The voice forces Luna to turn and look towards the source, only to find out that it was the bald man she saw at the clearing earlier in the night, staring in through the window. At just that moment the back door explodes open with the enthralled bear snarling its way in and the shorter of the duo walking in right after it. Percy and Peggy both back away slowly, while Penn had no choice but let the huge creature a walk right by him.
“Good evening. I’m afraid you’ll have to pardon the intrusion but we’re here on some business.” Dwayne says, walking up next to the bear’s head and patting it softly. Austin comes in a moment later with a huge grin plastered on his face, gesturing towards Luna.
“Oooh. They’ve got a Terran tainted with them. I think...I think it’s that girl we saw. The dead one?”
Dwayne turns to look at Luna and nods slowly. “Why yes, I think you are quite right brother. Same blood. Same clothes. Same stench. Though her eyes are different. You picked a terrible night to embrace the gift, Terran.”
“Terran...what? What do you guys even want?” Luna says, stepping in front of Penn’s slowly retreating form.
Dwayne smiles smugly. “Well you see, we were out doing our Master’s bidding when suddenly, two children decided to lay their eyes upon things that need not be seen by the likes of filth, such as yourselves. Our new pet needed some nourishment, and while she was quite successful in maiming one of the children, the other one decided to shoot at her quite viciously.” He points to a few bullet wounds present in the bear’s fur, though only one of them was still actively bleeding.
Dwayne continues. “And that simply won’t do. We’re here to extend to you wonderful chance to learn some proper manners for your betters...and clean up whatever mess we make.”
Austin cracks his knuckles to accentuate the point, a flickering white and blue flame engulfing his hand.
Penn, who had slowly been backing away all this time, finally loses his composure, panicking and darting towards the hallway door in a rush. Austin smiles and easily takes aim, tossing a basketball-sized ball of flame directly at Penn, striking him in the head. Penn screams and holds his hands up over his scalp, trying to put the fire out, but the immolation would not cease. Luna gasps as she watches Penn convulse and twist in agony, the attack hitting him mid-stride. Penn slams into the ground limply as Peggy shrieks again, holding a hand out to her fallen husband. Percy stands perfectly still as he watches the blue flames eventually die out after a few seconds, leaving his father’s head surprisingly unburned. Percy thought for a moment that his dad might have survived the attack, but as soon as the flames cleared off of his face, the truth was laid bare. Penn’s pupils were non-existent, leaving his eyeballs blank and featureless. His mouth hung open, and smoke poured out from between his teeth and his mouth.
“Oh my god. Oh my god! Oh my god, Penn! Sweetie, wake up!” Peggy cried, starting to scramble to the fallen man’s side.
Austin starts to take aim at Peggy as she rushes forward, but Luna reacts first, punching Austin directly in the face and sending the fireball flying up into the ceiling. The blue fire disperses, but in its place, a familiar orange fire starts licking at the roof of the room. Austin is sent across the kitchen, rolling to his feet and wiping a small bit of blood from his face in a practiced manner.
“Oooh...someone’s got a nice jab there. Care to try that again, princess?”
Dwayne turns towards his friend and shakes his head. “I think I have a better idea. Get the others. I’ll handle the Terran.”
He leans over and whispers into the bear’s ear in the same manner he had before.
“Kill Terran...Eat.”
The bear reacts immediately, charging towards a surprised Luna. She saw Austin advance towards both grieving Peggy and the frozen Percy and wanted to help but the bear slams into Luna’s torso, sending them both into the hallway and shattering the door between the two into splinters. Luna digs her feet into the floor and grabs the bear’s head, her clawed toes tearing into the lush carpet to slow the creature. It took a significant amount of effort, but she halts the ursine, straining all of her muscles to hold the bear from pushing her through the front door. The sounds of the struggle from the kitchen were quite violent, with the sounds of a heavy tussle and the shattering of glass and ceramic.
Unable to make any more progress, the ursine reaches down and bites Luna in the thigh, easily puncturing it and forcing a howl of pain from the werewolf. She returns the favor by savagely slashing the creature across the face and nose, which prompts it to toss Luna, back first, through a solid wall and into the living room. She keeps upright even with the bite and lands with a slide on her feet, though her back slams into the glass panel TV, shattering it beyond any recognition.
