Chapters |
Chapter 1:
In the beginning...
or
The Setup |
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Chapter 1: In
the Beginning, or The Setup
David had always thought of himself as a rational human being. He
never would be prone to delusions of grandeur, and he certainly would not be
considered mentally unstable. Yet, as he sprinted down an alleyway running
from an acrobatic looking android who seemed quite intent on ending his existence,
young David was quite certain, that he was, in fact, totally and completely insane. Looney. A
nut case. Stuck in some hellish nightmare of his own delusions and in a
minute the nurse would be by to give him his medication and all would be right
with the world. Unfortunately for David Kenny, there was no nurse, and
the android was in fact, the real thing. So he continued to run, his breath
coming in gasps, legs burning, pursued by a nameless executioner, who wasn't
even a real human. In all fairness, neither was David. He just hadn't
realized that yet, and at this point, it seemed doubtful he ever would have the
chance to come to such a revelation.
*************
The android in question was one of the older military models
that were seen so often nowadays, mostly used by crime lords and very rich corporations,
ones like Microsoft. This android was not from Microsoft, however. It
was from a shadowy organization led by an equally shadowy figure who went by
the title of "The Overseer." His real name was Quinton, but the only people
who knew that were dead. He had seen to that (and in any case, that was
1000 years ago). No, his name was "The Overseer," and his organization
was named "The Organization." That was the trouble with people these days,
The Overseer thought. Nobody ever took the time to think of a really sinister
sounding name for shadowy organizations anymore. In Quinton's case, he
had been too tired at the time to think of a good name and had gone for the first
thing that popped into his head. It was a good thing he didn't go for the
second thing that popped into his head, as "Quinton's Band O' Killers and Ne'er
do wells" was even less sinister sounding than The Organization.
************
In another part of the bombed out remains of what once was
Minneapolis, the figure of a woman could be seen stalking through the remains
of an old apartment building. Though most would consider her attractive,
the massive rail gun she carried would be more than enough to deter most males
from getting the wrong idea. If the rail gun failed to, the body armor,
grenades, and, looking a bit out of place in the presence of such high tech equipment,
crossbow would be more than enough to further point out that this woman meant
business. Her name was Lydia, and she was a Hunter. At this point,
she was hunting down a possible subject. 18 year old male, supposedly Manifested
at a wrestling tournament in one of the rural outposts outside the city. Fled
the scene, and was last seen headed for Minneapolis, most likely to hide from
the authorities. Not that the authorities would know what to do anyhow. She,
however, knew exactly how to handle this situation. After all, she had
not trained as a Hunter for 10 years to learn normal hunting. No, she was
out looking, searching for the young (a bit odd, as she herself was only 20),
and hopefully confused, lycanthrope.
*************
David was not concerned with any of this as he rounded a corner
in downtown Minneapolis, and ran smack-dab into the waiting arms of a young woman
named Ruth. An odd look was on the woman's face--one of amusement, perhaps?
"Excuse me sir, but what exactly, if I may be so bold as to
inquire, are you doing in this God-forsaken city?" There was a hint of
irony in the young woman's voice, after all, a young woman out in the ruins of
a city was, to be fair, equally odd.
David didn't care about any of this. He only saw that
now, not only was he in danger, but so was this young woman (who, despite the
fact that he was about to be killed by an android, he had time enough to think
of as pretty cute). "Running away. I suggest you do the same."
There was now definite amusement in the young woman's eyes
now. "Running away? What from? Surely you aren't one of those
angst-filled teenagers who are convinced mommy and daddy don't love them anymore?"
David caught the sarcasm in the comment, and immediately felt
that he could be in danger. For a reason he could not explain, this young
woman seemed to be hiding something, some huge joke that she knew. He was
dreading the punch-line, but decided to merely point at the android, who by now
had also rounded the corner and was pulling out a wicked looking submachine gun. "That
would be what I'm running from. I think it wants to kill me, perhaps in
a messy manner."
"Oh, that's what you're worried about?" Ruth seemed
unconcerned. "No problem." The young woman then proceeded to pull
out an equally wicked looking portable artillery and launched a shell into the
chest of the oncoming android. It exploded in a shower of sparks and flying
circuitry.
"Do all young women carry that sort of thing around here?" David
was in a bit of shock at this point, and his ears were ringing from the concussion.
