War does not determine who's right-only who's left.
~Bertrand Russell

(Ten minutes before the Invasion)

I was taking a walk with my dad, stepmom, and little brother since it was our only means of transport around the Keys. We came here for the day so we could finally see it after about two years of us living in Florida. It was nice and the cold Dr. Pepper in my hand contrasting against the blistering heat. I took a swig of the soda as I admired the architecture of the islands. I never understood why l, but I do.

"What do you two wanna do now?" My stepmom asked in a Columbian accent. It was a little hard to understand, but nothing my brother and I haven't gotten used to.

"I'm not sure. We haven't been here before. You two have, what can we do?" My dad chuckled as he turned to us. He wanted us to come to Key West after he and our stepmom came for New Year's Eve two years ago.

"Nothing you two can do." He said as we walked around for a little while longer before we came upon a crowd who was looking to the horizon.

"The hell?" I said, confused by what I was supposed to be seeing out in the distance. Small specks off in the distance could be seen as they got closer as staggering speeds. It looked faster than most jets.

We all watched to see what they were as they slowly got closer from the distance they were at. As they got closer, more distinct features could be seen. Two large wings flapped on their backs keeping them above the water as military-like uniforms slowly made themselves known. Their hands were more like claws of a predatory bird and their mouths were replaced by beaks. A lion-like tail was wrapped around their waist to keep it from flying all over the place. They looked like anthro griffins, just in military uniforms.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one to catch this, but before anyone could do anything; an explosion went off in the middle of the crowd before some stopped and gunned down those who didn't die. I hit the ground immediately as police arrive at the scene with guns at the ready. They fired their Colt Car-15 carbines to little effect as they were cut down by a hail of bullets. I covered my head and waited for the carnage to end before taking a little peek to see if there were any of those griffins here. I was lucky they flew away after I checked because I didn't think I could handle seeing the attacker after all this.

Not one for being unprepared, I grabbed a Carbine from one of the dead SWAT members and immediately went for cover from any aerial myths. I stopped and looked outside once more, I just had to check so my curiosity could be sedated, and my mind put at ease.

What I found was my little brother slumped against a wall after obviously being pelted by 50 BMGs from light machine guns. I looked around the crater where the bomb hit and saw my dad struggling to drag himself away while dragging my stepmom's upper half. Her pained cries as he did so caused me to run out and do my best to drag him to the cover I was hiding in. It took a long while, but I eventually did get him in.

"H-Hunter?" He asked as my stepmom looked at me, her eyes filled with happiness despite the tears.

"Yes, I know. I'm fine. I got lucky, but James didn't." I responded as I looked at him to see the damage. He only had one leg and most of his body was charged, muck like my stepmom. Shrapnel carved the left side of his body and implanted themselves in him.

"You have to go." I didn't, my mind still trying to comprehend what was happening. I was finally in full panic as I racked my brain to find any solution to saving my dad. "Look at me." I didn't hear him as good as I normally do. The gunfire messing with my eardrums. He forced me to look at him as I stared into pleading eyes. "You need to go." My mind froze at that.

"W-what. No! I'm not leaving you, dad. I won't. I'll drag you if I have to!" I yelled, not caring for anything around me as fear and sadness took me. "Nidia, please tell him that I won't leave." No response. "Nidia?" She lied there, her eyes open and no longer breathing. The parts of her skin that could be seen were pale and her eyes unfocused. I quickly went to her and checked her pulse. She was dead.

"Hunter!" I looked at him as he held up his hand. "I know you saw it. I saw it. Our guns don't work on them. They took a 5.56 round like it was nothing. I'll draw their attention, you go." Begrudgingly, I held the gun to him so he could take it. "Be safe." He said as I ran out the cover and to a SWAT to take a knife.

I broke the window of a building and jumped in as the gunfire came from the house my dad was in. I couldn't move as I watched from the safety of the house across from his. Griffins swarmed the place and a scream came from the building as a griffin pulled a wounded griffin out and flew away, but they landed behind the house. I watched as they pulled him out of the house and threw him to the pavement roughly.

"Why fight in your state. You could have stayed hidden and waited." One said as he placed around my father.