The pain was immense coming from Luna’s leg, but her adrenaline flowing through her now. The bear charges again, but this time the werewolf is ready, driving her fist forward in a right hook that picked the bear’s upper body off of the ground for a moment and forcing it to slow down. The ursine takes a moment to stand up now, roaring at Luna and swiping a heavy paw towards her face. The werewolf brings her hands up to block, and whereas a few short hours ago the blow would have broken bones, here she absorbs the momentum of the attack entirely. It certainly did still hurt, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t take again.
Luna takes the opportunity to bring her fist as far back as she could and drive it home in a powerful haymaker, striking the creature in the chest. The bear rockets back, crashing through not only the wall in the living room but going across the hallway, hitting a second wall before finally stopping on a grand piano, shattering the instrument in a cacophony of mashed musical notes. Luna looks at her fist and flexes fingers, a smile creeping up on her muzzle. Her tail wags a little bit.
“This...gives me an idea.” She whispers to herself.
The bear’s dazed for a moment as it picks itself up and shakes off any lingering dizziness with a grunt. Looking back up towards it’s marked prey, the ursine charges again but confidence surges through Luna. She charges forward, meeting the bear halfway. She grips her arms around the bear’s neck and digs her feet in again, halting the charge more effectively than she did before. As soon as the momentum is canceled, she hefts the bear up over her head and then falls back, body slamming the bear into the ground, back first. The creature hits the ground so hard that the floor of the home utterly fails, the middle of it opening up and the casting the both of them and nearly all of the furniture in the room down into the basement.
Lights flicker on and off upstairs as Luna lands hard on her back, still clutching the bear’s head absentmindedly. When she turns to look at her opponent, the bear’s eyes are closed, and its tongue lolled out of its mouth unconsciously. She stiffly gets up from lying prone and pushes away Penn’s loveseat that had conveniently landed on her side and brushes of the debris of what was once a rather fancy television off of her lap. The smell of smoke twisted the air, even down here, as looking back up through the hole she’d made saw the ceiling covered in it. She races to the stairs and rushes up them, looking back towards the kitchen where she left the group earlier. Her leg is starting to throb now, but there was little choice but to ignore it.
Luna holds her head below the smoke cover on the ceiling as she heads into the kitchen and freezes solid at what she sees. The once quaint kitchen was in shambles, with multiple appliances shattered, the fridge dented and fire engulfing the entire top half of the room. Peggy was in the nook, in the shattered remains of her table, coughing painfully. Percy was fighting Austin to the best of his ability, but the much stronger male had very little problem handling him. Percy throws heavy blow after blow, with Austin toying with him either smacking the fist aside or dodging it outright.
Luna steps in to try to help her sibling, but a kitchen knife cuts her off, flying right past her chest and missing stabbing her by a mere inch or two. The smaller man grunts as his sneak attack failed, having jumped the gun by mere milliseconds. The werewolf turns towards Dwayne and swings a meaty punch towards him, but the smaller man nimbly dodges to the side and switches knife hands. The male charges, swinging his knife brazenly but Luna steps into the kitchen proper and front of the kitchen cabinets. Dwayne flips the blade around in his hand expertly before coming at her, swinging his knife several times in quick succession. Luna keeps backing up from each swing, though she passes by one of cabinet doors hanging off of its hinge by an edge.
She rips it off the hinges and brings it down in front of her, prompting Dwayne to laugh in jest.
“What are you going to do with that, use it as a shield? I’ll cut right through it, you idiot!”
Dwayne swings his knife in several slicing motions, making Luna physically back up for each one until her back hit a wall. No more room to retreat. Seizing this opportunity, Dwyane stabs his knife forward, aiming for the werewolf’s midsection. Luna puts the cabinet door in his way and forces it forward so that his hand painfully crashes through it, filling it with splinters almost immediately.
“That was the idea, yes.”
Without warning Luna spins the small door around Dwayne’s wrist, filling it with even more splinters and causing a sickening *SNAP* of bone giving way. The man cries out as he drops the knife and brings his other hand to it to brace the injury, but Luna wasn't done yet. She takes a step forward, raises her foot and plants it firmly in Dwayne’s chest, kicking him hard enough that he flies out of the back door and disappears into the night, darkness enveloping him.
