Chapter 1 - New Elastic Wolves
It had been 2 months since the pack moved back to the old territory, and, gladly, they hadn't seen or sniffed any human during this time. Since this territory had a lot more live prey for the wolves, and it wasn't as big or dangerous as the bears or lone moose they had been forced to hunt back at the emergency territory, Kate and Lilly had a lot more time to train their daughters, the four youngsters being now a lot more skilled and, in fact, the only difference between them and their mothers was the obvious experience and strength ones. Also, since the male pups were now at pretty much the same strength level as even the pack's bulkiest male wolves, Kate and Lilly assisted Humphrey and Garth in their training as well, due to the elastic females being the only ones with a superior strength and speed level thanks to their morphing abilities.
Despite how nice life was going so far, the wolves still were wary about the humans' possible return. They knew Dr Tabias really meant it when saying he wasn't intending to return, but they also knew the man and his 'pack leaders' had invested lots of time and resources in their experiments, so it was always possible that Dr Tabias was forced to change his mind and get back to, again, try catching the wolves, or that some other human got that assignment. All the wolves started taking surveillance shifts on a regular basis, just in case.
The wolves weren't that wrong. During this time, Dr Tabias had been working on perfecting his formulas, this time without using animals; of course, he wasn't doing this out of kindness but due to his previous, terrifying experience with the elastic wolves. He definitely didn't want to create another animal that might eventually turn against its masters. Of course, without test subjects, his research wasn't advancing as fast as before.
"Well... this batch must be even stronger than the previous one." Dr Tabias thought out loud while finishing preparing some vials with his 'perfected' formula. "The effect should be almost immediate... but the test subject would still need to remain still for a prolonged period of time so the formula can change about every cell of its body..."
"That shouldn't be hard with a human volunteer, Doctor..." One of his assistants told him, "the problem is finding someone crazy enough to volunteer... and any guy crazy enough to agree to have a super formula tested on him without previous animal experimentation, isn't mentally fit to get superpowers."
"I have to agree with you on that one." Tabias groaned. It was bad enough when the formula could create intelligent wolves who could turn against humans in self defense, but giving the formula to a mad man, someone who could use the powers to become a super criminal, was pure insanity. And, as the assistant pointed out, no sane man would agree to become a human guinea pig for an untested formula.
"Put these in the fridge. I'll go talk with the administrators in the morning and see if we can find a person brave enough to try the formula... Where's a Steve Rogers when you need one?" Tabias sighed while his assistant obeyed. When the assistant went to the fridge, however, he froze (no pun intended) on the spot.
"Doctor... we prepared another batch yesterday, right?"
"Yes, we did... and I've told you, no drinking alcohol before coming to work. Your memory is failing."
"No, Doctor, you don't understand... we prepared 10 vials last night... and now there's only 5 of them!"
"WHAT?" Tabias practically jumped on his way to the fridge. His assistant was right; there were only 5 vials left from the batch they had prepared the previous day. Tabias had used one of those vials as a base to work on the batch he had just finished, meaning there were 4 vials missing, and, even if small, each one had enough formula to transform (if working) at least 3 test subjects.
"Alert security. I'll check out if there's anything else missing." The scientist told his assistant, both men rushing while doing as said. Tabias paled when noticing some of his other vials were missing too.
"Wolf pheromones..." Tabias then dashed to the locker where he kept the animal tranquilizers; even if not using animals for his experiments for the time being, this situation could change in the future, so he kept some tranquilizer darts and rifles, just in case. With a quick look, he noticed he was now one rifle short, and a full box of tranquilizers was gone; more precisely, the tranquilizers with the right size and dosage to dominate an adult wolf.
A few days later, back at the forest, the whole pack was watching the elastic youngsters and their brothers doing some stunts they had been practicing. The whole pack, except Candy and Sweets, who had offered themselves to do guard duty during this performance.
"Ugh. Can you believe everyone is still drooling over those pups?" Sweets groaned as they walked around the territory.
"Well, they have super powers. It's quite great they have those powers because that makes our pack much stronger..." Candy got interrupted by Sweets.
