He leveled out and powered between the tall empty buildings. The positioning had been selected with a hunter’s instinct, keeping the sun behind him, its glare making him invisible to his prey. Genuine birds took flight, squawking in alarm as the huge marauder raced past, a giant flock flowing in a colorful super-geometry murmuration in the clear air.

On the ancient plaza floor below, the clanmates looked up at the sudden airborne commotion, squinting against the sun. Shouts of alarm burst out. Dellian swooped lower, crying out in a long, aggressive ululation. The clanmates began to scatter, sprinting for cover. His huge shadow flashed over them. It was all he could do to prevent himself from turning the ominous cry to laughter.

He pitched left, rolling the big body, swooping around the corner of a pyramid-shaped building, seeing the reflection of his fearsome shape fluctuate as it slid across a thousand silvered windows. Then the plaza was behind him and he banked again, wings slowly pumping to gain altitude, terrorizing yet more birds as he rose up and up. The original pterodactyl had been more glider than hawk, but now muscles had been enhanced to pump the big sail-like wings, adding range and speed to its already formidable abilities.

Finally he circled the Bedial tower on the southern edge of the city and slipped down to a sedate landing on its flat roof, dodging the slender air-con heat-pump panels.

Reluctantly he pulled in his wings with a haphazard shake. His databud gave him visuals from the city’s sensors, showing him the dispersal pattern on the plaza floor. The boys hadn’t kept together, splitting into three main groups, with a couple of stragglers. The girls had stayed together and remained with one of the boy groups. Tactically advantageous, but he felt it had been a random dispersal. Their combat game training hadn’t kicked in yet.

“Great Saints, that was pitiful,” Xante sent.

“Yeah. They haven’t adapted to the situation; they’re still in soft mode.”

“We should change that.”

Dellian had to smile at the eagerness in Xante’s voice. “We will, but gradually. If we suddenly confront them with a tsunami of threats, they might start wondering how come none of the predators were around while they were carrying out their training mission.”

“I guess. That’s the kind of thing that clued Yirella in back when we were stranded, wasn’t it?”

Dellian’s humor deflated. “Yeah. Something like that.”

“So what do we do?”

“Give them a couple of hours, see how they react now they know the area isn’t as passive as they thought. Then buzz them again. Both of us.”

“Okay.”

Dellian released the big pterodactyl from his command bond, keeping his attention on the databud’s display to make sure it settled quiescently. Subsentient biologics had been known to get quirky when released from human control.