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She looks over towards Percy and Austin, the latter having the former in a devastating choke hold. Austin’s focus is directly on the younger man, taunting him with a gravelly yet jesting tone.
“C’mon you little punk. Is that really the best you got? God, I can’t stand filth like you and your terran bitch. So...weak.”
Luna steps in from behind, tapping Austin on the shoulder. Just as soon as he turns around, Luna punches him in the face a second time, forcing the man to drop the hold on Percy. He impacts the floor and slides a few feet on his butt, wiping away more blood from the hit.
Luna flexes her fingers in return, staring at Austin’s bruised face. “If I’m so weak, then why are you the one on the ground? Again?” Luna turns an eye back to her sibling. “And Percy?”
The aforementioned had been regaining his breath and turned towards Luna when he was called.
“Save your mom. Hurry.”
Percy nods as Austin finally picks himself up and screams like a berserker, the muscles and veins in his neck bulging. He drives himself forward and starts to throw a punch towards Luna’s face, but right before it hits, he switches hands and drives a fist directly into Luna’s sore belly. She howls in pain as the fist strikes the weak spot, nearly bringing the werewolf to her knees. She fights through the pain as another fist catches her in the chin, lifting her off of the ground by a few inches. Austin steps forward for a strong shot to her midsection, but the Luna brings up a hand to catch the punch by the wrist and stop it just short of striking her.
Percy runs to his mom’s side as the flames engulf not only the kitchen but the entire house. The smoke was getting so thick that was reaching down to head height now. A fire-rotten wooden beam slams into the ground right next to Percy and Peggy, obscuring them from view. Percy shudders as he reaches down to grab his mother by the arms, trying desperately to get her to move.
“Mom! Mom get up! C’mon, please get up!”
Luna steps out to the side and swings her opponent around her, throwing Austin against an empty wall next to the back door, impacting it hard enough to put a significant dent in it, cracking multiple pieces of tile. Austin’s face darkens briefly as he tries to regain his posture, looking up towards the werewolf that was now charging him. He takes the shoulder charge that sends the both of them through the side of the house and out into the backyard by several dozen feet.
Luna lands on Austin with a heavy *WHUMPF* of impact as they hit the snow, tumbling away to get a good look at the burning home she was just in. Flames tear through nearly every inch of it now, illuminating the snowfall of the evening eerily. A major shift in the foundation of the house causes part of it to crumble and sink, with the sound of crushed glass, wood and metal piercing the air. Luna turns back to look at Austin who gets up like a man several times his age, only to see Dwayne joining his brother at his side. His broken wrist hangs limply from his right hand, the man using his left hand to draw that bloody ceremonial dagger out. He holds it high in the sky and calls out over the roar of the flames engulfing Luna’s childhood home. The eyes of the small skull embedded into the hilt of the dagger glow orange with power.
“Servant to my master! Obey me through death and damnation, and smite my enemy! Heed my call!”
Even through the flames, Luna could hear something roar and start to claw its way through the collapsing wreckage of the house. A dull throb of pain in her leg latches ahold of Luna’s attention. The bear bite from earlier was looking quite bad now, with quite a bit of blood running down her leg and occasionally dripping into the snow, dying it pink. It was also sore as all hell, similar to her stomach’s tenderness.
The bear charges through the back of the burning house, half of its body wreathed utterly in flames. Austin’s holds out his hand towards Luna and channels that blue-ish white fire back into it, throwing another bolt towards her. The werewolf pivots and runs into the forest for the second time tonight, the spirit fire hitting the tree where she was not seconds before and setting it ablaze. Fire truck sirens blare off in the distance as they close in on the remains of the Oswald home. After patting flames on the bear off, both Austin and Dwayne hop onto her back and press it forward, heading in the direction Luna went.
