Chapter 2 - Elastic Dating 1
Dr Tabias took Kate and Lilly back to his lab, the two wolves telling their invisible companions to stay as guards in case other humans arrived. Also, since Kate was doing most of the interrogating, she asked Lilly to keep an eye on Dr Tabias at all times, in case the scientist betrayed them and used some weapon on them while Kate was distracted with the questions and answers' session she was about to start.
"Okay, Tabias, start talking and don't use too many... 'mumbo jumbo' sciency talk, as my mate would call it, since I wouldn't understand it, but don't be condescending either. I am no scientist but I'm no fool either." Kate said in a very serious tone. Since, after all, she was still a wild animal, without a college education, it was obvious she wouldn't get many of Tabias' more complex words, but she still was a smart creature that had spent enough time in the lab to catch up some basic knowledge; Tabias nodded in agreement and started.
"As you already know... I promised I'd stop my research on animals... but my chiefs... my 'alphas', as you would call them... they still demanded me to continue, so I went for something in the middle; I had been doing my research on animal cell samples instead of still living beings. It's more... civilized and not dangerous for animals, but it's also a bit of a slow procedure, since I can't fully test the effects on a real animal, or in a person, if I don't experiment it on a live creature."
"Why none of your pack's members had volunteered to be test subjects? Or why your pack's leaders hadn't ordered someone to do it?" Kate asked.
"Well, there are several issues about that." Tabias continued. "First of all, because our Immune Systems, the part of your body that protects it from diseases, prevented my formula from taking effect 'cause our white blood cells kept absorbing it... basically, the white cells attack any strange substance that enters your body, and in this case, the white cells think the formula is a disease, so they attack, absorb and destroy it before it can affect the rest of the body."
"Pretty much like a group of sentinels protecting the pack's territory." Lilly nodded, understanding the basic concept.
"Yes, you can say that. For some reason, my formula works much better on animals than in humans, probably due to evolution or maybe because you animals have higher metabolisms... it means, your body works faster than ours... so your body absorbs the formula much faster than the white cells can eliminate it, and therefore it affects you faster and better than it does with humans." Tabias sighed. "In order to make the formula effective on humans, I needed to accelerate a human's metabolism before trying to make him/her take the formula, and well, that comes with another set of risks... and that's another reason we hadn't tested it on humans. We normally test our things on animals at first, and if it works, we then move to human experimentation; and since I'm no longer working with live animals, this also slows down the experimentation on human beings. Plus, being this risky, it's not easy to find a human brave or foolish enough to volunteer taking it."
"But you mentioned something about your Formula being improved" Kate pointed out.
"Yes; this new formula works precisely on the whole 'body absorbing it faster' angle; the new batch of formula acts a lot faster than the previous one, so it might allow me to, finally, create a potion that the human body can absorb and assimilate before the immune system gets rid of it. And, if this formula is quick enough to affect a human..."
"Then a wolf would get transformed by it much faster than with the old formula." Lilly reasoned.
"Especially if used in a high dosage." Tabias groaned. "And last night, I noticed someone had stolen enough of my new formula to affect at least 4 or 5 test subjects... no idea how fast will it work if the whole dosage is used on just one or two animals."
"Well two of our pack mates were injected with some of your improved formula." Kate frowned.
"I don't think it was the WHOLE dosage. If I were the thief, I'd try to reserve some of the formula for later experimentation.. still, if he only targeted two of your friends, each one could have been injected with at least twice the necessary dose, and that would be enough for an almost instant effect." Tabias told her.
"And you said you know who might be the burglar?" Kate asked him.
"Yes... one of my assistants; we fired him..."
"YOU FIRED HIM? NO WONDER HE'S ANGRY!" Lilly gasped. "Setting him on fire..."
"No, no, when I say we 'fired' him, I mean... we evicted him from here... basically, he's no longer allowed to work here." Dr Tabias explained to the white wolf.
"Oh... why didn't you say that before?" Lilly frowned. "You humans don't know how to speak clearly or what?"
Tabias sighed at the irony of a talking animal accusing a human of not speaking properly and turned back at Kate, who now was back to her thoughtful expression.
