“To think Mr. Harris evolved too. Well, I guess it would be expected of a man roaming around looking for his daughter.” Becky couldn’t help but feel Desaray’s father had become more handsome than before.

“Little girl, you are too young for my dad, so forget about it.” Desaray stepped in front of her father and knocked Becky on the head. She had long known about Becky’s crush on her father.

“Wha-Wha-What are you talking about!? And I am no longer a little girl; I am a dragon! Human standards no longer apply!” Becky tried to make her argument, but her voice got meeker and meeker as she spoke. She was still too shy to actually confess her love.

“Yes, yes….”  Desaray grinned at her best friend, who was acting like a small rabbit all of a sudden. She then turned her attention to the two on the bed. “To think that Yu was the first to climb the steps to adulthood before us all. Mike, Yu, congratulations on the baby.”

“I am not pregnant! No more than that, we didn’t do anything!” Yu cried out. She wanted to pinch that teasing smile off of Desaray’s face. 

“Hehe.” Desaray chuckled as she hopped up on the bed before turning to her father and waving him over. Ricky came over and produced the slime he had been holding. “We only saw one on the way here, so Mike, you will get it.”

“Wait!? Why does he get it!?” Jake’s voice came from behind Desaray and the others. Desaray turned to see Jake standing up with a huge lump on his cheek and a black eye. “I carried him here! Why does he get to have the slime and evolve, and I do not!?”

“Why do you think you should get it? We protected you the entire time. Mike also was willing to put his life on the line for others while you only cried and complained. Why the hell should you get anything? Jake, do I need to beat you up again!? Should I follow through with my promise and rip your throat out!?” Becky cut in. Desaray could see that She was genuinely angry. She could only guess that Jake must have said or done something to really make Becky turn into her evil side.

“Calm down, Becky, while he is annoying, stupid, weak, and has the backbone of a jellyfish, he is still a human being… I think…. Anyway,” Desaray turned to Jake, who was staring at Becky and her with hatred in his eyes. He seemed to have long stopped caring about anything but himself it seemed. “Jake, if you want to evolve so badly, then go find a slime on your own if you are going to act like this. I, nor my father, have any obligation to help anyone here. If you do not like it too bad.”

“You! Always needing to get the last word in!” Jake hated how girls always had to have the last word. He turned away from them, knowing he could not win against the two with words, and asked Ricky: “Mr. Harris, I know she is your daughter, but why are you letting her act like this!? Wouldn’t it be fair to give the person who worked the hardest the benefits?”

“It’s not my say who gets what.” Ricky disliked this young man. He always felt he was a spoiled brat. His parents, who he had met at parent-teacher conferences, even looked down on his daughter for not having a mother. “She is the leader now. I am the one who knows little about this new world. So what she says goes. If she wants to give it to Mike, then that is her decision.”

“Wha?” Jake did not understand why a father would take orders from his daughter. He looked at everyone in the room, that were all looking at him with eyes filled with disgust and hate, and realized he was not wanted here. “Hah…. Hahaha! Fine! Since this is how it is, then I will go. But just wait. If I am able to survive out there and I grow strong, do not come begging for me to come back!”

“Okay, have fun. Don’t die of starvation or get eaten. Make sure to take the stick out of your butt as well. It makes you walk funny.” Becky made sure to toss a few jabs in as she watched Jake struggle to climb over the wall of debris.

Ricky sighed, looked at Desaray, and asked: “You okay with this?”

“Let him be. If he wants to go off on his own, let him. Maybe some real life and death situations will wake him up a bit. Sadly for him, my mind is no longer fully human either. It seems that the evolution instilled the traits of our new races into us as well.” Desaray replied as she held out the slime to Mike along with a large rock. “Hit it with this and aim for the core.”

“Alright…” Mike took the rock and raised it up before slamming it down as hard as he could at the core of the slime. The slime instantly turned into a puddle of liquid as the core crushed. Mike fell over in pain while Yu and Desaray quickly jumped off the bed as a brown fog began to swirl around Mike.

On top of the rubble, looking down into the room, Jake gritted his teeth. He did not understand what made Mike so much better than him. He did not wish to stay any longer as he marched off in anger. After everything that had happened, he seemed to have snapped. Whether this was good or bad, only time would tell….