Luna manages to keep a speed above walking for some time, but anytime she dared to veer too far in any one direction, the advancing sounds of a large animal walking nearby would push her away. Her hearing had come up quite a ways thanks to the transformation, able to pick up on sounds far before she could see them. She trudged through the snowy forest for what seemed like an eternity, tiptoeing over fallen logs, avoiding ice-slicked rocks and even sidestepping a few noticeable dips in the terrain. Eventually, the snow-crunching of her pursuers started to ease away, as nothing seemed to get over the sounds of her frazzled panting. The silence of the cold forest comforted her ears.
The further she progressed, the more the pain in her leg started to become a problem, slowing her down noticeably. It didn’t help that the flatness of the region began to lean into an incline, requiring more effort be spent traversing it. It isn’t so steep that it had to be climbed rather than walked, but certainly a not making it any easier. The snow continues to fall as thickly as it had when she walked home, severely limiting her field of view. Luna wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d last seen her home but the sirens had stopped, and the glow of the burning home had long since left her.
More exhausted than she thought possible, Luna finds a sturdy tree to lean her back on and slides down to sit at its base. The panting she was doing earlier starts to slow as she takes a moment to look at the wounds in her leg. After all this time the blood had at least congealed a little bit, but the blood stained her fur so darkly didn’t show much sign of stopping. She also couldn’t move that leg very well, the entire limb feeling numb and cold. Luna reaches towards one of her tattered sleeves, ripping off a few long strips from it and leaning over to grab her leg. She creates a makeshift bandage to help stem the blood loss. She only had a rough idea about bandage making, but it did look a lot better without her seeing what the inside of her leg looked like.
With just that small moment rest, the hunters had caught up to her, even getting close enough to get sight upon her. Austin starts chucking multiple balls of fire at her, forcing the werewolf to get up and move quickly to avoid being hit. If it managed to kill Penn in one shot, there was little question at how deadly it was. Not seeing any other way to run, she sprints up the hill as best as she can until she hits it’s crest and looks down to see a sheer cliff.
Although the place is a fantastic vista point to see the city’s skyline and the various twinkling lights that made up the power grid, the declining side of the hill is much steeper. There were a few bits of foliage dotting it, but for the most part, it was all snow and a few rocks nestled in there. It’d be walkable to the sure-footed but it may as well been a purely vertical wall to Luna. A highway rests at the bottom of the slope, the slick roads being inadvisable to travel at this time of night.
Luna turns back towards the mounted men, backing one last step towards the edge of the cliff, a stiff wind blowing into her back. Austin holds his hand out towards her with the flames still raring to go. Dwayne speaks first, his hand still clutching the splintered, bloody mess that had once been his other hand.
“Finally...there’s nowhere to run terran. I will take great pleasure in hearing your screams as my brother burns your very soul to ashes.”
Austin flames grow more intense as he pants with exhaustion, but that same wild grin he had at the house had reappeared. The anticipation of the kill getting the better of him as the flames continue to grow. Luna looks up towards him and his flame and takes one more step back, putting her feet on the very edge.
“Do it, brother!” Dwayne exclaims. “Do it now!”
Luna leans back as the fireball is thrown towards her, the flames managing to singe a few of her whiskers. She falls over the edge of the cliff head first and turns to face the bitter embrace of the snow cliff beneath her. The slope’s angle didn’t leave her falling for long as she impacts it on her back, rolling down it at a very rapid pace. The werewolf bounces off the occasional hidden rock with a bark of pain as she rolls but surprisingly the small bushes that were present were quite soft to roll over. Eventually, she starts to right herself midway down the slope and looks up to see the men and their bear watch her fall and look to be unwilling to chase her further.
She turns back towards her rapid descent down the steep cliff, now gaining enough speed to where hitting a rock would guarantee some serious damage. Thankfully she finally hits the end of the cliff and hits the highway, though the ice-slicked road didn’t do her any favors in trying to slow down. She braces herself as she slides over the highway and flies through the thin metal barrier on the edge and heads and out over the city. She sprials her arms to try to regain some semblance of balance in the air, but she’s heading straight for a much lower highway.
There was a tree she was headed towards, and if there were ever a time to want to hug a tree instead of pavement, this would have been it. Unfortunately, as she looks to the side, a Nova Corp semi-truck is speeding straight towards her, threatening to cut her off. The truck is going a little too fast for that as she hits the top of the semi-trailer and skids off of it, missing her precious tree. Once she had cleared that, there were no more highways to land on and no more land to hope for. Luna whines as nothing but the tops of buildings are rapidly approaching her with no soft landing in sight. This was going to hurt. She nervously laughs to herself as she plummets, letting the whirl of wind and snow take her to it's final conclusion.
