than that no other sounds were made once it disappeared inside of the dragon's mouth. It unsettled the man and the one that had made fun of the food was now gripping his gun nervously as Scythe's eyes had never strayed from looking at him for more than a few moments. 

There was an awkward pause as they watched the dragon eat the rest of the tray and when Scythe was done he just continued to sit there watching them all patiently: licking his maw, watching the same man, and smelling the air for any changes. Though once he was done everything seemingly returned to a more normal state and the man started to ask another question. 

"Why are you--" He began but the dragon's eyes flicked towards him with a dangerous glint. 

"I haven't asked you another question yet." Scythe said and the man held his tongue and waited for the little dragon to continue, "I got it! Why do you want this person?" 

"I am not at liberty to say." The man said and Scythe tilted his head. 

"What's that mean?" 

"It means that I cannot tell you." The man growled, continuing, "That's two questions. I now get two." Scythe froze for a moment and then pouted. 

"My first question is why are you here shopping?" 

"The place Lilly brought me to was boring." Scythe started to draw little lines in the ground with his left talon while he waited. 

"Lilly--Nevermind. What are you?" The man felt like what he was seeing was a dragon but those didn't exist. Sure there were people that could turn into dragons, or people that had parts of or powers like that of a dragon, but none of the actual creatures to be seen. 

"I dunno" Scythe said jumping up now, "My turn! When are you gonna leave?" 

"When we get who we're here for," the man reached in his shirt for a moment watching the dragons for a reaction but it really didn't seem to be worried about anything. He pulled out a picture of his target and turned the photo around for the dragon to see. Surely it's eye-sight should be good enough to--

The picture vanished from his hands the moment Scythe saw the color on the other side of it and the man blinked in surprise at the little dragon standing a little off from where it was with the picture in it's claws. 

"What's this?" He asked and the man huffed. It was like dealing with a damn child here, this was not what he signed up for. Then again if this dragon hadn't been here and they found the target things might've gotten dicey anyways. 

"That's a picture, a capture of a moment or thing that is used for purposes like this. Can you look at the front of it and tell me if you can recognize the person in it?" 

"Yeah" Scythe said

"Yeah what?" The man was now a little cautious. It had seen the picture clearly and known who it was even before he asked the question, but if the person was here or not it wasn't saying. "Yes the person is here or that you recognize them?"

"Yeah" Scythe said and the picture spontaneously combust into ash in it's paws. "And now that you don't have that anymore you can leave right?" Scythe looked up curiously and the man started gathering his strength. It looked like this was taking a turn for the worst and he didn't want it, but sometimes shit just happened. 

"No we cannot. We all know what she looks like and we are not leaving until we find her." He said and Scythe stood. 

"How were you not able to do that when everyone was being squished in here?" Scythe asked after a moment while walking to the left side. 

"There were too many things going on in the chaos and I could not see everyone's face clearly enough." The man said watching as the dragon sat on the far most left side. 

"Huh. So you force them all together like that? Wouldn't that just make it harder?" Scythe asked and the man narrowed his eyes and then growled in annoyance. He could've just separated them out one by one and found the person they were looking for without all of this happening in the first place. And now he was stuck in this situation because of his lack of foresight. 

"It doesn't have to be this way." The man said, he was already starting to get bigger as he said this, claws extending from the tips of his fingers, fur growing on every part of his body, his height increasing two feet, and his bones were reshaping themselves. "You could just show us to this person and we could leave without any more blood being shed."

"But she's my friend, and I don't like people trying to hurt my friends." Scythe said and the man, now full nine foot werewolf, blinked once and everything turned to chaos. 

Okay so first things first I hope you enjoyed this little snag I left y'all with. Haven't done it in a while and this was the perfect opportunity. Sorry not sorry. 

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I guess I sort of lied when I said that I would probably not be updating this week either but my fever is down and I was in the mood so CHAPTER 20!!!

Also CHAPTER 20!! I know that this is also technically not the twentieth part...that was either the A/N or Chapter 19, but so what. This is chapter 20 and the title proves it!

Just one step closer to the main part of this story.