NationStates Jolt Archive

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Antarctica, Amundson-Scott Station, South Pole, 90°00’00” S, 00°00’00”:

“David, where are you?” came the call over the radio.

Inside the skylab, the raised tower situated close to the Dome, a wiry man grabbed his radio and spoke into it. “DeSalle. I’m up in the box tuning the readers. They’ve been showing abnormal fluctuations, so I’m ensuring that they’re picking up what I want them to pick up. What do you need, Greg?”

“You’re a spaz, my friend. Hey, guys are getting together for poker at about 2100. You in?”

“Where?”

“Western Lounge. Buy in is trash duty for a fellow for a week.”

“Maybe,” came DeSalle’s reply. He was busy observing the needle on his readout. It matched up with the energy levels that the static emitter was set to. His sensors were calibrated properly. He decided to go out to the ceremonial stick and see if they picked up differently. Climbing through the tunnels wasn’t a problem for him, as he was rather wiry, and he was thankful for the darkness as it didn't require the uncomfartable eyewear worn during the Southern Summer.

“David, you sure you calibrated your sensors?”

“Yeah, why?”

“About two seconds ago the needles started dancing, your recorder activated, and Joey’s telling me that the Exosphere Geiger counters are going up like crazyyy…” That was the last DeSalle heard. He felt a sudden impact, as if being thrown into the water in full snow gear, sank to the ground, then blacked out.

Later

“David, yo, Davie?” David opened his eyes to find himself in the med ward, Greg’s face hovering to the left side of his vision.

“Wh-what happened to me?”

“I was hoping that you could tell me, my friend,” came Greg’s reply.

“Let’s see, I remember adjusting the sensors up in the tower, then you came on asking me to poker. After that, I, I, uh, I went out, I was gonna check my instruments from the pole line, and then you came on.” Realization dawned on David. “The Exosphere Geigers, you said they were clicking away. I must have been caught in something. What was it?” His voice was edgy.

“We don’t know. It ended just as soon as Willie and Karen were able to suit up and get you inside. But you seem fine. Here, follow the light,” Greg said, turning on his doctor’s pen light. After watching David’s responses perform fully, he did sense tests and then a limited motor test. David was able to feel everything, and even had the strength to raise his arms. “Well, you still seem to have your brain functioning. We’ll have to do a blood work, and probably a stress test, but for now I think that you’re out of immediate danger.”

David nodded, but as Greg was leaving, he called out to him, “Greg, my tests, you said the autorecorder started up, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I want to see the printouts. Something that I can do while I’m laid up.”

“Sure,” responded Greg. “Knowing you, it’d probably be less stress on you.”

An hour later, David had the printouts laid out on his lap. He went through the charts, studying each one, taking notes as he did. Little did he realize what had happened, the potential that it had.

Summerlin Family feared lost in Plane Crash

Nathan Kyle of Kyle Realty and his wife and daugher are feared dead as their private plane crashed in the remote region of India last week. Nathan and Jennifer Kyle took an overseas vacation to celebrate their adopted daughter's recent High School Graduation as well as her birthday.

The last reported message indicated some instrumentation problems just before the plane dropped off of the radar...

---

Bodies recovered from Plane Crash

India: the remains of a plane that was lost 4 months earlier was found. the bodies of the crew and two adults were recovered... missing is the third listed passenger, a teenager, the daughter of Realty Mogal Nathan Kyle. Haruka, who turned 19 shortly before the ill fated trip may, infact, still be alive. Investigators at the crash site informed US officals that there is evidence that someone did infact walk away from the crash. Officals have begun searching the heavily wooded area for any signs of her survival.

Haruka Kyle was adopted by the Late Nathan and Jennifer when they visted Japan in the mid 80's...

---

Heir to Kyle Fortune Found.

India: after a month of intense searching, the Heiress to the Kyle name was found. Searchers found the young woman in the jungle, and brought her safely to Delhi where she stayed at the US Embassy. she has been medically cleared and will be flying home to the States.

Her seemingly fit and unharmed status brought many questions as to how she survived for almost six months in the jungles of India without being detected nor seriously harmed...

---

Kyle Heiress returns home.

Las Vegas, Nevada - Lost child Haruka Kyle returned home today. Reluctant to speak to reporters about her ordeal, she simply stated that "It's good to be home" before being driven off by her family's staff.

Nathan Kyle, a son of Las Vegas gave so much to this city, including several housing projects that continued on dispite the tragedy with the support of close friends to the Kyles. "We know that this is what Nathan wanted, so we wanted to make sure it was completed." said close family friend Frank...

Seattle...

Dave was out in the woods alone. He was on a hunting trip. He needed time to set things straight. His best friend had just died in a motor accident. Dave was distraught. So he came out to the woods to hunt and get his thoughts together. He looked far away to see a group of deer. They were far away. However, Dave didn't care if he killed any. He just needed to let of steam. Suddenly the deer ran. Something must have scared them. Dave aimed his rifle. Suddenly, he had a clear shot of a deer's kill zone. It was so easy to hit. He fired. The deer went down. He then noticed how far away it was. He hit a small spot on a deer from an incredible distance. He walked over to the carcass. When he got there, he found what scared the deer. A bear. It saw Dave. It must have assumed he was a threat, because it charged. Before Dave could react, it raised it's paw to strike. Dave covered his face and prepared for the blow. But nothing happened. He looked to see the bear frozen. He looked around, everyting stopped. He grabbed his rifle and fired at the bear, point blank in the face. Nothing happened. Then, suddenly, everything started moving, and the bear collapsed. Dave slowly backed away, then ran to try and figure out what had just happened.


New York...

A young man ran thorugh the streets of New York. He looked like one of the Ramones, and loved it when people told him that. However, he was to busy. The police wear after him. He didn't even know what yhe did. It could have been nothing, but judging by their faces it was something. He had a habit of running from the police. This time they were catching up. He criss crossed through the alleys and streets. He could hear the police shouting at him to stop. Suddenly, everything was a blur. He could see things in front of him, but he turned and went passed them. He stopped. He looked around. When he realized he was incredibly far away from were he ogirinally was. He smiled. Getting away from the police now was going to be a snap.



A small suburb outside of Los Angeles...

Late at night, a man walked out of a radio station. He had just finished his program on the station. He was a blatant anit-cpaitalist, and used his show to try and spread the word about the evils of it. He got into his car and started drving. He was tired, and his eyes often closed for a few seconds. When he opened them, he saw he had wound up in the other lane, and a truck was right in front of him. He closed his eyes, ready to die. He heard the impact. He felt nothing. He opened his eyes. There was blood and wreckage everywhere, but he did not have a scath on him. He was under the debris of the truck. He put his hand up, an without any effort, he lifted the massive hunk of metal and tossed it away. He was amazed. He smiled. He had been given some sort of gift. Now he had to use it.



A man was walking through the city. He had no idea where he was. He was cold as well. He was looking fro some food that he could get his hands on. Hwever, his search was fruitless. He saw an old trash can. Although he didn't look like it, he was a bum. He walked over to the trash can and saw plenty of combustable things in therw. He grabbed a match he had and treid to satrt a fire. But the match blew out. He cursed angrily, and grabbed a newspaper angrily, thrashing around. Then, the paper caught on fire. He threw it into the can, which became a fire. He was amazed. Morover, he wasn'y hurt from the encounter.

"DeSalle, are you sure about this?"

DeSalle didn't even turn from packing his bags. It had been a week since he was laid out on the ice. He had his data from the time. He hadn't been counting on any noticeable effects on humans, mostly expecting technical applications, but the medical risk was now present. He had to get back to Houston to run the results, as the processing power wasn't high enough down here, and the material was simply too sensitive to transmit over the air. "I don't have a choice. Besides, I've completed my year's tour, so I get my medal anyways. But I've talked with Geralds, and he wants me back in the States so that I can use our taxpayers' dollars to figure out just what happened."

"Do you when you'll be back?"

"No, but after the year I've had, I can't expect to be back till next summer. See you in November."

NASA Headquarters, Houston, Texas:

DeSalle had been here for three weeks, going over the past year's readouts. The charts measured solar activity on certain wavelengths, ones that until now spiked very rarely. Now he was in a meeting with various directors, overssers, and other project scientists.

"Okay, now, Dr. DeSalle, we'd like to review your data on this past year's solar activities that you were monitoring. What can you tell us?"

"I'll be very blunt, gentlemen, and that I can't say anything definitively as of now. I was basically given a large grant to go find out how our mess in the Ozone Layer above Antarctica was cleaning up, and to use the opportunity to develop additional methods for measuring the environmental impact that we have had in this particualr area. By sheer accident, I was able to calibrate my EM spectrometers to specific frequencies very rarely seen. However, over the course of the year, I noticed that there were a number of spikes in activity that coincided with the flare-ups that occurred this year.

"As Dr. Raynsson noted, these flare-ups were hard to monitor due to the fact that they scrambled instruments tha normally track these events. Despite this, I was able to maintain relatively steady observations, though the initial readings were so surprising I didn't trust them at first. I believe that these were sporadic burst that must be attributed to some as of yet unknown phenomona. Despite our nuclear degrees, we must all admit that our knowledge of solar fusion is inherently shallow. The inherent entropy of a star means that I'm still cross referencing markers to try to find a link, a feat surprisingly difficult given the amount of information that I collected and that Dr. Raynsson gave to me after being transferred to that glorious department called Spacewalking." This ellicited a slight chuckle.

"Well," said the director, "that's what Congress gives us money for. If you don't get anything over the next couple of months, get yourself a team of graduate students and have them take care of it." This gathered significant laughter from the various researchers. DeSalle kept quite about one fact that he had stumbled upon. His bloodwork was initially normal. But he did a self test two days ago and found increased protein levels, though what for he had yet to determine.

Billy Chamberlain walked back into his house. He had returned from a successful hit. He walked in to the sound of some strange funk music he had never heard. He looked around to see Anthony Smith sitting Indian style on the floor. He was not wearing a shirt, and all of his bizarre tattoos were showing. He was injecting heroine into his arm. He looked up, completely high, but he could still recongnize Billy. "How was the hit?" Billy smiled. "Fine. Where's Tre?" Anthony didn't answer. Billy walked away and found Tre. He was resting. "Another successful hit." Tre smiled. "Cool. Now we just have to wait for next offer."