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A maroon SUV plows through the streets for the second time this evening, the snow being high enough now that no amount of safe driving was going to prevent sliding. Still though, the vehicle manages, mostly due to the lack of competition. Inside of the driver’s seat Miguel sits, reclining back with one hand on the steering wheel, his other propped against his head. A disappointed look darkens his facial features as his mind churns over tonight’s events.
He knew that the situation that caused all of his troubles was fishy, and now he had definitive proof. Carl was a good man, a man Miguel would have gladly taken a bullet for back in the day. Hell, he was his best man for his wedding after he returned from the military. The fact that he’d not only suddenly move up the ranks like that and then deny the actual story of what happened was...scary. Whoever was responsible for this had their hands around the police department’s throat, only waiting for the right moment to squeeze.
Miguel presses his foot down gently on the brakes, letting his car roll to a stop at a red light. A deep sigh escapes his lips. Not having a job meant that money was going to get really tough. He had a little bit saved up from his previous employer, but even with their help, the hospital bills were immense. Not to mention the meds and the equipment needed to keep his arm and legs in proper working order. Rent and utilities were paid up for a few months, which could possibly buy enough time until he landed some sort of stable work.
Miguel leans his head forward to get a better look at the lengthy red light, raising a brow in annoyance. “I live right around the corner, could we speed this up just a little?”
He leaps back in his seat violently when a fuzzy body crashes into his car’s hood and smashes it out of shape, the windshield bowing inwards to help absorb the weight. Multiple webs of spider line cracks erupt throughout the glass, rendering the bottom half of it impossible to see through. The suspension buckles for a moment, the entire car leaning forward before landing back comfortably on its wheels. The SUV’s airbags explode into Miguel’s body, obstructing his vision for a few seconds. The man’s jaw hits the floor for a moment before he stumbles out of his car, still trying to register what in the hell just happened.
He stands astonished at the sight of an unconscious werewolf draped over his car like a woman at an auto show. Though in this case, this is decidedly more bloody...and a lot less desirable. She was laying sideways, Her feet hanging off the left side of the car, while her head dangles off from the right. Miguel hesitantly reaches down with two fingers from his right hand to press against Luna’s jugular. A pulse is present but beats somewhat weakly. He raises the same hand to his face, palming it and massaging his features in aggravation.
Miguel looks around from side to side for any kind of explanation, but there was no easy one. Nobody seemed to be around, there was nothing overhead, and for all intents and purposes, this was just a really early Christmas morning. He starts to gingerly move the monster lady off of his car until he realized that she seemed to be hurt. The poorly wrapped bandage on her leg was starting to fall off, and blood began to seep out of her wound. Miguel also spots some blood on her shirt and starts to assume the worst, but she doesn’t seem to have any around her mouth and only a very minimal amount around her claws. An extremely ginger finger reaches up to Luna’s elongated canines and pushes up her lip. Her teeth were in nearly perfect condition; no blood there either.
Miguel ponders internally. With only the only blood on her being from her wounded leg and a tiny bit on one of her hands and none on her mouth, it was safe to assume that she hadn’t been biting or eating anyone recently. Even so, she was still a werewolf, straight out of some sort of monster movie. What was she doing? What would she be like when she wakes up? Hell, she might not even wake up if she continues to bleed like this. And who knows what might happen if she’s just slung to the ground for the next random joe to find? They could and likely would kill her...or maybe even build a media circus around it.
Miguel gives a heavy sigh and reaches forward to scoop the unconscious Luna off of his car.
“What a strange place to find a box of free puppies. Ugh, twist my arm why don’t you? If you were a cat though, I’d pass you right on by.”
Miguel carries her around to the back of his car and pops the back door, laying the werewolf down within it. He takes a moment to wrap her tightly in a wool blanket for warmth and closes the back of his car up. After a failed attempt at restarting his car, Miguel sighs and digs his feet into the snow, pushing his car down the road.
“...My lucky day.”