"I know, but it's not fair! You and I are Omegas, and we'll likely remain like this through our whole lives... but those pups, just because of their powers, are already destined to be the strongest alphas ever... and just because their mothers were dumb enough to let themselves be captured by a human wacko." Sweets frowned. "I mean, just look at Lilly and Humphrey... as if they weren't already 'promoted' enough thanks to their mates being alphas, they got another level boost out of her getting powers and him being the mate of a super wolf!"
Candy sighed. Even if she wasn't as open as Sweets to express her ideas, she was definitely as upset as her friend. An Omega had to work really hard if he or she ever planned to become an important pack member, but it seemed dumb luck had favorited these pups just like it did with their parents.
"Really... what does it take for a wolf to become important? Lots of hard work, an amazing cunning, or just the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time?" Sweets sighed as well.
In a perfect cue, Sweets felt an acute pain in her neck. When she yelped, Candy stopped walking to see if she was fine, but then she felt a similar pain at her side. Both wolves mentally kicked themselves for being so distracted over their chat and forgetting to do their surveillance job correctly. Both females soon felt extremely tired, as if they hadn't slept in days; Sweets fell down first, and Candy barely had any time to see the dart on her friend's neck before falling asleep herself.
After a few seconds, a man in a hunter outfit emerged from his hideout, and went to check out the wolves, removing the darts from their bodies. The man grinned before taking out a pair of syringes; even if there was already a good dose of the substance (mixed with the tranquilizer) in the wolves' bodies, he decided to apply a second dose, this one mixed with another chemical. Then, he took something out from a large bag and applied it to the sleeping females.
"They'll wake up in 3 hours." The man thought out loud before going back to his hiding place, in case another wolf (probably one of the super powered ones) appeared to check on his/her pack members. The guy then took out his binoculars to look at the sleeping creatures; even if knowing they'd be out for hours, he didn't dare missing a single moment.
"And so, the experiment starts. Science waits for no man... or animal." He grinned evilly while taking some notes for his research. No matter if this worked or not, it would definitely be worthy of watching.
Candy and Sweets didn't wake up for almost 3 hours. Candy did at first, having quite a headache, and she thought she was still asleep when realizing she was wearing some sort of clothing, similar to Kate and Lilly's outfits, but this one had blue tones (most of it light, and dark in the boots, gloves and belt).
"Oh, great... I'm having the dream again..." Out of envy on Kate and Lilly, Candy had dreamed about having elastic powers herself more than once. However, when realizing Sweets, sleeping next to her, was wearing a similar outfit (but with reversed blue patterns), and that both of them had their distinctive wolf scent mixed with human's, Candy realized this was no dream at all. Some human had made them to sleep, most probably by using a tranquilizer dart (Candy was just slightly relieved that it was a tranquilizer dart and not a bullet), and dressed them up.
"Sweets, wake up! Sweets!" Candy, fully awake, started shaking the sleeping wolf... and stopped when realizing she was using her front paws exactly as human hands. "H-how I'm doing this?"
Sweets woke up at that moment, still a bit dizzy, but woke up instantly when feeling human hands holding her; by instinct, she thought it was a human trying to catch her.
"LET ME GO, YOU ABUSIVE..."
"Sweets, stop, it's me, Candy!" Candy moved few steps back, since Sweets looked ready to bite her in (for Sweets) self defense.
"Candy? What the... hey, why are you dressed like that? Why are you dressed, period?" Sweets said, pretty puzzled, and gasped when realizing she was wearing a similar suit. "No way..."
"Yes way!" Candy was almost yelling at this point. "And look at my hands... I mean... I have hands!"
"Y-you... I... me... oh my..." Sweets was almost fainting but didn't do it because Candy was holding her again.
"Don't you dare to faint right now! I need you to stay with me so I don't faint myself!"
"Y-yes, you're right... sorry..." Sweets took some deep breaths to cool herself down. "We... I remember... someone shot you with a dart... and then I felt this pain... I got shot too, right?"
"And whoever did it, dressed us up." Candy said while giving a closer look to the outfits. They didn't just look like Kate and Lilly's, but they smelled the same.