"Nope. Now if you know what's good for you, you'll come
with me, or if you like, you can wind up like him over there." David was
looking down a rather large barrel, and Ruth was smiling sweetly.
"Well, I'd love to come with you, but I'm thinking I'll just
pass out instead." replied David. And then he did. The last
thing to pass through young Dave's addled mind was that his newfound friend/kidnapper
seemed to have a tail all of a sudden. He dismissed that as purely a product
of his addled mind. After all, he had just been chased by a killer robot
thingy, only to have it blown away by a rather attractive woman who had then
pointed said instrument of destruction at him. A tail hallucination was
perfectly reasonable.
*************
As David's subconscious
swirled around, memories of the past two days came back in flashes, occasionally
accompanied by strippers (as an 18 year old, what else would his subconscious
think about?). A brief flash, and suddenly, David was back in the
old high school gym, wrestling with some behemoth of a man who was in
contention for the state title. So was David, but this wasn't the
state title on the line. Not yet. It was only one of the
first stepping stones in the tournament. David had been getting
trounced rather terribly, and his frustration and adrenaline were combining
to suddenly make the young wrestler a formidable foe. Muscles straining,
David let out an unearthly roar and threw his opponent to the mat. Diving
on top of the downed man, he suddenly blacked out, the last thing he
heard were screams of horror. When he awoke, he was lying, still
in his singlet, in a snow drift in the middle of the woods, and he had
absolutely no clue as to where he was. He also became aware that
he was freezing and that he seemed to have fallen head first into a rather
sizable patch of yellow snow. Lost and alone, David couldn't for
the life of him figure out how he ever found his way to a main road and
found his car on the side, with a change of clothes that he had intended
to wear after the tournament. Changing into them was not fun at
all, he got the oddest looks from passers-by.
Another flash, and he was standing outside of his house after
blundering his way home. His father was out to greet him, a look of concern
on his face. He had spoken quickly.
"Son, you must get out of here quickly. It's not safe
anymore. We tried to protect you, but-" David's father was interrupted
by his house exploding, taking his mother with it. It was then that the
android, that damnable machine, had appeared, RPG in hand. David's father had
charged the android, yelling something to an all ready shocked David about getting
the hell out of here and heading for the ruins of Minneapolis.
David had complied, but had been frozen with horror as the
android punched a hole in his father's chest. A scream was trying to work
it's way out of his throat, but it didn't seem to come. Mindlessly, his
legs began to work and he dove back into his car, slammed it into reverse, and
somehow managed to avoid the rocket that the android launched at his vehicle. After
that, he had managed to hide in Minneapolis for only a day before the android
had returned. He had jumped down the fire-escape from the third story window
of a bombed out apartment building and dashed down an alley.
*************
Lydia stood in a different apartment
building, her search continuing. So far, she had no clue as to
where the young lycanthrope had gotten to. A fancy looking HUD
was poised in front of one of her eyes, looking for the tell-tale signs
of any human or semi-human inhabitation. A sensor suddenly picked
up a trace of human hair in a room on the third floor. Drawing
her crossbow, the Hunter advanced stealthily, ready to fire in a moment's
notice. Entering the apartment, she looked about for any more signs
of life, and found nothing other than some more hairs. She saw
what looked like a newly broken window leading to a fire escape and drew
her own conclusions as to what had happened. The little bastard
had fled. She would have had time to get good and frustrated, but
the apartment suddenly gave a groan and collapsed. Lydia had time
for a few really good swears before a chunk of the ceiling fell on her
head and knocked her senseless.
*************
David awoke in a white room that looked
suspiciously like a hospital. His first thought was less of a "where
the hell am I" and more of a "If there is a needle in my arm I'm going
to scream like a little girl." Finding that, blessedly, there were
no needles, he turned his mind to questioning where he was. It
seemed that he was in an apartment looking affair, but with the exception
of him being strapped to the bed. For a few minutes, David thought
about struggling, but then decided that the wolf-man lounging in an office
chair at the foot of the bed wouldn't like it.
The wolf-man, who's name was Dr. Derrydale (though everyone
just referred to him as Doc Wolf) noticed that his new charge was awake. "Ah,
hello there." He said in a cultured English accent (odd coming from the
mouth of a werewolf)..
David resisted the urge to pass out, managing a startled "Hello" followed
by the obvious question, "Do you know that you're a wolf?"
