"Looks like you had an interesting night, huh?"

Sure Scout wanted to know why his teammates were all covered in blood, he was sure that, as always, there was a funny story behind. But Soldier and Demoman did not stop to tell him a single word. Not saying a thing to their partners or even glancing at them, they dashed towards the showers and, since there was no lock, they used a chair to block the door.

Once alone, they looked at each other.

"You remember the same as I do, right?" Demoman asked.

"The wolf attack, the transformation and the killing. Yeah." Soldier nodded. "Like one of those movies."

"The worst thing's that this isn't a movie. We're bloody werewolves. And that's a problem."

"We should inform the team right now."

"I don't know...It'll take them some time to believe us. You see how Sniper looked at us when we told him. It might be too late for them to be safe. Also, there was a werewolf and now there's two. We killed the one we found; what makes you think they won't do the same with us?"

"But we got respawn."

"Aye, but imagine the bosses find out. They wouldn't be happy to have werewolves working for them."

"Why not? We are killing machines. Isn't that perfect?"

"But picture this, Soldier: you're a wolf. And you got blood-lust. Will you distinguish between a friend and an enemy? And you see what happened to us. It bit us and just one or two minutes later we were turning."

"...You're right. This isn't good...You think the brainiacs can do something about it?"

"Do you really want to give Medic your body to experiment with?"

"What should we do, then?"

"...I think I know who can help us. Let's have a shower. This is disgusting."


"Merasmus? You there? We are werewolves now and we need one of your heart pills!"

"Uh...Ahh...The number you have dialed has been disconnected or is no longer in service!"

Demoman grabbed the earphone and hanged up.

"I don't want to ask that bloody wizard for help. He would make it worse anyway."

"Then?"

Demoman took the phone and dialed. He held the handset close to him and Soldier approached to hear too.

...

...

...

"Yes? Who is it?" a feminine voice asked from the other side of the line.

"Mum?" Demoman asked.

"Hello, Demo's mom!" Soldier exclaimed with a smile.

"Tavish? Did something bad happen?"

"Well..."

"That's what I supposed. You never call me, unless something happens. I've told you a million times, I'm bored to death in here, and you ignore me. Ay, the day I'm gone you'll regret it, you'll see-"

"Mum, please, stop that. We've got a big problem here."

"You got some woman pregnant?"

"Wha-? No!"

"When are you going to give me grandchildren, then?"

"Mum! Listen for a second! This is a supernatural problem!"

"A supernatural problem? Playing with cursed books again?"

"My friend Soldier and I were bitten by a werewolf."

"Wait. What do you mean? Did you become a werewolf?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much the situation."

"Tavish Finnegan DeGroot! Oh, I have to sit! You! A werewolf!"

"This isn't me fault, you know..."

"What were you doing with a werewolf? Answer to me!"

"We heard it outside, it wouldn't stop making noise, and we..."

"Did no one ever tell you never to go near a werewolf, you fool?! You should know that kind of things, it is common sense!"

"Look, mum, if you're not going to help, I'll hang up."

"Give me a second...A werewolf...My, oh, my...Well, yes: fire."

"We don't want to be burnt alive, mum!"

"Ah! But I suppose you don't want to kill everyone everyone you come across either! Well, alright...Hm...Yes, I heard that killing the sire werewolf ends the curse."

"We already killed it, ma'am, and we transformed right after that." Soldier informed.

"Perhaps that was not the sire. Or maybe it isn't as dead as you think."

"But it was dead, mum, I'm sure of that."

"You'll have to look for the sire, if that wolf you killed wasn't. Or perhaps that doesn't work in your case. Very well, I will check the books and see if I can find something. No son of mine is going to be a beast. I will call our relatives from Scotland too."

"But you're sure this has a remedy, right?"

"Everything in life has, even lycanthropy."

"Thank you so much, mum. I love ye."

"My word...You never call me and when you do, it's because you turned into a werewolf...In the meantime, just make sure you don't bite anyone during nighttime."

"Yeah, careful with the full moon."

"Full moon? Nonsense! That only happens in movies!"

"Are you kidding? So we are going to turn every single night?"

"Yes, so you'd better watch out. And get another job, where there's no bloody werewolves around!"

"Bye, Demo's mom!"

The old lady hanged up and the mercenaries exchanged a glance.

"Alright. The sire werewolf. If that wasn't the sire..." Demoman said.

"Perhaps it's in the desert."

"We could take a look around, yeah."

"That's also a safe place to transform tonight, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, there's practically no one around...It's an option. But, Soldier, what if killing the sire doesn't work?"

"Then I hope your mom finds something, 'cause we're screwed."

"The phone."

The two men were startled to see Spy next to them, with his arms crossed.

"Did you finish?" the Frenchman repeated patiently.

"As a response, they walked away quickly.

"Okay, then tonight we will..." Demo muttered to Soldier, leaning towards him so that he didn't have to raise his voice.

But, of course, Soldier couldn't control his volume. "Now that we're infected we have nothing to fear!"

"Ssssh!"

Demoman's attempts to silence his partner were useless: Spy had heard that perfectly. He watched them leave with a furrow, which was a sign that he was meditating.

He had heard Sniper comment the others about the way he had found those two that morning. They had agreed that that had to be one of the wildest hangovers of the pair. Spy had paid little attention to the matter until he read their expressions. They were extremely nervous. They had something big in their hands and they didn't want to share it with the rest of the team. The life of the party and the self-proclaimed captain didn't want to share something with the others...And then there was the infection thing. Why didn't they go to tell Medic immediately? Why hadn't them approached the doctor or someone else?

Sure he had better things to do than caring about Soldier and Demoman, but this seemed rather particular. Also, he had an important task: being aware of everything, because all the mercenaries did, at work or during their free time, affected the whole team. And this, this was very suspicious and sounded like something that could affect him and the others. As Spy dialed the number and waited for a response, he started to prepare mentally his action plan.

"AllĂ´? Ah, ma petite chou-fleur. Happy birthday."