"It's the same material... so... whoever shot the darts, surely worked at that lab where Kate and Lilly got their powers." Candy guessed.
"Then, why are we still here? Those humans captured animals and then took them to the lab. Don't tell me they now experiment on the animals here in the forest." Sweets frowned.
Both wolves stared at each other and then got hit by realization.
"They really did it! Someone injected us some of that sciency thing... that's why I can morph my paws into hands!" Candy said before looking back at her hands, and then, by doing a conscious effort, changed them back to normal wolf paws.
Sweets then looked at her own paws, and by focusing a bit, she stretched the fingers until they were as long as her full body.
Candy then thought for a moment before taking a deep breath, inflating her cheeks more than 10 times their normal size. When expelling the air, she got a sly grin.
"Mmm... so... if we can do that..." Candy took another breath, much deeper than the previous one... and didn't stop until her whole body was completely inflated. Sweets looked in awe how Candy started elevating up in the air until, fearing she would float away, she grabbed Candy with her super long fingers, stretching her arms as well to reach her, and then pulled her back to earth.
"Heh... thanks, Sweets... I thought I'd go up, up and away." The inflated wolf talked in a very deep voice, losing a bit of air in the process. Candy then expelled out the rest of the air but, due to being a lot more than before, she was almost sent flying, and only the fact Sweets was holding her prevented this from happening.
"You're welcome." Sweets said before getting her own thoughtful expression, and then she started morphing her whole body. It took her a couple of minutes, but eventually, Candy grinned at how well she had achieved the ball shape, one of Kate and Lilly's most common ones. Candy then got back to having human hands to manipulate the ball, and soon she was bouncing, throwing and tossing Sweets around.
At his hiding spot, the scientist grinned. This was working just perfectly; the animals proved being smart enough to realize they had powers now, and had the initiative to practice several shapes right away.
"And this is just the shape-shifting and elasticity's part of my experiment. Can't wait to see them discovering their other skills." The man smirked before going to taking notes, not losing sight of the wolves for a single moment.
Candy and Sweets found their running had increased notably as well, since they now had longer steps and their paws had a 'bouncy' effect, that made them to move faster with less effort.
"Heh, can't wait to see everyone's expression when we arrive." Candy grinned, enjoying the quick and light pace, that allowed them to move much faster than usual and still being able to carry a conversation without panting or missing details.
"Maybe now you and I will be considered the pack's best looking females." Sweets commented. "After all, with Kate and Lilly being taken, and mothers too, the other males can't do anything but watch from afar... You think the alphas will actually notice us?"
"Sweets, we have super powers now; they'd need to be blinder than moles to not notice us!" Candy suddenly stopped and stretched her arm to grab Sweets by her tail, since the other female hadn't stopped moving and at this pace she only needed a couple of seconds to get a considerable distance between Candy and herself. "In fact, I think I have an idea."
"Does it involve letting go of my tail?" Sweets frowned a bit, since Candy's human-like hand was still holding her tail, and, being an elastic tail, the pull had stretched it over 10 feet.
"Oh, you're gonna love this." Candy ignored Sweets' tone yet released the tail while explaining herself. "If we have the same powers as Kate and Lilly, why not use them to improve our looks? We are already gorgeous, so imagine ourselves with a little... heh... 'plastic' surgery."
Sweets got her tail back to normal and then pondered on Candy's interesting (and puny) suggestion.
"I don't know... even if we can shape - shift like you say, it might be hard to keep those looks for long. I once heard Kate commenting that keeping up a form for a long time is pretty much like tensing your muscles; they can keep up with a shape-shift for a while because they're very strong and have lots of resistance, but even those two need to get back to normal after a while."
"I know, but that doesn't mean we can keep a super attractive look in public, and then go back to our still-gorgeous-yet-not-super-gorgeous selves in private, when nobody is looking." Candy grinned. She had always liked her physical appearance, but even the vainest wolf would admit to wanting to improve a particular part of his/her looks at times, and now she and Sweets had a way to do it at will at any time they wanted.