"I'm very curious as to what you did out there in the jungle." Emily sipped her coke as she and Hari sat at the food court, eating lunch.

"no... nothing special... ate roots, slept in the trees... just tried to stay alive." Hari bit into her garden burger and grimaced. "this dosn't taste the same, did they change the brand?"

"No, don't think so..." Emily peered at Hari... "maybe it's your eating habits that changed," then she grinned. "Wanna bite of mine to make sure?" Emily motioned to her chicken burger.

"bleh... no thanks... I didn't change that much you know." Hari chuckled as she took another bite from her burger.

"This is really awful now..." Hari again grimmaced and began munching on her fries.

"here, have mine as well." Emily pushed her fries towards her friend.

...

"... I wonder... did I really change out there?"
"what do you mean Hari?"
"everything... now seems brighter... louder..." she wrinkles her nose, "Smellier."
"you were alone out there... I guess your perceptions of things would change... but you haven't." Emily looks at her watch... "well, let's get going, you need a new wardrobe and we can't do that sitting here."

the two finished their lunch and headed deeper into the mall.

"...and we have recent reports of new information of this past year's electronic blackouts. NASA researchers have stated that they recently identified streams of high oscillation frequencies whose spradic actions were the cause of the major electronic interference.

"Dr. David DeSalle, recently returned from a thirteen month trip at the Amundson-Scott station at the South Pole, released a preliminary report to NASA directors stating that EM emissions from the sun had been highly sporadic during this past year, noting striking regularities between between emissions recordings and the reported failures of communications and other high tech electronic equipment. He was able to identify certain low end frequencies that his colleague, Dr. Harold Raynsson, a NASA engineer, was able to identify as being responsible for knocking out satellite feeds. NASA is preparing a preliminary findings and research objectives report for members of Congr..." The TV cut out. A man picked up his phone, and made a call.

"Joe, it's me. I need some guys." A pause, then, "No, nothing big, snatch and grab, discreet, reliable." He wrote down a series of digits. "Thanks."

He clicked off the phone, then dialed the number he just worte down. The phone in Bill Chamberlain's abode began to ring. When it was answered by an unidentified voice, The man on the other end of the line started as he had been advised. "Joseph gave me this connection number. I have work for you."

Entering the lobby of the research lab he was working at, a backpack on one shoulder and a mug of strange brew in hand, Ian waved to Mack, the nightshift secruity guard.
"Hey Ian, working late?"
"Yep, need to check on a few tests, access some of the files, normal stuff."
"Still drinking that noxious mix?" Mack asked, refering to Ian's preference for a wierd combination of teas, hot-chocolate, instant coffee and kool-aids.
"Of course." Ian replied as he slid his passcard through the reader and entered the first part of the lab.

After marking his arrival time, changing and first-stage decon, he headed up deeper into the facility and into the more hostile areas. Finally arriving at the actual labratory, and passing through another three levels of decontamination, he set to work on his post-grad research.

As Ian Willows was working, another group was getting ready outside the lab. They had a much more 'sinister' agenda, thought from thier perspective, the lab and its parent company were the evil ones. They were a radical organisation that held the beliefs that tampering with nature was evil and that was precisely what was happening in the facility.

Entering through a door a 'careless' janitor had left open, they planted thier explosives and left. When the bombs detonated, the labs sealed themselves hermatically preventing exit of any microbes, virii or other things used in the experiments. All sorts of toxic substances were released by the shockwave of the bombs.

Ian dashed to the hazmat suits as the sirens went off, only to find the last scientists to use them had forgotten to put the suits away. Feeling a wave of hopelessness, Ian passed out while the substances went to work on him.

Three Days Later

The hazmat teams broke the innermost seal, while the others were active as they began spraying the decon fluid everywhere to continue the process of cleaning up the accident. After finishing they headed out, the last one thinking he felt something brush up against him but as there was nothing there, he dismissed it as nerves.

Four Days Later

Ian's brain kicked in as he was about to take a bite of a butchered and fresh rabbit. Panicing he began running as if the hounds of hell were after him, wondering what had happened and why he was eating raw rabbit. In his blind panic Ian ran off a cliff. The shock of seeing all the emptiness jolted him back to his senses and he began trying to flap in a desperate and ultimately fruitful attempt to fly. His arms spread out and elongated into proto-wings enabling him to glide to the ground. Landing, he noticed the physiological changes and began trying to figure out what the hell had happened to him.

Two Weeks After Accident

It had taken Ian a little under a week to make his way back to the city he'd lived in since birth, and a very interesting week it had been. When a nerd-type woke with a muscles in places he hadn't known, outside of textbooks, he had it triggered all sorts of alarm bells. The fact that he now had patches of crimson and black that had a tendency to migrate at times had caused Ian to break down as well.

As he travelled he tried to put the situation together and kept coming up more or less blank. The last memories he'd had should have spelt his nigh-immediate death but somehow he'd pulled through and gained incredible powers beside.

Only the day before arriving in the city Ian found a method to compel his body into a form that would not get him both arrested and likely carted of to a labratory to spend the rest of his life under scalple and microscope.

***********************************

"Dad, I'm going for a walk." Michelle called out as she headed out of her house. Her father was a member of the, relatively, new breed of house-husband and her mother was a lawyer.
"Alright, dinner will be at six." He called back, inwardly relieved that she seemed to be getting over losing her precious violin. She'd taken its destruction, refusing to leave her room for over a week, missing her own birthday. Had he known her true reasons, he'd have never let her out of her room.

Michelle's reasons were much more morbid, and planned fatal. The bridge she was headed to was the location for the most numerous suicides in the state. Walking down the street, she noticed a strange flickering sign that was vaguely hypnotic. Her feet seeming to take over, she entered the strange show.

It was a musty, slightly smokey shop filled with many strange pieces of bric-a-brac and oddities. She passed something that appeared to be a dessicated monkey's paw, a couple smokey bottles, any number of books with spidery text in odd languages along the spine, a bottled brain and other things. As she wandered, she spotted a violin case and made her way straight to it.

Taking the instrument from its case, she felt a strange hum seemingly coming from the violin itself. She immediately knew that she had to have it and, after returning it to the case, took them both to the counter where a wizen little man sat smoking a strange pipe.

"I must have this. How much is it?"
"For you, free."
"Free?"
"Of course, it has chosen you and that is it."
"Thank you." She replied before departing before the strange man could change his mind.

Reaching the end of the street, she looked back for a second and noticed the sign didn't seem to be there any more. Little things like an appearently disappearing store didn't hold much interest when she could play her new violin.

She arrived in the park and opened the case, a few sheets of paper falling out. Looking at them, she realized it appeared to be a variation on Tartini's Violin Sonata in G minor, otherwise known as the Devil's Trill. Propping the pages up on a branch that was decently illuminated, she began to play.

As the notes flew from the bow in a hauntingly beautiful melody, a man seemed to appear before her. The man was garbed in a black, perfectly tailored suit, with two faint horns jutting out of his head while a faint odor of brimstone filled the air. Lifting a bow and violin to his own shoulder, he joined in the melody and she realized that the legend about the birth of the Sonata was not just a legend.

She was playing the true Devil's Trill with entity of the same name, and beyond that felt the power she'd felt in the violin entering her.

Before Michelle realized, the sun was breaking the over the horizon and people were starting to begin the hustle and bustle of the day. Returning home, she was confronted by her worried father and with a guarantee that she was fine and had needed the time to get her thoughts in order, she grabbed a slice of toast liberally smeared with honey and her backpack and headed to school.

The day passed more or less normally until the second last period that was music class. While the teacher had been about to suggest perhaps another activity might occupy her time better the fact that she had a new instrument put that to rest.

After warming up and they began practicing, she soon noticed she was the only one playing. Looking around at her classmates and teacher the sight of glassy-eyed oblivion met her. Almost as a lark she said that they should all stand and was surprised to find they did so. Realizing that she'd put them into a trance, Michelle had them do some silly things till class ended and in classic hypnotist fashion woke them up as she made up her mind to see if she could figure out if certain songs had certain effects of if it were her will that caused it in conjunction with the music.

“No, please, go ahead” Haruka spoke to Richard and Paulette, her ‘staff’. Richard, a large man did the general maintenance around the house, kept the grounds, and also served as her driver (tho Haruka preferred to drive herself) and Butler (also, something that Haruka would preferred to do herself… she always thought it silly to have someone just to answer the door and phone and to fetch things for her.

Paulette, a petite brunette, served as Maid and cook. A simple enough job since now only the four of them lived in the mansion, made simpler since Haruka was a Vegan. But she just couldn’t let them go, since they were employees of the family for as long as she could remember. Infact, she rarely thought of them as ‘staff’ and more like the Aunt and Uncle she never had.

Their daughter, Emily, is also Hari’s best friend. A sister in everyway but blood. The three of them insisted that they stay on, something that Haruka was grateful for since they were now the only family she had left.

“Come with us, it’s no trouble at all.” Paulette smiled at her ‘Boss’

“You guys have been here in this place ever since I came back, you three need time away from the mob of reporters and their stupid question. Go, enjoy the movies, have dinner, relax.”

“The reporters don’t bother us much… not after a couple were chased away by that ‘mad gardener’” Emily laughed at the news story showing an angry Richard waving a rake as a videographer tried to sneak into the mansion to take some candid shots. “they never did try that stunt again.”

“I go with you and anywhere we go will look like a Hollywood premier. You three deserve a night out without that hassle. Think of it as a way of me saying thanks. Besides... I know you two didn’t have any time off since I came back.” Putting her hand on her hips and a mock scowl on her face, Haruka growled. “I don’t wanna pay anymore overtime.”

The four laughed as they all know that after she came back and the three made it clear they were staying, Haruka gave them one of the family’s bank accounts so that they didn’t have to worry about their financial situation.

“NOW GO.” Haruka again insisted. Grabbing her car keys she smiled at the three, “I’ll drive away, and take that mob with me. Then you three can sneak out and away.”

+++

Haruka lay on the couch, watching Desent on HBO when her stomach growled. Going to the fridge, she reached for the salad that Paulette prepares for her every day. After a few moments, and the end of the credits, Haruka made sure the doors and windows were closed, put the now empty salad bowl in the sink, and made her way up to her bedroom.