Doc Wolf laughed. "Of course I do! We're all wolves--well,
not just wolves. We're lycanthropes, werewolves, or whatever else you want
to call it. You're here because you're a lycanthrope too."
Now it was David's turn to laugh. "Me? A werewolf? Don't
joke with me, whoever the hell you are! What bad reality TV show have I
stumbled into, eh? Some half-assed copy of Candid Camera? Come on,
where's the camera?" David began looking about, finally settling his eyes
on one of the Doctor's buttons. "There it is! There, I saw your stupid
camera, now will you let me go?"
Doc Wolf wasn't sure what to make of this young man sitting
there trying to break free and tear off his shirt button, so he thought it would
be best to prove himself to David. "Look kid, let me introduce myself. I'm
Dr. Derrydale, but you can call me Doc Wolf for reasons that I'm sure you can
understand. If you don't believe that I'm a lycanthrope, then let me just
get back to a more friendly form, ok?"
David watched as the wolf-man slowly lost his tail, snout
and hair, becoming definitely less wolfish and more mannish. When the doctor
had finished, he was a grizzled old man of average height, but the bushy beard
and disheveled hair still gave him a wolf-like countenance.
"That's a bit more like it." David said, doing a pretty
good job at taking all of this in. "Now how about you unstrap me from this
here bed, huh? How about it?"
"Oh dear my good lad, we can't do that." The doctor
shook his head emphatically. "You don't have control of yourself yet. You've
only just Manifested, after all."
"Manifested? What on earth are you talking about?" David
suddenly stopped taking it in, and started wondering what the heck the old coot
was babbling about.
The doctor gave a sigh. "I'm sorry, I forget that you
don't know anything about your, shall we say, special condition. Let me
explain. You," he said, pointing to David, who stared back with a confused
expression, "are a lycanthrope. Your 'incident' at the wrestling tournament
was your Manifesting."
"Wait a second doc, " interrupted David, "but are you telling
me that I can change into a wolf?"
"Not quite a wolf, son. A wolf/human hybrid. You're
one right now, but you're just showing the human side at this point. When
you Manifested, you first showed your wolf side. It's unfortunate that
this happened in public, but we can't decide when it happens. At that point,
you were in essence a total wolf, just one who had opposable thumbs and knew
how to use them. Your first instinct was to run, and so you did, all the
way to your car, then you took off for the place you thought to be most protective,
the woods. It's fortunate that your first instinct wasn't to attack, or
that young man you wrestled would have come off a lot worse than just having
the indignity of wetting himself on the mat." Doc paused for a moment to
let all of this sink in, then continued.
"The reason we have you strapped down is that if we were to
let you up and you changed again, you'd run back for the woods and most likely
be shot and killed. It takes three or four rounds of transformation before
you will become aware of your surroundings as a wolf. Don't ask me why
that's the case, it's just the nature of the virus."
"Whoa doc. Back up. Did you say virus?" David
was a bit thrown off by this comment. "You never said anything about a
virus? Does this mean I need a shot or something?"
Doc laughed. "You're thinking of it as something that
can be cured. This isn't a regular virus you're dealing with. It's
got some serious magic and sorcery behind it. When you got infected, which
would be about two weeks ago if you just Manifested, the virus got into your
genetic code and rewrote it completely. You are in no way the same person
you were two weeks ago."
"Wait, now you're talking about sorcery? Forgive me
for sounding ignorant, but isn't that a bit... um... stupid? I mean, is
this just because you don't know the reason and you're making it up?" David
was now totally in over his head. Viruses he could understand. Arcane
powers? That was something else.
"No, it's true. I mean sorcery, because that's the reason. You
know, Arcane Majiks and such. This is the sort of thing where the laws
of the Universe get hacked. The people doing the hacking are sorcerers. In
fact, there's one here in the good ol' USA right now. Now, to continue. Let
me tell you a couple of ground rules that the virus follows."
"First, all that stuff about full moons is a load of crap. We've
never had anyone who suddenly turned into a werewolf because the moon was out. Don't
be surprised if you feel the need to howl at it once or twice though. You've
still got the instinct of a wolf, and it shows up in strange ways every so often. Me? I
have to keep myself from relieving myself on trees."
