The night had been slightly rough for Ashley. She had gotten roughly five hours of sleep before being awoken by the pain of transformation. There had been enough time to switch into her swimsuit, but the rest of the night had clearly been robbed from her by the wolf flowing in her veins. Ashley had simply been sitting on her bed, now too large to fit within it properly. Sparks danced around her fingers as a form of entertainment. No use in having the power if you didn’t practice with it.

Ashley’s idle mind wandered over the events of the day. The girl they had pulled free of the alien craft was strange. Ashley had barely any time to speak with her, or observe how she acted, so her opinion was limited. Samuel was obviously shy about his status, though was rather polite. Nora tried very hard to be polite, which Ashley was sure would be dropped rather soon as they grew used to the presence of one another. Boxcar was nice, though slightly overprotective. Hopefully that wouldn’t become routine. Jaiden was different, though Ashley had a sour note in her mind already due to his immediate flirting. Typical and expected, like rowdy drunks in a bar, but it was still slightly irritating since Ashley had a feeling that even with her direct shutdown of his flirting he would be trying again fairly soon.

An interesting company, though one that would take a slight bit of work to maintain. With her advanced hearing, Ashley heard the whirr of a machine moving. Dismissing her worries as the air conditioning kicking on, Ashley relaxed against the wall and closed her eyes in an attempt to snooze even a little. A few moments later, and ashley heard a door open followed by a scream for everyone to wake up.

There would be no ignoring this. Ashley was upon her padded feet in moments and yanked her door open, nearly tearing it from the hinges with the force she put forward. Ashley’s head snapped towards Sam. Nostrils flared as she took in a deep breath to assess the situation. The fact that Sam’s wide eyes were staring at an area that was behind Ashley caused her to whip around once again. Now Ashley noticed that the door to a room was open, Ashley bound over to watch as the drone began to jab at Jaiden with sharp tools that were clearly designed to make short work of flesh. Ashley took a deep breath and gave a roar to draw the attention of the machine to her. The roar was pointless in terms of causing fear in the machine, but a fresh batch of adrenaline pumped into her system and combat instincts were overwhelming logical thought.

Ashley didn’t hesitate for the machine to make a move. The nails upon her feet dug into the floor as she launched forward with her left hand extended towards what Ashley figured to be the head of the machine. If Ashley could grab it, she would fling it out into the hallway and pounce upon it once more, lightning sparking between her knuckles and arcing into the drone as she pounded the machine into submission.

There were questions about where the thing had come from, and why it was here, along with other questions such as why Jaiden had been sleeping on the floor in someone’s room, but those questions did not need an answer now. The safety of the people around her was Ashley’s first concern, and thoughts not pertaining to that were swiftly banished from her mind. The focus had to be on the here and now. Thankfully, Ashley’s werewolf form provided her with enhanced vision in the darkness, which would prove useful since the lights were off. There was no time to fumble about turning them on. This drone had to be smashed, and it had to be smashed now.