+++

Richard opened the door and Paulette and Emily walked in, turning on the hallway light.
“I love Cirque De Soleil,” Emily said as she crossed the hallway, “I never get tired watching them.”

Paulette smiled back at her daughter as she entered the kitchen, “I remember you and Hari trying to set up the ropes in the gym to recreate some of the… “ Paulette stopped and yelled in surprise at the carnage that greeted her in the kitchen. The refrigerator doors were open and the contents scattered around the kitchen floor.

Emily and Richard stared at the mess. With a gasp, Emily ran up the stairs towards Haruka’s room while Richard and Paulette ran to check the other rooms. She almost made it to the top of the stairs when her Mother’s shout brought her back down.

“Em, she’s here!”

Emily ran back down and found her mother kneeling beside Hari as she lay on the floor infront of the fireplace, her eyes closed and her face and nightgown a mess.

“Mom… is she…”

“Sleeping…” her Mother checked her pulse and looked for any signs of an attack. “no obvious injuries…”

Richard came in and looked at them… “no obvious signs of a break in… is she…”

“Sleeping dear… and from this mess on her, I say she is the culprit.” Paulette carefully wiped away some barbeque sauce, mayo and who know what else from Hari’s face. Emily picked up a rib bone, leftovers from a couple nights ago, and looked at it.

“Mom, these have been seriously gnawed at… Hari couldn’t have…”

“Em, help me get her cleaned up and back into bed… we’ll ask her in the morning.” Paulette looked worriedly at the sleeping Haruka.

“I’ll check the security tapes… see if anyone did sneak in.”

+++

“I don’t understand…” Haruka looked at Paulette as she, Paulette and Emily finished cleaning up the kitchen. “The last thing I remember was going to bed early…”

“Well Hari, when we got in at 11, the kitchen was a mess and you were snoozing nice and quietly by the fireplace… covered in rib and chicken bones.”

Hari blanched, “don’t even joke about that Em…” but paused as Paulette nodded to back Em’s statement.

“But…”

“Dad checked the security cams, no one snuck in… it was all you Dawg!” Em grinned. “I was pissed to think that you partied without me.” She teased.

Hari remained quiet as she stared at her reflection in the stainless steel counter top.

Even though Tiffany Farrar had slept soundly in her bedroll within her tent she had suddenly awaken when in her dream she had crashed into a barbed wire fence at the end of her flight over hill and dale. This had been a reoccurring dream since her early childhood.
Now outside the rain had finally stopped falling as it had since her boy friend had dropped her off Friday afternoon at the church where she helped lead a girl scout troop. She had wanted to post pone the camping trip until the weather dried up but was over ruled As she shifted her cramped body with the intentions of stretching, she suddenly heard movement outside the tent. Almost without thinking she slowly and quietly unzipped her sleeping bag, put on her tennis shoes and slipped to the tent exit and peeked out. She sat there staring into the blackness outside. The trees and mists screened away any light from the moon and stars, and even after her eyes had adjusted it was impossible to see more then a dozen feet from where she sat watching. Shadows drifted at the periphery of her vision, brief, quick and suggestive. Sounds darted out of the haze to challenge and tease - the shrill call of night birds, the click of insects, scrapes and rustlings, huffing and snarls. The low cough of hunting cats came from somewhere distant. She could smell faintly the sulfur of the sulfur pits wafting on the air, mingling with the thicker, more pungent scents of the forest. All around her an invisible world was waking up. She hated how the forest made her feel - exposed, vulnerable and unprotected. She left the thought unfinished as she saw the silhouette of something huge appear at the edge of the mists. It walked upright on two legs momentarily, then dropped down on four. The hair on the back of her neck prickled as she heard a growl low and menacing. She found herself wanting to reach for some type of weapon, but realized she had left her pistol in her boyfriends car. ‘I must do something to protect the children’ she thought. But what could she do against such a beast?

*She ran... it was hunting her, and she knew that should it catch her, she would die.*

*She ran... Through the trees and branches tearing at her, the leaves whipping her face, hands and arms...*

*She Ran... the heavy thuddings of it's feet are rythmic and pounding in her ears... the feel of it's breath as it neared... the caress of it's claws as it tore through her skin...*

*She Ran... as the trees parted and the vast plains stretched out infront of her, the gazelles, startled, began scattering infront of her.*

*She Ran... her heart pounding loudly, as she lept onto the back of one of the Gazelles and sank her claws into it's back, her fangs bit into it's flesh easily... her mouth filled with the warm red fluid that was it's blood...*

*the stricken animal tumbled into the lake, breaking it's neck. Starving, she savored the feel of the red, juciy meat sliding down her throat, it's blood quenching her thirst. Looking into the red waters of the lake, she stared at her striped fur, her cat-slitted eyes and the way the blood glistened off her razor sharped teeth... the refection grinned back as it's blood soaked, clawed hands reached out from the water, encircling her throat as it's grinning face broke the water's surface to stare at her from mere centimeters.*


YOU CANNOT KEEP ME CAGED FOREVER, MEAT!



With a scream, Haruka bolted upright... her nighgown soaked with sweat, her body shaking with fright... the dreams keep coming... my god, what's happening to me...

"Hari? are you ok?" a voice sounded out from the doorway.

*Hari took in a deep, shaky breath. and marvelled at the scents that permiated the room... old scents... of her mother and father...*

yes, Paulette, I'm fine... sorry to wake you.

"I was awake anyway, was heading to the kitchen to make breakfast."

"oh really? my bedroom isn't between your quarters and the kitchen."

*Hari could hear the worry in Paulette's voice.*
"Ma'am, it's not... but you are not in your bedroom..."

*The lights flickered on and Hari could see that she was in her father's Hunting Trophy room, at the Maid/Cook's gasp, Hari turned and saw that the stuffed Gazelle that was in the corner was shreaded apart. It's stuffing was all over the room, it's head torn of and resting by the Grizzly Bear standing at the opposite corner. Turning towards Paulette, Hari noticed that the mother of her best friend was not looking at the dismembered trophy... but at Haruka herself.

Looking down, Hari noticed that her silk nightgown was in tatters, shredded by some huge animal, next to her, the stripped and broken bones of the chicken that was to be tonights dinner lay scattered on the ground. Hari scrambled away from the bones, feeling the revulsion that she always had when it came to her consuption of meat... only this time, the urge to vomit was not there. She turned to look at Paulette.*

"Paulette..."

*Paulette closed her eyes, sighed and took of her robe, wrapping it around Haruka's sweating body. *

"Another 'nightmare'? I... I spoke to a friend of mine, she's a psychologist... she mentioned that this might be memories from your time you spent in the jungle. she mentioned it might help to talk about it... you know.. to stop the nightmares and these nightly excursions of yours..."

"I... I can't... not now... maybe not ever..."

*Haruka stood up and looked at the ruined room.*

"uhmm.... I'll clean this up and make the arraingement to get the gazelle repaired..."

*with her head bowed, Haruka stumbled out and towards her room.*

"Oh... and Paulette... don't bother making me breakfast... I guess... I mean... It looks as though I just ate..."

Dave stumbled into his house. He was confused by what had happened at the woods. He sat down and put on tv. Whatever came on he would watch. It was the news. He listened to all of the stories about murder and robberies and wished it would stop. Suddenly, it did. The tv froze. He didn't have DVR, so he couldn't have done that. He then wished it would start. The tv continued. His head was realing. He started throwing darts at a dartboard. He wasn't really aiming, and yet he hit the bullseye everytime. Something was going on. And he would find out.

"Come on Hari, this will do you some good."

Emily pulled on Haruka's hand, forcing her to step into the private dojo/gym built in her home.

"I dunno, Yoga? common Emily... like that's going to help..."

"you've been having those nightmares ever since you came back... you've tried everything to stop them, even trying to get yourself drunk and even stoned... and believe me, those times were NOT pretty. Let's be reasonable, Mom's getting rather tired of changing your shredded bedding or cleaning up after you trashed a room." Emily put her hands on her hips.

Haruka stared at the floor.

"You can't know what it's like Em..."

"I know Hari... but as long as you are unwilling to talk about it, you are forcing yourself to deal with it alone. Yoga can help with that..."

Hari sighed... The nightmares are getting more violent, and thus so is the destruction that has been found around the house.

"Please Hari... you can tell me... let me help you..."

Hari stared at her friend... after a moment of silence...

"What do I need to do for this yoga thing..."

+++
[A WEEK LATER]
+++

Hari sat alone in her private dojo. A candle, the only illumination in the room, sat burning in it’s dish. She stared at the dancing flame, willing her emotions to the silent corner of her mind.

After she started meditation and yoga, the nightly destructions of the rooms seem to lessen. Sure they still happened, but now, she could see that the destruction took upon a pattern of frustration and not malice, boredom and not intent. During recent sessions with Emily, Hari could almost sense a presence just outside her consciousness… a fignment of 'thought' that watched and waited with a frustration that was palatable. But always just beyond her conscious reach. *

Hence this private session… Hari had to know what is happening to her… was she going crazy?

Clear my mind…
I am at peace with the world around me.
Clear my thoughts…
Let all be calm.

Seconds dragged into minutes, Minutes to Hours…

I guess I did imagine it after all

yep… that’s all that this calm is… your boring imagination.

!!!

who are you

*She felt the presence chuckle…*

I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO ARE YOU

’who are you’? the answer is a simple as looking in the mirror… MEAT!

no, no, no... you are not me…

then you are… what is that word… insane.

what do you want?

what everyone wants… Freedom.

I am not imprisoning you…

Reeeeeaaaaally… I just ENJOY sitting back and watching you do what you want.

If I free you, will you stop with the nightmares and the destruction?

...

How do I free you?

Trust me on this… you just did.

as she sat alone in the Dojo… Hari felt something dry and raspy scrape along the back of her neck. With a short scream, she dove forwards twisting around, knocking over the candle. She stared into the empty dojo as the candle flickered out.