"Second, you can control your transformations as soon as you
get past the first three or four and become aware. Once that happens, you
can switch in and out of your wolf form by concentrating hard enough. However,
under some circumstances you can't help it, such as when you are placed in a
situation of intense stress or pain. The additional adrenaline sets
it off. Third-" Doc stopped, realizing that David had just transformed
again and was gnawing on the bedpost. "Humph. Young ones." The
doctor got up and left the room, after telling one of the medical staff outside
the room to inform him when David reverted.
*************
Ruth, who had gone to sleep as soon
as she returned with David's prone form, woke up feeling excited. Not
bad for her first time out, she thought. She was quite worried
about the android that she had encountered, especially because no information
that had been collected about David in the two weeks before had hinted
that anyone would want him dead. Restless, she got up and headed
down the hall to check on David. She found him trying to gnaw the
straps away. A bit of a smile played on her lips as she watched
what was essentially a confused wolf give her a quizzical look and then
growl.
Changing her own form to that of a wolf, Ruth approached David
cautiously, though his suspicion seemed to have been slightly decreased by the
appearance of another wolf. Ruth absentmindedly stroked David's head, and
the wolf-David quieted down and seemed to decide to take a nap.
David of course, had no idea that any of this was going on. His
subconscious had decided to have a few more flashbacks to amuse itself, and had
selected somewhere around two weeks ago as a good target. David was a bit
disappointed, he had been hoping for a week that was more exciting, but there
had been that one oddity....
It had been night, hadn't it? Yeah, night. He
was headed out of wrestling practice, wasn't he? Of course, you idiot,
that's what he did at night. There had been that girl in the parking lot. That...
girl.... who had... the brown hair... like ... naaah. No chance. She
was cold, wasn't she? Asked if he could spare a buck, so she could get
something to drink, didn't she? He had a dollar on him. No problem. The
girl grinned... thanked him... then... what happened next? Don't ask me,
I'm not conscious. Hadn't she shaken his hand? Turned out she was
bleeding. Got blood all over his hand. Refused his offer to do something
about the cut and just ran off laughing, didn't she? Bloody indecent of
her.... Hey, what the heck was patting his head?
"Hey! Who's petting me?" The wolf demanded, startling
Ruth so that she fell backward onto the floor. "And why do I have splinters
in my mouth?" David seemed to have become aware early.
"Um.. that would be me. You have splinters in your mouth
because you were chewing on the headboard. Don't ask me why." Ruth
stood, back in her human form, and brushed herself off.
"Oh. Well.... I guess that explains things pretty well,
doesn't it?" Dave replied. He then gave a start as he noticed the
glaring fact that he happened to be a wolf. "Hey, what gives? I thought
when I woke of it I'd be back to a human again! I'm not supposed to be
conscious as a wolf for another two transformations, wasn't that it?"
Ruth shrugged. "Sometimes these things happen. There's
some who don't become aware until their sixth or seventh transformation, and
some get it right away, though I'll admit that's about as rare as becoming aware
the second time around. Are you sure that was the first time something
like this happened?"
"Oh. Does this mean that I get to leave this bed now?" David's
tail started wagging, which was a new experience for him.
"Oh, I don't know. I suppose it's up to Doc." Ruth
replied, smiling sweetly.
"Come on, you can let me out of here, I won't do any harm! I
won't run away, I promise. I don't even know where we are!"
"Nope. Sorry- David, was it?" David nodded. "Well,
sorry David, but I can't just break the regulations around here. Gets me
in all sorts of trouble if I do that."
David groaned. Looked like he would be stuck until Doc
Wolf returned. To pass the time, he continued chatting with Ruth, who turned
out to be an interesting companion. She had Manifested a year ago, she
explained, but seeing as her father was a lycanthrope too, it had been anticipated,
and she was taken down to Doctor Derrydale immediately. It also turned
out that she was from around David's home town, and they spent some time reminiscing
about the way things had been, waiting patiently for Doc to get word that David
was indeed aware.
*************
Lydia lay buried in a pile of rubble
and swore. Her head was pounding, her HUD was broken, and her rail
gun seemed to be missing. She still had her crossbow, and fortunately,
her grenades were intact. As she thought bitterly about letting
another one get away, she became dimly aware of the rubble to her right
being shifted to the side. A shaft of light shot into the air space
where Lydia lay and a woman poked her head in with a slightly relieved,
slightly annoyed, look on her face.