Sweets finally agreed on Candy's idea, and they both started modeling each other, literally, by making their bodies as soft as wet clay and allowing the other female to re-shape the body into a much more attractive look. Since they were still rookies at this, Candy and Sweets realized they wouldn't be able to shape-shift into a super gorgeous body without this help, especially without clear enough water or some surface that could work like a mirror.
After about one hour of live-sculpting each other's body, Candy and Sweets were finally happy with the results, and gave their bodies a more firm consistence instead of the soft one. Now they both looked a lot more stylized and with longer limbs and muzzles, plus looking generally more elegant and imposing; it was the kind of look that would make any male wolf to freeze on the spot and drool at them.
The two females finally made their way back home, this time walking instead of running to make it easier for them to keep up these forms, but still making very long steps (as in, no less than 15 feet each) to make up for the missing time. After all, it was quite late already, and they had no doubts the rest of the pack would soon send some scouts to look after them.
The two wolves decided to surprise the rest of the pack by arriving right at the Moonlight Howl instead of going to the living quarters first, as all the sentinels did when returning in order to announce they were back home. Most of the pack was already there, Kate and Lilly in one of the main spots along with their mates; both females were using their 'sexy forms' to cuddle a little with Humphrey and Garth while waiting for the howling session to start.
"HOOOOOOWL!" A random male wolf started howling wildly.
"Hey, it's not time yet.." Kate was about to lecture this wolf for howling out of time when she realized he wasn't howling at the moon but at two females that looked just as drop-dead-sexy as Lilly and herself. The other wolves turned around to see them, and all of them gasped, some due to their incredible sexiness, and the others due to recognizing them.
"Candy? Sweets?" Lilly wide opened her eyes (to watermelon size, showing how impressed she was) and then was speechless for a few moments before getting her eyes back to normal and approaching the duo. "What... I mean... wow, you gals look great, but... you two... too?"
"If you are trying to say that we have elastic powers too, yes, we do." Candy grinned while posing like a pedigree dog to show off her new attractive body. "What was your first clue?"
"Uh... how much you two changed, the suits, the human scent on both of you..." Lilly started talking before Kate tapped her shoulder.
"That was a sarcastic question, Lilly." Kate said before looking back at Candy and Sweets. "Now, seriously, how this happened? A scientist captured the both of you?"
"It seems so... but we didn't get caged or anything. One moment we were walking around, and then were fast asleep, and by the time we woke up, we were like this." Sweets shrugged. "Not that we mind. Heh, maybe those humans feel guilty over torturing us at their labs and now they're giving us powers for free."
Kate didn't believe the later option; it was very suspicious, and she thought that the most possible reason was that Dr Tabias had invented some potion that worked much faster than the previous one, and therefore it didn't need to be administered at a lab under heavy supervision. Kate was also very upset about the humans not respecting their deal.
"We'll need to pay Dr Tabias a visit... in the meantime, you two, well, practice your powers but don't try to overuse them until we know there's no side effect." Kate frowned at the duo. "And before you argue with me, let me remind you the reason Dr Tabias kept experimenting with wolves and other animals is because he didn't dare testing the formulas on humans due to their strong immune systems resisting the effects, and that many of the first animal test subjects didn't survive!"
Sweets rolled her eyes, obviously not caring about Kate's explanation, but Candy looked honestly concerned. After all, even if she and Sweets disliked Kate, Candy couldn't deny Kate was the obvious expert when it came to dealing with the humans.
"O-okay, guess you are right this time, Kate." Candy agreed with the alpha, making Sweets frown a bit but soon she smiled as well. If the other super wolves were leaving to see this scientist, she and Candy would have a lot of time to start getting the other wolves' admiration.
Kate and Lilly had a quick meeting with the other wolves to organize themselves; of course, this meant Kate made most of the plan while Lilly just gave her occassional opinion. It was decided that, besides the most experienced elastic females, only Casey and Austin would go with them to see Dr Tabias, to avoid risking non-powered wolves. After a quick 'see you' kiss to their mates, and some advice to their offspring, Kate, Lilly and the Invisible Couple were on their way, Kate and Lilly morphing into their fastest, strongest shapes so they could carry Casey and Austin and arrive faster at the labs.