The nightly destruction and nightmares have stopped since that incident, however, the mystery of what was happening only got deeper. The next day, she went out for her daily run with Emily, and when they completed their circuit, Emily was winded, but Hari continued to do another lap… once she was alone, she upped her speed to a full run, the feeling of exhilaration, of being able to push herself and really stretch her muscles had her grinning as she turned the last corner, she saw Emily still catching her breath.

“Wow… first time I’ve seen you do an extra lap… you’ve been working out behind my back?” Emily panted as Hari drew near, “and you are barely winded!”

“oh I’m winded alright.” Hari pretended to gasped out… “but for some reason… that felt good.”

[Three Days later]

“Ugh… “

“Oh, common, it wasn’t that bad Em…” Hari looked over as Matsumoto Sensei grabbed his bags and left.

“you passed tho. I think even Sensei Matsumoto didn’t see that move coming.” Emily smiled as she looked at the folded strip of black cloth with the ribbons on it. 4rd degree Dan Black belt. “Will you take up his offer to continue to train for Self Defense purposes?”

“Only if you pass and join me. After all, I’d still need a sparring partner.” Hari grinned at her friend. Haruka thought back at the manuver that floored Master Matsumoto... She fell for a feint and ended up being flipped over his back, but she managed to twist enough to land on her feet and sweep his legs out from under him before he was ready, and sent him flying with a modified shoulder throw. The distance she threw Sensi Matsumoto, almost across the room, also surprised her.

“Ha!... I’m not trying to become Commando Woman like you… I’m happy with what I know doing Judo, but you… Karate, Kung Fu… and I know you are watching wrestling on TV… what’s going on with you. You quit Gymnastics in your sophomore year when everyone starts talking about you going to the Olympics, and then you seem so keen to learn how to kill people now…”

“I dunno, I just wanted to get active I guess… I mean… what other sport can I really cut loose and still be the prim and proper daughter, mom and dad..."

Emily looked over at her friend.

“They would be proud of you… I know my folks are.”

“Thanks Em… and speaking of your folks… we better get cleaned up before we’re late for Dinner… I maybe a "Commando Woman", but your mom can still make me cower with that look of hers!”

The alarm buzzed, lighting up the hour of the bright morning - 5:30 AM it read it bright blue numbers. The inhabitant of Apartment B1 at the Fashtov Apartment Complex stirred heavily as he shifted in bed to hit the snooze button. However, rather than laying there for another five or ten minutes of rest, he slung his legs out from the under the sheet and touched the floor. Once his feet were down, there was no going back to bed.

Water began flowing out of the faucet as the large man turned the handle. He didn't even wait for it to warm up, instead just jumping in as the ice water hit his toned body. This way he woke straight up and begun his morning routine. After a few minutes he stepped out and quickly toweled off, drying mostly his chest and neck. As water dripped off him, he threw on his work clothes, grabbed a powerbar, and walked out the door.

Stopping just briefly to start his stopwatch, he began his daily five-mile jog to work.

Half an hour later, he stopped in front of a small building with a glass front and stopped his watch. One hand went to his neck as his eyes glanced at his watch, first to check his time - 28:31 - and then to take his pulse. Once satisfied with the results, he unlocked the door briefly to enter and tossed his bag behind the counter.

Time for his morning workout before people started arriving. The quiet was comforting while lifting weights; nobody else straining, grunting, or clanging metal near you. His heavy body lay against the bench after adding the proper weights to the bar. He lifted for a moment, flexing his muscles, and then allowed the bar to move down towards his chest.

Seven presses into his routine, as he strained and pushed against the heavy weights, Ender heard the sound of metal hitting metal hard. He stopped. Put the bar back on the rack and slowly got up.

"Hello?" he called. But there was no response - it was empty.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed two weights that had fallen off of the rack and shattered against each other. The entire gym was in perfect order save for these two five pound weights. "That's odd..."

Ian had been a bit of a loner before the accident which had turned out to be a good thing as no one had bothered to check up on him even thought he'd been absent for a little over two weeks. Bending his body into the form that he'd been born too, he entered his apartment. The fact that he'd also been living in a monther was also to his advantage as he began gathering up important or sentimental items, including burning a large quantity of disks before rendering his computer beyond useless.

After going to the bank to withdraw money, and liquidate his assets, he headed to a local u-haul rental agency to get a truck to help transport the items to a long-term storage unit. After getting everything tucked away, he headed to a large park to get a chance to think. The park was a slightly controlled woods more than a convential park.

Arriving at one of the few scattered benches he that down and began trying to unravel the mystery of what had happened to him. As he puzzled it out, the cover of a page of an three day paper blew by that held a small blurb on some strange climatic events that had been happening recently. After reading it, he decided to wait till morning before checking at the library for more information.

***********************************

Michelle soon found that it was in part the song, while also her mental imagery was important. She slowly began to practice on getting people to do things as she started to use her music to get people to act just slightly out of character. A jock showing up at chess or science club perhaps or a preppy all-american cheerleader trying to fit in with goths. As she practiced, she discovered that she could call upon the music with any music, even that of a boombox but the melodies that came from her had greater strength and versitility than that of canned while that of her violin was the most potent.

Trill, as Michelle had taken to calling herself during the utilization of her powers, chuckled as she watched a rich buisnessman gyrate and bounce in the middle of an alleyway. It appeared her first serious self-test was successful. Unsuspecting people were highly susceptible to her illusions and mental suggestioning and the buisnessman had been more susceptible than usual. He'd been drunk. She could now begin to bilk people with too much money out of it, and making them think it was thier idea.

She'd discovered that all she needed to alter the perceptions of reality, or in some cases reality itself was to play music and that the works of different composers seemed to lend themselves more easily to certain alterations. Of the common composers, Wagnerian music lended itself to destructive effects, Beethoven's work seemed to most easily implant suggestion, Tchaikovsky aided in the creation of illusions and with Tartini's music, she could occasionally create things. Both her destructive and creationist abilities had come as a great shock.

She'd been working on adapting a Wagnerian melody to violin when suddenly a lightbulb had exploded. After cleaning up, she returned to her work when the new lightbulb also exploded. As she ran it through her mind she came to the realization that the same feeling that she felt when trying to create an illusion or mess with someone's mind. She'd found she could create, or perhaps it was summon, things while playing a piece composed by Tartini. Halfway throught the melody Michelle noticed a strange implike creature had appeared on her desk. Stopping in shock, the creature also disappeared leaving only a pair of burns in the shape of inhuman feet on her desk's top.

Trill knew that it would be a slow process to figure out how best to utilize the full specturm of her abilities, but for now was confident and pleased with how they were developing.

Great... a storm... Haruka thought as she made her way home from the University Library.

The high winds that whipped through Las Vegas was not quite hurricane force, but it was enough to set the trees to swaying at dangerous angles and none of the light poles were still.

Damn, I hope they don’t come crashing down.

Hari adjusted her backpack and made her way towards the parking lot. The night sky was cloudy with rain threatening to fall. She sighed and she waved at campus security as she made her way down the well lit path in the quad.

Glancing at her watch, she noticed the time. 12:34 am… damn, I better head home.

Crash!... BZzzzzt!

The sound made Hari stop in her tracks… her head, automatically swiveling towards the source of the sound. One of the light polls came crashing down, and the resulting short knocked out the rest of the lights plunging the area in darkness. With a curse, she dug into her bag for her flashlight, when she suddenly paused…

Hari looked around… noticing that while the area did get… dimmer, she could still make out the path, see the fallen light poll that was sending out the occasional spark, and she definitely could tell that the lights in the Quad were down, yet, it all seemed like it was early evening… or that there was yet another bright light source.

She slowly continued her walk as some students who were up studying came out of their dorms with confused shouts as others in the quad area stumbled around blindly… a comical sight to Hari.

Infront of her, a fellow freshman student tripped and landed with a cry of pain on the concrete sidewalk.

Hari moved forward when she heard another sound. This one, however made her heart beat faster as it was the sound of wood splintering. Glancing to the side, she gasped as the large tree growing next to the path began to tilt in the wind… and it kept on tilting, the ground behind it bulging upwards as it’s roots lost their hold on the soil. The Student, picking himself up from the ground, didn’t notice the tree heading straight for him .

The world seemed to move in slow motion to Hari. Dropping her backpack, she sprinted forwards, towards the student as he straightened up. Her first thought was to push him out of the way, but the spread of the branches made that option unfeasible as she didn’t have the strength to shove him that far… then between heartbeats, an image of her in the trees, swinging like Sheena of the Jungle, leaping through the branches sprang into her mind. A memory of her time in the jungles of India. The adrenaline hit her system as she grabbed the boy a scant few seconds before the tree came crashing down.

* * *

“I tell you, I don’t know what happened,” Zayd said to the securty guard and EMT that were bandaging up his bruised ribs and cleaning the many cuts on his face. “the whole area went dark, I tripped and as I was getting up, someone tackled me, and next thing I know, I’m being hit by branches and stuff.”

Campus security set up the emergency lamps and was surveying the damage.

“Do you know how many assailants there were?” the security officer asked

“no, but it was a lot of branches… and I could swear I was being… carried…”

“While they were hitting you…”

“Hey, I’m not making this up. They took my bag, and beat the shit outta me.”

“I’m not saying you are, I’m just making sure I got the facts down, you said you were beaten by several people with branches while being carried. Is that right?”

“I guess… it happened so fast.”

Another security officer came by carrying a backpack. “This one yours?” she asked Zayd.

“Yes…” he claimed his bag and checked to make sure everything was there.

“Mike,” the Female officer motioned her partner to the side. “They found his pack UNDER that mess.” She indicated the fallen tree.

“and he was found here…” Mike stood several yards away from the tree. “So someone pushed him out of the way?”

“I would guess, except there’s no one under there. So someone pushed him out and this distance, and also got out from under there… no one saw anything?”

“With the power out, no. they heard the tree slam down and some students nearby heard him groaning. He was the only injury here.”

“You gonna find out who did this to me?” Zayd asked

“Son, I don’t think they were beating you up, but saving your life. Your pack was found under that tree, could it be that those branches beating you up was infact you being dug out from under that tree? That would explain your claim of being carried while being beaten. It will also explain how you ended up here while your bag ended up under the tree.”

Zayd thought about it. “ then where are those people who rescued me?”

* * *

Hari quietly snuck into the house. With all the security cameras around, she knew she was caught, but if she woke no one up, then the lecture will be delayed at least till morning.