"For my son. I at least want one of my children to make it out of here alive." He said as he looked at me and, for a second, looked shocked before they putting a bullet in his head. They stayed for a moment and tilted their heads downwards before bringing them up and saluting. They flew away after honoring my dad for a clear sacrifice.

I rested my head on my knees after I fell to the ground. Choked sobs coming from me before a loud cry of anguish came from me as I cried. I couldn't hold it in as the full weight of the situation came down on me.

"Come on. Stop being such a baby." A guy said as quiet whimpering came from behind the house. It was almost unnoticeable as I went to check and see if they were other survivors.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. It was two griffins, one injured and the other patching the other up. I knew the one who wasn't injured as the one who slaughtered the people. My sadness turned to anger and I came up behind him and pulled the knife to his neck. He froze as the other griffin pull their rifle up and aimed it in our general direction.

"What the hell are you doing kid?" He said as I began to shake with anger after he said that.

"What the hell am I doing? What the hell am I doing!" I yelled as I pressed the knife against his neck, a trail of blood coming from the flesh wound. "You bomb the crowd, killing my mom and dad, then gun down my little brother, and you ask me what the hell I'm doing! You slaughter hundreds of innocent people!" I sniffed as that anger began to convert back into sadness. "Then you have the nerve to ask me that."

"We're just following orders." The wound griffin said, her tone sounding familiar, but then again; it could be my mind playing tricks on me. That caused me to snap at hearing those awful words.

"Just following orders they say. I hate to break it to you, but here..." I paused and gave her the most sinister smile I could muster. "That's no excuse." I pushed the knife deeper into his neck and slid it to the side. Blood flew from his neck and coated the knife and a little got on my hand and arm. The female griffin was taken aback by this allowing me to take his gun and press it against her head. "Drop. It." Her rifle fell to the ground and I took the magazines from her vest. "Congratulations, you've graduated from being on death row to being my new shield." She shook there as I pulled her to her feet and moved her along.

An alarm came from my phone declaring immediate evacuation on the northern side of the island. It was easy to spot considering that the giant aircraft carrier was scrabbling Jets and other ships were defending it. She was reluctant as she cried and pleaded for her life, but I didn't care. What I did care about was how loud she was so I gave her some insensitive to stay quiet.

"If we make it out alive, I'll get you help and I'll watch you. If you make as much as a peep when there are others around, deal's off." She shut up real quick after that as she was less reluctant and didn't say a word unless I spoke to her.

When we needed to stop, I gripped her shoulder; when we needed to move, I gave her a little push; when we needed to get down I patted her on the shoulder. She took to them like a fish to water as I leveled her rifle and looked around for any mid-air attackers.

Eventually, we did need to stop because her wound began to bother her, so we had to take a small break in a house. The window was shared from what looks like a Griffin who was shot down. I cleared the glass on the windowsill so we wouldn't cut our selves on the broken glass. I checked the dead griffin and he was indeed dead from the lack of a pulse. I gave a hollow chuckle at a memory.

"He died of death, right James?" Tears fell from my eyes despite the smile as I took his gun, an M249 SAW, or Squad Automatic Weapon, gonna refer to it as SAW to save time, as well as a few of the belt-fed mags. I still had almost a full belt of ammo loaded into the gun. The female griffin leaned against the wall as she did something, but I stayed and watch to make sure she didn't try anything. I began to check the weapons as I started to question her. "So why did you attack?" I didn't look at her as I did.

"Can't tell you. All I know is that we were supposed to take as much as we could. Smaller portals were opened in different areas to separate the military with support from the Ruby Hive." That raised more questions, but I believe that I know where they're from.

"Changelings? What are they? I believe I may have heard of them." I looked at her as she gave me a quizzical look out of pure confusion.

"I doubt that. They're normally not willing to work with other species. They look like a bug and an alicorn mixed into one. They're considerably weaker than most species, but they make up for it with skill and numbers." No way. They are from Griffin Stone, but what happened? Did they become an organized force after the series finally for them to become like this?

"Are there any more points where you were going to strike?" This was important to know because we could provide info before all hell breaks loose.