"There you are. Good thing too, we were beginning to
think about worrying." said the woman in a sarcastic tone of voice. Her
brown hair was in a ponytail, and her wiry, athletic frame allowed her to squeeze
into the chamber and begin digging Lydia out of the rubble.
"Quiet Jo, we've got more important things to worry about
than my whereabouts. The boy escaped." Lydia spat out a bit of dust
in annoyance.
Jo looked shocked. "Really? I would have never
guessed, what with the glaring lack of lycanthrope in here. I thought you
had him stashed away!" She chuckled a bit at her joke. "Come on,
he's probably long gone by now. We'll have to look somewhere else than
this place." Jo suddenly remembered something. "Oh, and by the way,
you didn't happen to get an old android to kill this thing for you, did you?"
Lydia looked confused. "Huh? What are you talking
about? I don't use machines to do my job, and besides, do I look like I
have that kind of money?"
Jo adjusted her glasses and then nodded. "True. But
there was an android here, his remains are a couple blocks down. Looks
like he ran into some portable artillery. Wonder where he came from..." She
trailed off, deep in thought as to who would possibly have the resources to use
an android and, more importantly, who was walking around with mobile artillery.
Lydia glared upward at her partner. "Could you perhaps
stop daydreaming and finish digging me out of here?"
"Huh? Oh, sure." Jo worked steadily for the next
ten minutes with help from Lydia, who pitched in whenever she could. Finally,
she was able to stand, a little sore and stiff, but at least free.
"C'mon Lydia, we've got to get you back to HQ. Looks
like you need a new rifle." Jo supported her friend as best as she could
and the two worked their way out of the wreckage, Lydia grumbling to herself
all the way.
*************
Doc Wolf finally got the call of David's
unexpected awareness an hour later. Grumbling something about the
quality of help these days, he entered the room to find David and Ruth
in deep conversation with one another, David seemed puzzled about something.
But I don't understand, " the wolf-David insisted, "How could
you not have Manifested as a young child if you always had the virus? Wouldn't
you have done it at like, two weeks old?"
Ruth shook her head. "Nope. You have to be at
a certain level of maturity before the virus can take effect. One of those
weird things about it."
Doc coughed to get the two's attention. "Well, I see
that our young David has become aware... and a little earlier than expected. That's
splendid! I suppose we can take off those restraints now." The old
man moved to the bed and removed the straps securing David to the bed. David
slowly stood up with a grunt.
"Thanks Doc. Now, how about telling me where I am? Or
perhaps what I'm supposed to do now?" He gestured at his furry form. "And
just what am I supposed to make of all of this?"
"Well, if you remember anything, I told you, you'd remember
that I said you can switch back to your more human form at any time now that
you are aware. Just click your heels together and say 'there's no place
like home.'" Doc's face had a mischievous look on it. Ruth had a
hand over her face to keep from laughing too loud. David looked as annoyed
as a wolf man can expect to look in his lifetime.
"Very funny you two. Now how about telling me how I
really change back?"
"Simple, " the good doctor replied, "you just have to
concentrate on changing. I know that sounds weird to you, but if you concentrate
on the idea of changing back, you'll change back."
"Is that so?" David replied. "Ok, I'll give it a shot." David
closed his eyes and concentrated on changing back, visualizing the tail shrinking,
the nose shortening, the face in general becoming more like his black haired,
blue-eyed self had been. After a while, he opened his eyes and looked down,
pleased to see that he was indeed back to being a human, but also embarrassed
to see that he seemed to have ripped a hole in his shorts where the tail had
been. "Um.. heh heh... I don't suppose you keep a change of clothes handy,
do you?"
Ruth would have answered, but she was doubled up on the ground
roaring with laughter (and she actually was coming close to roaring, she had
changed to a wolf out of boredom while David reverted). Doc couldn't speak
either, but managed to point to a new set of clothing on the night-stand next
to the bed.
"T-ta-take those... hee hee hee.... I'm sure yo-hoo hoo- you'll
need 'em!" The doctor then dissolved in another fit of laughter.
David snatched the replacement clothing off of the dresser
and turned to Ruth and Doc. "Um... a little privacy here please? I
don't know you two that well yet."
"Oh, of course. Ruth, come along. Let's give young
David a chance to get himself a little more presentable and a little less holy." Doc
laughed at his own nonsensical pun and strode out of the room with Ruth following. David
muttered something to Doc that was probably best left unheard and set about changing
into the new clothes.
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