She quietly made her way to the bathroom to clean herself up, and when she flicked on the light, she stopped to stare at herself in the mirror.

She could’ve sworn she had cuts, scrapes and bruises when she checked herself in her car mirror… but the reflection that stared back at her had mar free skin. She fingered her check where, moments before, in her car, she dabbed blood away with a tissue. Now it was pink and hale… as if nothing happened.

I must be going crazy… what is happening to me? first I pick up a guy, literally... then I manage to carry him and me through the branches as it fell, again, literally jumping out of the way... and now, my cuts are healed...

She looked down at the crumpled tissue and verified that there was small dabs of blood on it. Then she looked back at her reflection with shock on her face.





And her reflection suddenly grinned and winked back at her…

David neede this vacation. After the news bit about the sun, he had been barraged with e-mails, so NASA sent him off to Vegas three days after the preliminary report was realeased. DeSalle got five days of enjoyment at Sin City, and after that, he'd prbably be out in Area 51 or one of the other isolated places where the U.S. government sent personnel that needed either privacy, security, or both, as the job dictated. Additionally, all of the government's high end toys were kept at these locations so as to keep alien proponents at arm's, or, in this case, a full desert's length.

As David got to the poker tables, he set down his chips for the buy in. The game was Texas Hold 'Em, a game David was well acquainted with. The first hand came out, and David, against some voice, didn't go very high. Three of the players had no poker face, but one guy seemed almost set in stone. David lost $50 on the first hand.

As the second hand came out, David again felt these strange, well, feelings. Two were sadness, one was glee, and one was, well, it emanated as the same thing that a person felt if trying to conceal a big pay raise. It was obvious joy, but a feeling of trying hard to not let anybody know it. Concentrated deception was the best word to describe the, emotion, of it. David folded. He had a 2 of clubs and a queen of daimonds. Watching the hand play out, the guy with the good poker face won with a jack and eight of clubs, giving him a full house of jacks on eights acheived at the flop.

Two more rounds, and the emotions started to seperate themselves. David had pinned them down, and could feel when a person was concentrating on deception, effectively eliminating the chances of anybody else from bluffing. How the hell do I sense this? he asked himself. It went uphill from there. After another dozen hands, David had won all of Poker Face's money, and David could feel the rage.

Tomorrow, he thought, I'll try those high stakes tables. I wonder if this talent works on all emotions?

The great grizzly looked through hungry eyes at the camp before him. He had tasted human once before and had liked the taste. Unfortunately humans didn’t usually enter his domain, but here in this place he could smell them even if he couldn’t see them. He decided he would not allow this opportunity to escape so he started moving towards the sleeping humans. Within her tent something was starting to happen to Tiffanies lean muscular frame. First her hands begin to change, the fingers and toes disappeared into her palms and feet while claws grew from them while feet grew into large paws that split open her tennis shoes. Her muscles started a dance of sorts beneath her skin, growing larger and more powerful. As her body out grew her clothing, they begin to rip until they simply fell to the floor of the tent. Long hair like fur erupted from her skin, and her human ears receded into her head then remerged as bear ears on the top of her head as her nose and mouth extended into a muzzle. Within she tried to scream but all that came out was the roar of the grizzly she was quickly becoming. As her mouth opened wide her human teeth grew into long sharp teeth meant for ripping meat. Tiffany didn’t understand why this change had suddenly taken over her body, but she could feel her strength increase a thousand fold in mere seconds! Suddenly she remembered the young, sleeping only a few feet away unaware of the danger they were now in! She must protect them she thought! She must protect her cubs from this crazy male. Like lightning out a bottle she shot out of the tent directly into the male grizzlies path blocking his advance into the camp. As she did she roared again warning the male not to enter any further!

*Hari opened the door and walking towards the living room.*

”Man Prof Jackson is such a pain... three papers due this semester... “

*She stopped as strange scents assaulted her. she peeked into the living room and she noticed Michael and Paulette were not alone in the living room, two well dressed people were there. Paulette with tears in her eyes ran and embraced Hari. Richard looked relieved but still worried.

"Hari... where were you? We thought you were with Emily..."

"I was, but I told her that I had to stay to do some lab work at the University... she's not back yet? what happened?" The scent of fear and sorrow was driving Hari insane. one of the well dressed men stood up and came over, showing her his badge.

"I'm Special Agent Toles, this is Special Agent Giles. were from the FBI. did you notice anyone paying particular attention to either you or your friend.?"

"No sir... what's going on?"

Paulette sobbed out the words that sent a chill down her spine. "We got a phone call... Emily's been kidnapped, they're holding her somewhere and they want money for her return."

"H...how much..."

"5 million..."

"I... we can afford that... can't we?"

Special agent Toles spoke "we shouldn't pay. we can find them and bring her home safely." He looked at Hari. "I know you want your friend back, but trust us, we know what we're doing."

Hari stared at the agent. “Please… bring her home,”

Hari went up to her room, closed the door and lay on her bed, afraid for the person that she would be happy to call "sister".

+++

hours passed, then the phone rang.

after three rings, she heard someone pick up the phone from down stairs. quietly picking up the line on her end, she listened in.

"… million, in unmarked unsequential bills. what is your answer?"
Richard:"it will take us some time to gather the money... we need more time"
"you have 24 hours, we'll call you at a later date, if you don't have the money... " a muffled shriek in the back could be heard. "we'll have our fun with your very pretty daughter."
Richard: "Please.. don't...

the rest of the conversation was lost to Hari... she seemed to focus on other things beside the voice of Emily's father and the speaker... in the background, she could hear the heavy breathing of 5 others, one panicky, the others excited and tense... one was emily, the others were part of the kidnapping group. she could hear Emily, gagged, mummbling "help me"... "please don't"... and other muffled protests...

one by one, she catagorized the sounds, then tuned them out, listening for more clues, more indications as to where they are...

in the background, she could barely hear the clack of a freight train as it moved in the distance, the rustle of something… a tarp, or plastic sheet... then one of the speakers spoke up just before the line went dead.

"so who's up for some Pizza Hu..."
Pizza hut, near some railway tracks...

*going on line, she looked for all pizza Hut restraunts near the Union Pacfic line.*

Clark County... Dad's construction company is building some low cost homes in that area... the perfect hidaway...

*there was a knock on the door and Hari quickly turned off the computer.*

"Yes?"

* Paulette opened the door.*
"The Kidnappers called, Emily is ok... for now. they will give us one day, then... "

"Is the agent still against us paying the ransom?"

* Paulette nods, tears streaming down her eyes.*

"Don't worry Paulette, Emily will be saved and she will come home."

"I hope so Hari... the FBI took the tape with them, they said they will try to find some clues as to where they are."

they don't know yet... "Paulette, I... I need to be alone for a moment... "

* Paulette nodded.*

"Come downstairs when you're ready."

*Hari locked the door and stared at her reflection in the mirror.* They don't know where she is... but I do. *her reflection looked back and cocked her head.*
You want to go after them... don't you.
can we?
yes...
but...
I will need more than the freedom you gave me... I need control.
what are you going to do?
What needs to be done.
... don't kill them.
why?
if you kill them, *smile* they won't learn fear...
*her reflection smiled back*
I like the way I think.
what do I need to do...
accept me, accept that you and I are one and the same. that I am the beast as you are the beauty. That I am the part of you that you always denied existed. your imaginary friend, half of your true self, and then we will be one.

*Hari's memories of her pretend tiger friend, her first pet and confidant... the imaginary tiger that made her climb trees, run in the yard barefoot, and even roughhoused with Emily while they grew up together. a friend she was convinced that should be set aside as she grew up... a friend she never knew she would miss so much.*

I accept you... and… I've also missed you...
Brace yourself... this will hurt a little.

*there was a bone cracking snap as pain shot through her legs. she almost screamed out loud as she stumbled from the dresser to her bed. the pain stretched from her feet to her head, fire blossomed in every nerve and muscle. the blood pounding in her ears and the sound of her bones breaking and mending deafened her to all else as she felt her whole body stretch and fold beyond her imagination. finally, the pain was just too much to contain... *

*downstairs, Paulette poured some coffee for Richard, her husband, and the police officers sent to safeguard the family. they sat in silence, as they worried over their daughter when a soul chilling scream eminated from Hari's room. Panicking that something terrible was happening, they ran upstairs with the two officers following. Pounding on the locked door and shouting Hari's name, the two who were Hari's second parents tried to get into the locked room. suddenly, the screaming stopped and there was a loud growl followed by dead silence. pushing the two servants aside, the officers kicked in the door and burst in… expecting the worse.*

*inside the room, the bed was shredded, but there was no sign of Hari. The curtains swaying in the breeze that came in through the open window..*

FREE!

*Hari lept across the street, from one rooftop to another. She marveled at the power her muscles had as the ground flew by. Leaping down from the third floor of one apartment, she landed softly on the ground and sped off... leaving only the sounds of dogs barking at this sudden intruder in their territory.*

Keep to the shadows, we must be spotted.... yet.

*The dark felinoid shape flew, from one shadowed alleyway to another, Leaping across busy streets, moving from tree to tree, utility pole to utility pole, always keeping to the shadows and always on the move. when moving across open areas is inevitable, she would endure the pain and shift to take to all fours, running like a cheetah, quick short bursts of speed that kept most people watching wondering what they saw... most.*

*Tom and Faye were on their way home from the Stratosphere Restaurant when the music over their radio was interrupted...*

"We interrupt this broadcast for an important message. Police are getting several reports of a wild lion loose in the city... the reports puts the loose animal near Henderson. please be cautious and if you see the animal, call the police at once, do not try to approach it."

"A wild Lion? probably a stunt to get Zigmund and Goy back on the strip."
"I dunno dear, I've always said the state of our zoo was poor, maybe the poor thing escaped due to poor living conditions there."
"Well, I hope they catch it. we're far from Henderson so we've got nothing to worr.."
"LOOK OUT!"
*Tom slammed on the breaks as a large cat-like shape flew across the road and into the bushes lining the nearby park next.... where a new set of homes are being built.*

LVPD
"Ok, the latest sighting has the wild animal in Clark county... all available units are to head there and try to corrall it. Animal control has their people alerted so they will join you there. if possible, let animal control tranq it, but if it's attacking someone or it cannot be tranqed... shoot it dead."