"Places call 'Manhattan', 'Seattle', and 'Los Angeles'. That is only a fourth of our forces, but we have billions to work with." Oh, we're fucked. We don't even have a tenth of their forces and we can't hurt them. "Other places around the world are gonna be hit, but I have no info on that except for locations. They are the 'Middle East', 'Russia', and 'Europe'." Whoever their strategist was, they knew where to us where it hurt. Take away a good portion of our allies, take one of the nations with the most nukes, and finally cutting us off from the oil supply. They'll gain a ton of strength in weaponry, land to deploy forces and oil to run for years.

"When?" Was my next question as dread slowly settled in, but I needed to keep morale high if I wanted to get out of this.

"The same time we attacked." I guess that was a pointless question on my end. I need to make it up with useful info that can actually turn the tides.

"How come our weapons do nothing while yours tears us to pieces?" This could actually benefit me if I could learn.

"Our armor has a rune carved into it giving us a shield. Magic infused bullets are the only thing that can penetrate the shield, and even that takes up to five to six per griffin." I immediately took the dead griffin's armor and slipped it over me. The Kevlar was fucked, but if the shielding still worked; I had a fighting chance. A soft black aura surrounded me for a few seconds before disappearing altogether.

"Why are you telling me this?" That was my last question as I took the pistol from the holster and a mag from the war belt.

"If you die, I die. This is merely self-preservation." It makes sense, but I have to give her something to at least protect herself from anyone who wants to kill her.

"Here." I held the pistol out to her with conviction. "I'm changing my agreement. Info for safety. You gave me information; I'll give protection." She looked at the gun before she took it and looking me in the eyes with a little astonishment. "I'm trusting you."

"Why would you give a gun. One that I could kill you with." She asked while I hefted the SAW with way more effort than needed.

"Like you said, self-preservation... And I can't hold a grudge for long. It just isn't in my nature." I checked the loading mechanism to see how it worked before I actually used it.

I froze for a second as the sound of flapping wings caught my attention causing me to run for cover where I could still see the griffin. I just barely had enough time to hide before the door burst open and her squad ran in.

"Alex! How the hell did you get here!" He yelled furious as they completely disregarded the fact she's wounded.

"I was held captive by a kid at gunpoint." She responded I readied the SAW to fire upon the small square squadron.

"A kid. You were taken hostage by a child! Do you think we're fucking idiots! We saw that griffin dead in that alley, his throat cut open! You expect us to believe that a child did that." This was getting blown out of proportion by this guy. He made a finger gun gesture at her as a female griffin aimed her gun at Alex. "Bang." He said as that griffin fired once at her, the magic shield glowing violently as I took aim.

"You fuckers!" They looked at me before I fired into them, the female griffin's shields destroying in seconds as the bullets penetrated her Kevlar armor. She dropped dead in seconds while the rest ran for cover.

I fired at their hiding spots with controlled bursts as I made my way to Alex. I made sure the ammo didn't run out as the self suppressing fire. I handed the gun to her and she began to fire and I took her gun once again before dragging her out the house.

"Nice to finally know your name, Alex," I said as I found some cover just outside. Wasting no time, I fired into a wall where I knew an unfriendly griffin. I was considering my luck as a griffin yelled after five shots killing them. How did I not hit a stud? "That's three." I looked at Alex while handing her two more mags for the SAW or whatever they're called. "How many are left?" I needed to know how many are left so we could leave without fear of getting shot.

"Just three." I really hope she was also counting that guy I shot.

"I killed a guy through a wall, and the one I gunned down, and the one who's throat I slit open," I said before her eyes lit up in understanding. I poked my head out to suppress the but got insanely luckily as one grazed my scalp and flew into the distance. "Holy shit!" I yelled as I went back down.

"Two left!" She yelled over the gunfire.

"I'm gonna flank them! Do something to distract them so I can get the upper hand!" She pulled out a green gem and held it up.
"That'll emit a defining bag and a blinding light! Attack then!" Nodding, I made my way around the house before peeking at them.