"Okay, you are coming with us to our territory; I'd prefer Lilly and I handling this ourselves, but we're no scientists and we might need your abilities to solve this whole ordeal." Kate then poked Tabias' chest, in a very firm way. "But if you try anything funny, and I don't mean 'funny Hah-Hah', we'll make sure you never be able to hold any of your lab stuff again, even if we need to break every bone in your arms and hands."
Tabias gulped at this; he was certainly scared about this, as he was basically getting kidnapped by the wolves, but at the same time, he knew that, even if this particular problem wasn't his fault, it still was his responsibility, being his formula, taken from his lab, by one of his old assistants. Plus, Tabias knew that it was quite important to recover as much of the formula as possible plus stopping this ex-employee before he could continue with his experiments or sell the formula to another government. '
"Y-yes... no problem... just... let me write a note for my employers so they know I'm not in danger or anything like that... and then grab some stuff from the lab."
Kate and Lilly nodded at this, realizing these were reasonable requests; Tabias would need lab stuff to check out Candy and Sweets and make sure this formula had no dangerous side effects, something none of them knew at the time, plus he had to make sure no other human would go to the forest looking for him.
Meanwhile, Candy and Sweets were having a lot of fun with their elastic powers, realizing all the potential uses of them. Besides making them two of the pack's most powerful members, it also made them among the most useful, plus they were finding out how cool it was to spend time with Kate and Lilly's pups, something Candy and Sweets had mostly avoided in the past.
"Now, we're practicing with the super senses." Meadow explained them while making her eyes larger than an owl's. "This trick will improve your eyesight a lot; especially if you combine it with your neck-stretching, since it allows you to see at every direction."
Candy and Sweets practiced the trick; it seemed to be an easy one, but by getting these big eyes, they also became sensitive to light, so they had to use it wisely and avoid practicing it at noon. The trick became even more complicated when, besides enlarging the eyes, they also elongated them, a trick that would be useful when it wasn't possible to elongate the neck.
"Good. Now, your ears." Meadow elongated her left ear until it looked like a bat's. "This will help you hear even better; the only caution here is that the ones around you must talk in a low voice to avoid hurting your ears."
Candy and Sweets did this trick quite well; Sweets returned her ears to normal almost immediately since she was getting a slight headache from being able to hear even the lightest noise (like, a group of ants fighting a grasshopper) as loud as a puma roaring next to her. Candy managed it a bit better, especially when she only enlarged one of her ears.
"Heh, this is fun. I think I just heard a caterpillar burping." Candy chuckled but then got a serious expression. "Wait... I hear someone yelling... for help..."
Meadow and Sweets did the 'giant ear trick' to confirm what Candy said, and realized she was right; Candy was already moving, using the ball transformation for extra speed.
A couple of miles away from the pack's living quarters, Hutch had fallen in a raging river when trying to hunt an otter. Usually, wolves are very good swimmers, but this time the water was just too powerful... and he was heading for a waterfall.
"Somebody, please, help me!" Hutch yelled, hoping someone could be able to hear him over the river's noise, but it would be quite hard... unless that 'someone' had bat-like hearing.
Candy arrived at the precise moment when Hutch was about to reach the waterfall. The elastic female gasped at this and, remembering what she had learned from the youngsters, elongated her whole body (torso, arms and legs) until she was forming a safety net across the river, securing her arms on a tree and her legs on a huge rock.
Hutch was caught by the 'net', and when Candy felt his body touching her torso, she tightened her leg grip and then wrapped the rest of her body around Hutch's body, retrieving herself and the male back to the shore.
"Are... are you okay?" Candy asked Hutch when they were back on land, safe and sound. She got back to her normal shape and started checking on him... and then stared at each other's eyes.
"You are an angel." Hutch said it more like a statement than as a question. Candy blushed at this.
"Not unless angels can elongate themselves." Candy couldn't help but feel a bit nervous in Hutch's presence, as he reminded her of Drew, a male she had crushed on for years.
Candy and Hutch's moment got cut by Meadow and Sweets' arrival.
"What happened?" Sweets asked, noticing the obviously soaked male and the blushing Candy.
"This angel saved my life." Hutch said to the newcomers, barely giving them a glance before giving full attention to Candy again.