Kidnappers
"hey man, you heard the latest?"
"what?"
"Some sort of animal is running loose out there."
"that'sa out there, as long as our endangered girl is tied up in here, that's the important thing."
*the door opens and a forth man walks in.* "Shit.. that fucking animal was spotted in this area. get the van, we're moving"
"Why?"
"Because, asshole the Police will be in the area looking for that cat. so they will be looking into all these empty homes... "
"Fuck!"
"Get Harry on the cell, tell him to bring the van now!"

*Outside, just under the boarded up window, a Cougar lay on the grass, listening. it wasn't hard to pick up Emily's sent as well as the scent of a double pepperoni and sausage pizza.*

Not much time... I need to get inside now...
*Shifting wasn't so painful now... in fact, she hardly noticed when she went from Full tiger to Hybrid form. Looking around, she spotted her way in. an unfinished vent in the second floor. Ding-bats probably didn't notice it. Leaping up unto the second floor was easy and quiet. however she needed to climb up onto the vent without...

CRASH!

Shit... the brackets holding the vent up wasn't secured, and now she and the section of the vent were laying on the floor of an unfinished bedroom

"What the fuck was that? Charlie, head upstairs and check it out."
"Fuck no! what if it's that tiger."
"You got the fucking shotgun, if it's the tiger, shoot it ya dumb fuck!"

*moving quietly across the hall, Hari entered the room across the one she fell into. Charlie came up the stairs, shotgun at the ready."
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty,"
*The metal vent creaked as it came to rest on the hard wood floor.
Charlie spun into the room and looked at the vent on the ground.*
"SHIT GUYS, JUST PART OF THE ROOF CAME DOWN, NO FUCKING TIGER ANYWHERE!"
"THEN HAUL ASS BACK DOWN HERE. HARRY'S ON HIS WAY IN."
fucking piece of shit... Charlie turned and the last thing he saw was a clawed hand closing in around his head as the shotgun was yanked from his grip...

"HURRY THE FUCK UP CHARLIE!"
"dammit, go see what's keeping charlie."
the third Kidnapper jogged to the stairs and looked up into the darkness.
"Charlie c’mon, let's haul ass ma... what the fuck."
at the top of the stairs, two gold disks seem to shine in the darkness. The thug turned on his flashlight just in time to see a shapely furred figure launch itself towards him.

Gunshots and screams rang out through out the house and beyond.

"this is patrol car 15, we heard gunshots, did anyone encounter the tiger... over?"

"This is dispatch... all units, report in, gunshots heard in the Kyle Co. Construction site... Negative Patrol 15, no one reports encountering the Cat."

"This is Patrol 15, we're going to investigate.... sorry sir, you'll have to turn around, no one is allowed inside this area until that animal is secured."

"Ok officer" Harry replied as he made to turn his van around. "Shit" he dialed his cell phone as he drove away.

More shots rang out and Patrol 15 turned on their lights and headed towards the shots. they stopped at one of the nearly completed homes. outside, on the lawn, lay one man, an uzi lay several feet away, another lay on the lawn, not moving, apparently they were thrown through the boarded up window. Inside they heard muffled sobbing. drawing their weapons, the two officers and the animal control person cautiously approached the house. in the middle of the living room, they found a young woman tied up on a chair, another assailant laying at the foot of the stairs and the back door burst open.

Shitshitshitshitshit.. i thought we're supposed to be bullet proof.

what the fuck gave you that idea

isn't were-wolves only supposed to be hurt by silver?

hurt... u-uh... they can be killed by silver, but nothing says lead won't hurt besides, they’re Wolves... I… we’re not...

fuck fuck fuck did you have to kill him?

I didn't realize his neck would snap so easliy... I took it easy with the others... and we got shot for it.

Damn... this hurts...

Back at the mansion, Hari climbed into the second story bathroom and caught her image in the mirror.

MY GOD... I Look... well... not bad.. really... *she primped and posed in front of the mirror.*
not bad at all...
she spent a few moments, running her hands over her tanned fur, examined her claws as she practiced retracting them. she smiled as her tail twitched.

*shifting back to human, she examined her naked self in the mirror... the bullet wounds were closing and she gasped in pain as her muscles slowly ejected the three bullets that were embedded inside her. wiping herself clean with some bathroom tissue, she flushed them down the toilet, pocketed the slugs and stepped out into the hall wearing a clean robe.*

*she walked downstairs and was greeted by hugs and kisses from both Richard and Paulette who had just gotten word that Emily was found safe, all but two of her kidnappers were in custody babbling something about tigers and werewolves, one was dead of a broken neck, while the other seems to have gotten away. They were getting ready to go to the hospital, but they were also worried about her disappearance.

The two officers came over and while they were relieved that she was ok, they wondered where she was,*

"me? sorry... I've been having some... sleeping problems lately that really... well, lets just say, when I'm asleep, I'm really not myself."

***

"But officer, I know what I saw... It was a Giant Tiger---man---like thing."
"And as you said, it attacked your kidnappers but left you alone...”
"... yeah... it did..."
"Then it ran out, after being shot, with no blood to show anywhere..."
"... I'm not crazy!"
"Miss... I never said you were. In fact, your three kidnappers all say the same thing, we're looking for the tiger but it hasn't been sighted yet. Now your family is here to pick you up, go home and be careful. We have your statement, and we'll call you when to testify. ok?"

*Emily turned around and saw her Parents and her best friend waiting at the entrance to the emergency room. Relieved, the four of them headed home.*

"Hiya Em, how you doing?"

*Em looked at her friend, Hugged her and started crying*

The great grizzly looked through hungry eyes at the camp before him. He had tasted human once before and had liked the taste. Unfortunately humans didn’t usually enter his domain, but here in this place he could smell them even if he couldn’t see them. He decided he would not allow this opportunity to escape so he started moving towards the sleeping humans. Within her tent something was starting to happen to Tiffanies lean muscular frame. First her hands begin to change, the fingers and toes disappeared into her palms and feet while claws grew from them while feet grew into large paws that split open her tennis shoes. Her muscles started a dance of sorts beneath her skin, growing larger and more powerful. As her body out grew her clothing, they begin to rip until they simply fell to the floor of the tent. Long hair like fur erupted from her skin, and her human ears receded into her head then remerged as bear ears on the top of her head as her nose and mouth extended into a muzzle. Within she tried to scream but all that came out was the roar of the grizzly she was quickly becoming. As her mouth opened wide her human teeth grew into long sharp teeth meant for ripping meat. Tiffany didn’t understand why this change had suddenly taken over her body, but she could feel her strength increase a thousand fold in mere seconds! Suddenly she remembered the young, sleeping only a few feet away unaware of the danger they were now in! She must protect them she thought! She must protect her cubs from this crazy male. Like lightning out a bottle she shot out of the tent directly into the male grizzlies path blocking his advance into the camp. As she did she roared again warning the male not to enter any further!


The male grizzly looked confused at the female, where had she come from? He had not smelled her earlier, and why was she defending human cubs? Smelling the air again he wondered what had happened to the human female that had been in the mobile cave a moment earlier. Did the female eat her before coming out to confront him? No she couldn’t have because he didn’t smell any fresh blood near. Maybe this female had been bitten by something with the madness that was spreading through the woods! Maybe that was why she was acting so crazy. He remembered what the madness had done to his brother and decided it was time to leave then bolted into the woods.

Beast:

“Hey Roger, interested in a game of poker?”

“No Dick, I need to get to sleep. I haven’t got a wink for 24 hours, and we have to get up early tomorrow”

“Oh well, see you later then”

Roger staggered towards his bed and collapsed onto it, knowing that he had to get up the next morning at six to help Dick with the finances. Tax day was coming around again, and the IRS wasn’t about to cut them any slack. He closed his eyes almost instantly and began to dream . . .

Roger rolled out of his bed with a thud. He looked up and saw that Dick was leaning over him, and figured that he must have overslept. He tried to get up, but his arms felt itchy, and when he pulled them in front of his face to see where to scratch them, they were overgrown with fur. His hands were also claws, and upon seeing this Roger shot up from the floor. Dick was still standing next to him, and they exchanged confused glances.

“What the Heck?” Roger asked rhetorically. Suddenly, his body began to ache uncontrollably, and he watched his fur seemingly melt back into his skin.

For a few minutes, the two friends looked at each other in total confusion, but eventually Dick started walking backwards slowly, and when he got to the door he broke out into a full run. Roger was too stunned to do anything about it until he saw fur coming out of his arms again. Terrified, he ran out side, and shouted for Dick to come back, but to no avail. As the fur completely engulfed his body, Roger ran off into the woods.

Hours later, back at the farm . . .

“I tell you, Roger’s—there was a big wolf thing in our bedroom” Dick shouted

“Look man, when Roger gets back, we can talk about this whole thing, just stay calm” replied Mike, another worker.

“I tell you, I’m not making this up!”

“Nobody says you did, you probably just misinterpreted what you saw”

“Screw you, I’m going looking for him even if I have to do it myself!”

And with that remark, Dick stormed outside with a flashlight, not realizing his folly of trying to search the entire wilderness at night, alone.

Meanwhile, Roger was still wandering around the woods, and he noticed that it was much easier to walk quadruped—on four legs—than upright. He was totally overwhelmed by what had happened to him, terrified at all the possible explanations he could think of. Was he a werewolf? No, there was no moon out and he hadn't been bitten or anything. Was it a big joke? If it was, they must have hired some damn good special effects artists. He pictured his human form, wondering if he was going to be stuck like a wolf forever, when he felt a burning pain all over his body. Panicking, he started running, but tripped over his hands before realizing that he was human again. Now more confused than ever, Roger sat down on a nearby rock, trying to come up with some idea of what to do next. All of a sudden, he heard a voice behind him yell.

“Roger! Where the hell are you! Roger?”

It was Dick. But seconds later, he felt the burning pain again, and Roger decided to run, lest he scare Dick away.

Days later, Dick’s corpse was found in the woods. Wolf tracks nearby led to the North.