"Well, while we wait for them to return... I'm hungry." Sweets said out-loud while giving a sly, seductive smile to several wolves. "Can any of you boys give me something to eat?"
Almost immediately, all the male wolves rushed to get Sweets something to eat, many of them having a lovesick puppy face, while the female wolves, despite not liking this reaction, found themselves incapable of arguing or getting angry with Sweets, despite she and Candy still being in their sexy forms and therefore, very obviously, using this attractive form to get whatever they wanted. Candy gave them a very puzzled look; she knew males would do anything for a pretty face, but she wasn't expecting the females to accept it so easily; Sweets noticed it as well, and smirked, still not realizing the 'other' ability they had gained, but already suspecting she and Candy had received a lot more than Kate and Lilly.
Later that night, Dr Tabias was finishing some paperwork in his lab. The man looked particularly distressed, having already reported what had happened, and fearing the consequences of this robbery. Before he could finish with the last documents, he heard some noises from the corridor; when he went to see what was going on, he found several guards unconscious, and when he went to check on them, he yelped in fear when 2 wolves appeared from thin air, growling at him. He realized they were the animals that got the Mega Stealth Capacity Formula, aka Invisibility Power.
Before Tabias could take out a tranquilizer gun he always carried since the incident at the forest, he heard a rubber stretching noise he was very familiar with, and found his hand trapped by a white wolf's paw. Then, jumping from an air vent, the other elastic female pounced on him and she morphed into her werewolf-like shape, both to be very intimidating and to see Dr Tabias face-to-face.
"D-don't hurt me..." The scientist gulped while Lilly got rid of the gun, and Casey and Austin, back to invisibility, went to look around to handle any coming human.
"You didn't respect our deal." Kate, morphing into her anthro form (something that made her throat change to resemble a human's), spoke to the man in a very serious tone. Lilly morphed as well, growling a bit at him for extra intimidation.
"You were supposed to stay out of the forest and stop messing with us." Lilly frowned while moving a long-clawed paw next to his face.
"I did respect our deal... whatever you think I did... I didn't do it." Tabias, paling in fear, tried to sound convincing. Even if he was telling the truth, he didn't know if the wolves would believe him.
"Right, because any human can give superpowers to any animal, huh? Oh, and that was sarcasm." Lilly growled a bit louder this time.
"What do you want from me?"
"We want the truth." Kate grabbed Tabias by the collar and lifted him with just one hand, as if he weighed nothing. "Did you or any of your wacko friends experiment on animals again?"
"No, no, I swear... we hadn't been experimenting on live animals since you two ambushed me..." Tabias noticed the angry glares and changed his words..." I mean, since you two defended from my men and myself... and we had limited our research to test tubes and experimentation on cell samples, not with living animals.
Against their best judgement, Kate and Lilly actually believed him, trusting their animal instincts and realizing Tabias wasn't making up this story.
"Then why did two members of our pack gain the same powers as our?" Lilly asked, a bit more relaxed yet still very serious.
"Two... oh, my... he didn't..." Noticing the wolves were looking angry again, Tabias started explaining. "We recently lost some of our formula... more precisely, the vials where we keep the new, supposedly improved samples... and when I say we 'lost them', I mean someone stole them..."
Kate and Lilly nodded at each other and then Kate dropped Tabias.
"Start explaining yourself. And don't forget any detail." Kate frowned at the man, who sighed and started telling them everything he knew about this robbery.
Back with the pack, Candy and Sweets were having a VERY amused time. Practically every wolf was attentive to their every whim, and when they started practicing their elastic and shape-shifting powers, there was general awe coming from the group, despite the fact they all had seen these same tricks, and much better done, with Kate and Lilly.
"It's amazing... they all admire us!" Candy whispered at Sweets.
"I know. They finally realize how much we really worth." Sweets, grinning, replied in the same low tone. Candy then noticed Kate and Lilly's pups watching with pretty much the same interest as everyone else, something that surprised Candy since, after all, they had these very same powers and were already very experienced at their use.