One had an M16A4 while the other had an MP7 and reloaded it in less than a second. I have to hand it to that griffin, that's some skill. When I saw the gem I ducked behind the wall, closed my eyes, and covered my ears. I could hear the bang and it was much louder than I expected. Despite the fact my ears were covered, they were still ringing, but my eyes were still in working order. Without wasting time, I left my cover and fired upon the two heavily disoriented griffins. I killed one in quick succession before destroying the others shield as I ran out of ammo.

He recovered quickly and charged me with a knife in hand for going his gun. He tried to stab me with his knife before I grabbed his wrist and tried to do the same. Both our knives were in a reverse grip as we struggled over dominance; the only thing keeping me on even terms was my adrenaline coursing through my veins. I needed the upper hand and quick as the adrenaline slowly wore off.

With some not so good quick thinking, I came up with a plan that had a fifty-fifty chance at stabbing myself. I just waited until he was trying to move it inwards and the plan could be enacted with hopefully good results. I held out for a minute longer before he did as I wanted as I stopped all force I used to keep using even and guided the knife into his arm. With a cry of pain, he dropped his knife, which I swiftly grabbed before it was out of reach, and thrust it into his neck. He convulsed on the ground for a while as I sat back to catch my breath, unknowingly holding it for the entire time I was at a standstill with the griffin.

I checked the bodies for ammo that I could use and some Alex could as well. There's no doubt that they radioed in the corpse and the missing griffin, so the evidence was against her at this point.

"Are you okay?" She asked I think she came to the same conclusion that I did. She couldn't go back home without being tried for treason and the murder of a fellow soldier.

"Ya..." I said as the distant sound of gunfire echoed in my mind for what seemed like an eternity as the faces of those I killed came up... And I felt nothing. No horror, no excitement, no regret; just... Nothing. I was indifferent about the situation as the little fucks I did give was to check them for ammo; my logic overriding my emotions. "Get as much ammo as you can get. I need time to process what we'll do next." I've already scavenged all the ammo for my, previously Alex's, gun. I lied my hand over the bullets grazed wound causing it to sting a little, but that might be because of the fired blood on my hand. I would just have to wait until we got to the aircraft carrier before it could be treated property.

I got up and took the knife back and switched to the dead griffin's armor, the shields flaring black again before disappearing. I searched them more for anything valuable and took a few green gems, one blue gem, and seven rough red gems. I decided to hold onto them if things go to complete shit. I did find binoculars, some more ammo, and a bottle of water. He wasn't gonna need it anymore, so why not take it. I could use it to disinfect the graze wound.

"I was only able to get a few belts of ammo, but we should be fine if we spare as much as we can and avoid as much conflict as possible," Alex said as she walked out with a new bandage over her stomach causing me to nod in acknowledgment.

"You gonna be good?" I asked a little fearful that my only friend in this mess wouldn't be able to make it.

"I should. It still hurts like a bitch, but I should be fine." I held the gems out to her and her to take. I didn't know which did what so I let her keep them. "I guess I should tell you what each does. To save time; blue sends out an Electro-Magnetic Pulse, Green acts as a Flashbang, and the rough red ones act as grenades. Finely cut red gems are used in Arcane Cannons to fire a blast. All three types can be used in Arcane Cannons, but only if it's finely cut." Nodding, I looked over the battlefield to determine the best course of action would be.

About ten miles away from us was a Humvee that looked like it crashed. I could contact any other humans and tell them that a rogue griffin is defecting to our side. We can also tell them to take the guns from them and use it against them.

"I found our next objective." I pointed in the direction of the Humvee, about northwestern from where we are. "We get there, tell them that we're coming from behind enemy lines, and inform them about the guns. Hopefully, they'll patch up the wound on my skull." I did pore a little water on it to disinfect it, it was the only thing I could do at this time.

"We'll be going away from the carrier." I nodded, but if we were lucky, the Humvee was still drivable.

"Just wait. We'll have our solution soon enough." We went on our way while I reloaded the gun in my hands and shouldered the gun. I needed to be at the ready if a squad found us again and I doubt my luck will hold in a second fight.

Author's Note

Special thanks to ShadowFlameking for helping me with ideas. Go check out his stories, they're really good. Next chapter is up in the air.