Continued Beast:

Roger was running like he had never thought possible; covering speeds of up to 50 mph and his four legs moving him around trees like a rabbit. He was running away, and he didn’t care where he was going. He knew he had done a terrible thing, and he knew that if he kept running, he didn’t have to think about what. However his hunger finally stopped him, and he slowed to a walk. He needed to find something that was safe to eat, and he kept walking until he found what seemed to be a town, and looked around for anything that looked edible and he could get to. He found some trashcans outside of a food joint but while trying to get them to open, he knocked over the whole stack.

“Hey! What was that!”

“Don’t ask me, probably just some damn Raccoons or something”

“That was no Raccoon”

“How do you know?”

“Raccoons come at night you idiot. It’s eleven.”

Roger heard some rustling inside, and started to run. He wasn’t fast enough though, and before he could escape into the tree line, the men shot him with a hunting rifle. Struggling into the woods, he made it into the safety of the forest but the men were still chasing him. He hid behind a tree and waited for the end, knowing his trail of blood would lead his pursuers right to him. In a blind act of desperation, Roger got up and started to run again, not noticing until he had well cleared the area that his wound was fully healed.

The disturbance had been echoed several times over the next few days and weeks. Random movement of metal objects, the mere thought of a metal object making it appear nearby, and the strange way all of his steel cutlery had been bent during the middle of the night. Sometimes when he would be working out, getting near to the end of his routine where his muscles had built up tremendous amounts of lactic acid and they were burning, he would be struggling with one last lift and suddenly it would become light as a feather - like the weights disappeared, but that could not have happened... they were right there in front of his eyes.

Ender had considered going to the doctor, but eventually decided against it. What would he have told them? That he was hearing things, seeing things, and finding metal bent? The truth was that he was feeling nothing wrong with him; in fact, he felt better now than ever - stronger, healthier, more alive. Perhaps he should see a shrink. Maybe it was his mind that was screwed up. However, he hadn't told anyone yet and wasn't planning on doing it. He had few friends, and virtually none outside of work - none of them people he trusted with such sensitive and vulnerable information. Ender would have to go it alone, just like he always had...

---

One night Ender found himself lost in thought walking along the dark streets of the city. Where he was at the moment was anyone's guess. As often happened since the beginning of these strange occurrences, his mind had wandered in contemplation and intense thought as he roamed the land... searching... for answers.

The moon and starlight had long since been obscured by the smog and high rising buildings, leaving the sole source of light in the shadier parts of town to be the odd streetlight. They, however, were in poor condition; broken, flickering, shorted out, shattered... dead.

When he walked, his eyes maintained a blank stare at his dirty shoes and tattered sidewalk. Strangely, despite not looking where he was going at this strange hour of the morning, he never walked into anything - not a sign, light post, mailbox, car... nothing. Once in a while, however, he would glance up at his surroundings to see where he was. His eyes would dart around briefly, but even then he rarely looked at where he was.

Now, though, when his eyes took a momentary glance to the side, he paused. "Maybe..." he whispered into the silent night, nobody and nothing around to hear him. "Naw... but... may-be?"

Ender stood for several minutes, not moving or flinching once in the cool night's air. "Yes...!"

He turned off the road and into the open gate to his side. The sign read: Municipal Compactor Yard. Piles of cars and broken machines lay in stacks waiting for their demise...

---

All through the night, the sound of metal slamming, crunching, warping, and shattering permeated the city...

Continued Beast:

“So this is what I look like, then Hugh?” Roger said to himself, while checking out his reflection in a lake. “I kind of look like a werewolf”

This was the first time Roger had thought to look at his reflection in the nearly two weeks since he left Montana. He still had no idea where he was, as his last incident with humans had almost cost him his life and he didn’t think that it was that important to find out anyway. He was learning how to hunt, how to kill, and how to survive, and would find some way to put his new abilities to good use.

Roger walked slowly away from the lake, and suddenly put his nose up into the air. He smelled people nearby. He quickly darted off into some nearby bushes, and watched for them.

It was a couple; they were walking along a trail leading around the lake he was just at. What shocked him the most about this couple was that they were speaking in French. He picked up a few words, but only two stood out to him: Colombie britannique. “British Columbia”, he thought to himself. “So I’m in Canada”

Suddenly the man cried out what sounded like “Wolf! Wolf,” and Roger though that the man was talking about him. He slowly backed up from behind the bushes, but before the couple was out of sight, he saw a wolf jump on the man and the woman scream.

Roger was almost paralyzed; his heart pounded fervently and he considered his options. He could save the couple, but then they might suffer Dick’s fate afterwards. But if he didn’t help them, they would surely die. Taking a deep breath, he leaped out of the bushes, and knocked the wolf off the Canadian, who was a bit bloodied but got up and ran towards his wife.

Roger then tried to bite into the wolf’s neck while he still had the element of confusion, but the wolf was too quick and got up in front of him. Roger charged at it, and at the last second aimed low and got one of its legs in his jaw. He pinned its torso down using his claws, and was surprised at his strength. After a few seconds, Roger let go and the wolf hobbled off into the forest in defeat. Roger turned around and saw that the Canadians were looking at him, staring. Recognizing that the awkward situation might turn ugly, he quickly fled, escaping into the wilderness.

“That was good,” Roger said to himself. “But not good enough. I need to get better”

With that, Roger decided to hone his speed, strength, and skills even more. He found the nearest road, and followed it to a nearby town. Turning to his human form, he walked into a Ranger station, looked at a map, and decided to head Northwest towards Alaska. He left the town, and started running. It was going to be one heck of a trip.

on the lone stretch of highway leading out of Las Vegas, a small SUV turned off of the main road and followed a dirt track into the desert plains.

about 16 miles in, the car pulled to a halt next to some bolders. If there were anyone watching, the car sat there for several minutes... as if waiting for someone.

"ok... it's not the jungle, but at least out here I can run around without scaring anyone."

She looked at the barren landscape and a feeling of disgust washed over her.

"yes, I know it's not the plains... but it's either this or be confined to the back yard..."

a sense of grudging acceptance slowly replaced the disgust.

"ok? let's go and stretch our legs."

locking up her SUV and slinging the backpack over her shoulder, Hari trotted off towards a small mountain of bolders. finding a suitable nook to stash her backpack in... she began to stip off her clothes and stow them in the backpack. after about a minute, she was bounding up on to the bolders... her padded feet and claws finding purchaces to pull herself up. When she reached the top of the mound, she surveyed her 'kingdom' and let out a roar. Claiming the territory as hers. Lying down on the rocks, she calmly watched the sun set...

in the cool evening breeze, a large cougar races across the desert sands. pouncing on the occasional rodent, tracing the bats as they hunted... all in all, for anyone watching, a kitten at play could come to mind... nevermind that this kitten was large enough to take down a full grown man.

also, the fact that from time to time, the 'kitten' would shift to a humanoid form and rearrange the bolders into a more den-like setting. Tossing bolders aside, or pushing them out if they proved to heavy to lift.

She stretched out and watched the sun rise from her newly renovated den. she then lay down and was falling asleep when her cell phone chirrped.

shifting to her hybrid form, she dug into her pack and pulled out the device.
"Yelo." Damn, the jaw design made talking tough.

"Hari... sorry to wake you, Mom and Dad were worried, I managed to convince them to wait till sun up before calling." Emily sounded too cheerful too early in the morning.

"yea an Iow beth yu wer upf wif vem all nief..." Hari silently cursed her agreement NOT to shift to human form... it was really, REALLY hard talking with this jaw...

"Sounds like we were not the only ones up..." Emily sighed. "I'll let you get back to sleep... enjoy your shopping trip and call if you need anything."

"Ohay... Bye" Hari hung up and looked at the phone.

they deserve to know...

yeah... they do... but what to tell them... 'hey guess what... I'm a beast... a freak... and... I think I killed my mom and dad...' yeah... that will go over real well with them...

They're your pridemates... they deserve the truth.

maybe when I get back... enjoying your time in the drivers seat?

boring... no moving lights, no loud birds, no... prey...

*yawn*

Maybe I'll buy an island or someth...

Hari curled up and started sleeping... all the while her wild side stared out of the cave in silent contemplation...

David spent the next night at the high roller's table. It was, to say the least, well, interesting.

He had bought in at $100,000, the winnings from his last performance. He decided on Hold 'Em Poker again, and began, almost immediately, a repeat of last night's performance. That lasted three rounds. The fourth round was when it started.

The deal came out, and he looked at his cards: the four and six of clubs. Not bad. He tentatively pushed out to try and feel what the others were feeeling, and immediately saw an image of a jack and a five off suit. He blinked, then tried again. The jack/five hand. It wasn't his, yet he saw it, clearly, just underneath his pink nails...Wait a minute, those aren't my fingers. He closed his eyes again, then opened, to see his own hand resting on his own cards. "Weird," he muttered.

The flip came out. Nine, ace, and three, two daimonds and the last a spade. He watched as the cowboy next to him folded, and then a lady with pink nails peeked at her cards again. Sighing, she folded as well. David tried to see the card's face, imagined them flipping over. One, the five, did. I saw that. I f@#*ing saw that card as if I were inside her head.

The next round was even more strange. This time, he saw the hands of both the cowboy and the woman near him. He won by calling an amazing bluff. As he collected his winnings, though, a sudden pain started throbbing inside his head, and it just wouldn't go away. "Excuse me," he said, standing, "But I must go." One of the table hands took the chips to an auto-counter, where his net winnings totaled up to about sixty-five thousand dollars, and wrote a little note down before taking him upstairs.

"Sir, I've been speaking with hotel management, and we would like to offer you the rest of the stay complimentary in one of our high-roller's suites. Your winnings have been set aside in an account for quick access either when you decide to return to the floor or when you wish to check out. Is there anything I can get you?"

"Yeah, Advil," said DeSalle, as the entered the elevator. They got up to the room, and though his headache had subsided a little, it wasn't much. While the man ran off to fetch some medication, DeSalle ran cold water over his hands, splashed it on his face, then looked into the mirror. "What the hell just happened?" he asked out loud.

"maybe we should call..." Paulette sat down as she put lunch on the table.

"she needs time to herself dear." Richard sat down and winked at his daughter

"gee Dad, you wern't like this when I wanted to stay out past midnight." Emily smiled as she bit into her sandwich.