"Hey, how about we ask the little ones to help us with the show? They know more than us and can help make this better." Candy whispered again.
"Mmm... good thinking; nothing like having someone improving your own image." Sweets smirked, obviously not caring about the youngsters' feelings. Candy didn't like this that much; even if she could be very vain at times, she actually had a soft spot for the pack's little ones.
"Girls, why don't you come here and show us more of those tricks of yours?" Sweets said to the young elastic females, all of them instantly beaming and joining the elder females while the rest of the pack encouraged them.
"Okay, just mimic me, okay?" Celenia smiled at Candy and Sweets before she stretched her whole body, surprising everyone as now each leg was longer than the largest trees around, and her torso was even longer. Candy and Sweets mimicked her, and soon Celenia was showing them how to coordinate their moves when having such long limbs; it wasn't easy since, at this size, it wasn't easy to see what the body was touching at all times, and in fact Candy and Sweets couldn't help but hit some wolves by accident (not that they cared, despite not being light hits). Celenia showed them how to solve this problem by stretching the neck , lifting it up, and moving it so they could always keep an eye on the whole body.
"Whoa... why don't you get dizzy?" Sweets groaned, as the neck moves were starting to affect her balance.
"Heh, who says I don't?" Celenia chuckled before morphing back to normal. "Its practice, that's all. After a while, you won't feel the effects."
When Candy and Sweets returned to normal, and realized their little vertigo wasn't going to make them puke, they told the girls to continue with the lessons. Meadow got in front of them and, in less than 2 seconds, morphed perfectly into a bear.
"Wow... but, I don't want to look like a bear." Candy said to the now much bigger wolf-turned-bear.
"It can come in handy to scare away some other animal. After all, a lone bear is much scarier than a lone wolf." Meadow said, making Candy and Sweets to realize how useful this transformation could be.
It took them some effort, and some of their transformations were plain ugly (the other wolves didn't mind and even praised them), but they finally got to transform into bears. Meadow, smiling, showed them how to move; Candy and Sweets realized that, as bears, their moves were much less graceful and agile, but their strength increased incredibly plus they could stand on their hind legs, and their claws were very useful weapons.
Meadow then showed them how to morph into kangaroos, a shape they all had seen Kate and Lilly use in the past. This was much harder than the bear, since, even if the kangaroo was a smaller animal, none of them had ever seen a live kangaroo, and only knew them from Kate and Lilly's descriptions and transformations... and they only knew the kangaroos from pictures they saw at the laboratory. Meadow, personally, enjoyed this transformation a lot, since the kangaroo's usual way of moving, by jumping and bouncing, was pretty much fit for an elastic being. Again, Candy and Sweets took some time to get it right, but they soon started bouncing around as kangaroos... even if their kangaroo form wasn't as good as Meadow's; then again, with nobody really knowing a live kangaroo, they couldn't actually tell how close they were to the real thing.
"Good. You two are getting really great with the transformations." Meadow praised both Candy and Sweets. "Now... to relax and have fun after these lessons... I'll show you how to morph into a form you can use for both fighting and playing."
Meadow used the same methods Kate and Lilly used when teaching her and the others; basically, after a very hard lesson, they'd finish with a simple, nice one, that would turn the whole thing into a playful meeting. Meadow changed into a ball and told Candy and Sweets to do the same; they were a bit reluctant since the ball shape 'would make them look fat', but soon found themselves enjoying it a lot, especially when the rest of the pack started playing with them.
"Oh, this is so good!" Candy giggled as some pups bounced and chased her. Sweets, despite her usual snobbish ways, was also having a great time even if not saying it out loud.
"No wonder Kate and Lilly seem to enjoy their powers so much; they're fun to use!"
Unknown to everyone else, this little 'party' was distracting everyone too much; even the watchers were very distracted... so much, that none noticed a certain man setting up small surveillance cameras at some trees, camouflaging them properly so nobody could spot them later when not distracted; the cameras were also completely scent-free, and the mad scientist was using new clothing and shoes that didn't have his own scent yet.
"The data I'll get will be priceless. And once I learn enough about the wolves and how they use their powers... I'll know enough to capture them all."