"well, I did learn..." Richard grinned.

"I'm glad you two are fine with this." Paulette frowned at her husband and daughter, "Hari is famous... and rich. Emily was kidnapped once, who knows what could happen to Hari."

"Dear, we are worried, but sitting around worrying will only make us sick as well. and we need to show Hari that we can trust her and that she can trust us." Emily nodded in agreement to her father.

"well... it's only a couple of days..." Paulette sighed.

*SLAM*

the front door slaming startled them as Hari stormed pass the kitchen door and up the stairs towards her room.

Emily saw that expression before... Hari was PISSED! before her parents could say anything, Emily turned to them and said, "Uh oh... something happened... I'll go and see what's what." and she ran after her friend before her parents could react.

+++

I've NEVER been so humiliated in all my life! How could you do THAT!!!

*mental shrug* you seemed... tense. I saw in your memories that a good bath relaxes you...

That wasn't a bath!

it wasn't?

No, a bath requires water.

well, it did seem to relax you.

*blush* that wasn't... I mean... I didn't... AAAArrrrggggh next time, I'm packing Mouthwash! Hari stormed into her bathroom to use that very same item.

I really don't see the problem... after all, you were tense, and it's perfectly natural to feel better after a being bathed...

*gargle* That wasn't Natural!... my God, I wasn't even aware that the human body could bend that way... Hari grabbed the towel and wiped her mouth as she stormed out of her bathroom. "I've never felt so.... Violated!" and stopped as she saw Emily at her bedroom door.

"... er... 'violated?' did something happen on this shopping trip that made you come home early?" Emily closed the door quietly behind her.

*blush*... er... no... I forgot something...

"Like... your favorite mouthwash... " Emily eyed the bottle in her hand. "Hari... what really happened..."

Haruka frantically searched for a reasonable explination... "I took a bath... " she quickly mumbled as she grabbed her keys and stormed back out to her SUV. Minutes later, the sound of her car driving away was all that disturbed the silence of her room. Richard and Paulette peeked into Hari's room to find their daughter still sitting on Hari's bed with a puzzled look on her face.

"violated... by... a... bath?"

Roger trotted along, and smiled when he saw the border. He was in Alaska now, the harshest place he could get to, and he was going to hone his skills, even if it took years. He started running at full speed, and leaped over a fallen tree, clearing it by several feet.

“That was good,” he said to himself. “But not good enough”. He laughed. “I sound like a broken record don’t I?”

He leaped the same tree again and again for a few hours, clearing the log by a bit more and running a bit faster each time. Every leap he got a little bit higher, a little bit faster, and a little bit stronger than the leap before. After tiring out, he sat down and rested for twenty minutes and started again. He was going to train his body, no matter the cost.

After leaping over the same log for what seemed like days, Roger started moving again in the wild. He wanted to reach the more desolate tundra of the north, and teach himself to survive.

He noticed an Elk walking by, and was pretty hungry. After stalking it for hours, he finally was able to take it down with much difficulty. The thought of eating raw meat before had sickened him, but hey, he was a wolf now—he had better start acting like one.

Sitting in front of a library computer looking up some information concerning weather as well as utilizing his passwords which had thankfully not yet been purged due to his supposed death to access the networks of the lab. The secruity system was working against the lab as the techies had gotten slightly complacent. With a little more information, Ian hoped he'd be able to figure something out and maybe a way to stabilize his abilities so as to make them easier to control for the moment.

Feeling a ripple as if his bowel was about to preform an immediate unplanned evacuation, he bolted to the bathroom just about knocking the librarian over. Arriving in the thankfully unoccupied bathroom, his body just about exploded. Bits and pieces flew bloodlessly everywhere only to begin regrowing. It had happened once before and it seemed to be his body's way of telling him that he'd been forcing it into a shape for too long. He began the labourious process of picking up the pieces to dispose of as he'd hate to get the police involved and forensic testing done.

***************************

Trill had begun to amass a small fortune, mostly through the process of stripping the rich of money and utilizing her abilities to make them believe that they'd had a good time in exchange. It was a very profitable, if somewhat time consuming part-time job. With a smidgen of luck she'd be able to retire after high-school if she wished and devote even more time to music.

She suspected a teacher and a couple students was suspicious of her as when a B student and bandgeek started pulling straight As and getting a star jock boytoy it tended to raise a few flags across the scholastic and social ladders but Michelle was confident she'd be able to handle it.

Continued Beast:

Shifting back into human form, Roger sat down on a nearby rock. He knew that his wolf form could easily handle the cold weather, but easy wasn’t a part of his training schedule. He lasted twenty minutes before finally shifting back, practically freezing his bloodstream in the process. “Better,” he said to himself. “Last time I only lasted fifteen minutes.”

After warming up again in his thick fur coat, Roger started running towards a hill. He knew that he was reaching the top of his abilities, but there was no reason that he couldn’t push those to new heights. However, Roger didn’t realize that what he thought was the top of a hill was really the top of a pile on snow that had been cleared by a snowplow. He couldn’t stop in time, and hit the roof of a car passing by with a loud bang.

“What the heck was that?”
“Don’t ask me. Sounded like a freaking tree hit our roof”
“Well go outside and check it out”
“You go man, what if it’s a bear cub or something? You can actually shot your gun”
“Fine you dipshit, but you owe me a beer”

The man got out of the car and stared in amazement at the wolf-thing that was stuck on top of his car. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the Wolf cautiously, while trying to decide what to do.

Roger meanwhile had awoken and turned his head towards the scared Alaskan just in time to see him shoot Roger in the Torso. Roger howled in pain, and took another bullet in the same place. Leaping off the car, he fled for his life, but the man ran back into his car and drove off.

Roger watched as his wounds healed right before his eyes and the bullets fell harmlessly out onto the ground. “So that’s what happened the first time,” he said to himself. “I learn something new about myself everyday”

After that night, Ender knew he was neither normal nor sick. He was something else. Something special. Over the past couple of weeks, he had developed the ability to recognize the presence of metal, wherever it was and whatever form it was in. More importantly, he had developed the ability to manipulate metal and electromagnetic forces - though the latter to a much lesser degree as of yet. In fact, he had neither in good control yet... but he was working.

As something seemed to be changing in body and mind, Ender began changing his life to coincide accordingly. He quit his job at the gym. He moved apartments to a dingy little place in the basement of another building - both to gain a little privacy and to reduce the drain on his meager bank account. He was cut off from the world. His childhood he couldn't remember, leaving him with no friends from his early life or memories of his family. Now he had cut himself off from the only people he could even remotely come close to calling friends - his coworkers.

Now he called only darkness and solitude his friends...

Continued Beast:

Roger was finally done with his “training” program in Alaska, he had gone through enough to be satisfied with his physical abilities. As he started to head home, he saw an enormous Grizzly bear in his path. Not wanting to start a fight with an animal three times his size, he slowly started to walk around, but the bear charged at him. Roger eagerly awaited him. He Knew his skills were finally going to be put to the test.

He ran right up to it and jumped over the grizzly, grabbing its head and doing a perfect roll throw, which flung the bear backwards twenty feet. It got back up and charged again, and this time Roger waited for it to get close before darting around behind it and ramming the bear with his head, knocking it over. Now the grizzly was getting really angry, and charged a third time. Roger waited for it to start to attack with its claws, then grabbed its legs and pulled them out from under it, causing it to fall over backwards. Before it could get up, Roger took off running at what he estimated to be fifty miles per hour, and congratulated himself on the success of his training regiment in Alaska.

However, he suddenly came upon a new thought: what now? He could certainly not go back to Montana. He had trained in the harshest conditions he could find, and then what? Was he to simply roam the countryside for the rest of his life, helping people in need? After reaching the Canadian border again, he shifted back into human form and sat down, looking up into the sky, and pondering his destiny.

Suddenly he heard an enormous explosion behind him, and got up quickly to see what it was. Shifting back into his hybrid form, he used his sense of smell to determine that there was a very stinky kid about 200 yards away, and headed off in his direction. He watched in the shadows as this punk in a field began blasting trees at random; he was using energy bolts that came right out of his hands!

“Take that! And that! And that!” he yelled

A blast sudden hit right next to Roger, and he flew out into the open field the kid was practicing in. The kid, after a few moments of confusion, donned a very sinister looking smirk while looking at Roger, and he barely jumped out of the way of the second shot aimed near him and didn’t dodge the third. He went flying backwards into the air, and landed quite a bit away. Getting up quickly, he tried to come up with an effective strategy to beat his adversary, but had to dodge another hail of blasts and escaped back into the treeline. He then heard his attacker shout

“Come out little doggy and I won’t have to kill you”

Now that he was given time to think, he figured out that he held a significant advantage over the kid in close combat, and that he had to draw him into the forest. He called out back

“What’s the matter? Come here and fight me! Unless your Chicken! Bawk Bawk Baw-“

Roger was hit directly by a big blast and landed further back. So that’s not going to work, lets try stealth. He moved swiftly and silently through the woods, and got behind the Kid, who was still hitting his former location with energy attacks. Roger charged across the field and the Kid didn’t notice until he was halfway across, and fired blasts in panic, missing all of them. Roger jumped on him and stood on his torso.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked
“Because I can” the Kid Responded and punched Roger on the side of the head, knocking him off and hit him with a blast in midair, sending him flying back into the treeline. Getting back up, Roger contemplated his moves. The kid was wild and reckless, and a good shot. His only chance was to wear him down constantly and use his abundant endurance to out last him. So he proceeded to move rapidly around the forest and popping out in the field, gradually tiring out the kid until he had to catch his breath, at which point Roger sprung out, grabbed his hands, and asked:

“Why did you attack me?”
“I told you, you idiot” he responded. “Because I can”

Roger then pelted him in the head, knocking him unconscious. He debated whether or not to kill him—as his claw strength had yet to be tested effectively on flesh—but decided that he had better just leave. After setting his adversary down in the field, Roger started running south again, and made it back into British Columbia after a few hours. After eating some dinner, he began to ponder just what he had done. He had won his first battle with another “meta” human, but it hadn’t occurred to him before then that there might be more around. So he continued South towards the States, trying to figure out what to do next, hoping destiny would guide him towards his eventual destination—wherever that may be.