"I... think you need to rest... and maybe eat something..." Candy tried to recover herself from this impression.
"Yes... anything but otter, please. I think I'm cutting semi-aquatic mammals from my diet." Hutch chuckled.
The 3 elastic females and Hutch returned to the lair, Candy trying to keep herself a bit away from Hutch to hide her blush. Of course they already knew each other, being from the same pack and all, but Hutch was usually hunting, either with the pack or by his own, while Candy did sentinel duties or stayed at the pack's main living quarters to help keep an eye on the pups... when she wasn't goofing around with Sweets, at least. Because of that, Candy and Hutch were rarely in the same place at once, and when they did, it was usually along with the rest of the pack for special occassions like when all the wolves had to move to the temporary quarters the first time the humans were searching for their escaped lab subjects. Not to mention that Candy, being an Omega, usually kept herself from watching at the higher ranked male wolves; this is why Hutch's next words impressed her.
"Uh... since you just saved me and all, maybe we can, you know, have dinner together... so I can thank you properly."
"Dinner together as in... well... eh... a d-date?" Candy was now blushing a lot... and her eyes had grown the size of a turtle's shell. Sweets noticed this and gave her friend a quick push in the shoulder, making Candy to react and get back to normal. "I... yes, sure, I'd like that."
"Great... heh, and nice trick with the eyes. It lets others see how pretty they are without needing to get too close." Hutch then quickly cleared, thinking Candy would think he was being sarcastic.
Candy simply nodded and smiled, while Meadow grinned at the exchange and Sweets rolled her eyes yet smiled as well.
"Note to self; be careful with my facial expressions." Candy mental-talked to herself, realizing that, as an elastic creature, her expressions would be very extreme ones and, even if Hutch didn't seem to mind, it would still be quite surprising for others.
A couple hours later, Hutch and Candy were at The Moonlight Howl, him setting up an improvised table on a large, flat rock. Besides some deer meat and bones they had brought from the pack's common reserve, Hutch had also provided some bird eggs and gopher meat from his personal one; being an occasional lone hunter, Hutch was very good as getting small meals that wouldn't satisfy a whole pack but were great for one or two wolves.
"Mmm... this is pretty good... Can't remember the last time I ate gopher." Candy said while eating the last of the rodent.
"Glad you like it. I'm more or less good at hunting rodents; not exactly a prime steak dinner, but they make perfect snacks." Hutch smiled at her and moved his paw next to Candy, who, instinctly, moved it away. "What's wrong, Angel? You don't want me touching you?"
"I... uh.. well..." Candy was hesitant about sharing her personal issues about physical contact with Hutch, specially on a first date, but decided to be honest. "You know Drew, right?"
"Yes... we're not exactly friends, but yes, sometimes we hunt together along with the other high rank wolves." Hutch replied, getting a curious expression.
"The thing is, I used to have a crush on him... and he pretty much broke my heart... More like, he broke it, chew it, buried it until it was slightly spoiled, dug it out, and stomped on what was left." Candy sighed. "I had been avoiding looking at other wolves since then."
"I'm sorry he did that to you... but remember, I'm not him." Hutch gave her a very hearty, honest look.
"Yes... you're not him." Candy smiled at him and then, feeling in the mood, she started singing/howling, something she really liked to do when wanting to express a very deep feeling or something she couldn't easily express by just talking..
Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see
That I want and I'm needing everything that we should be
I'll bet she's beautiful, that girl he talks about
And she's got everything that I have to live without
Drew talks to me, I laugh 'cause it's just so funny
And I can't even see anyone when he's with me
He says he's so in love, he's finally got it right,
I wonder if he knows he's all I think about at night
He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do
Drew walks by me, can he tell that I can't breathe?
And there he goes, so perfectly,
The kind of flawless I wish I could be
She better hold him tight, give him all her love
Look in those beautiful eyes and know she's lucky 'cause
So I drive home alone, as I turn out the light
I'll put his picture down and maybe
Get some sleep tonight
He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only one who's got enough of me to break my heart
He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do
He's the time taken up, but there's never enough
And he's all that I need to fall into.
Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see.
Hutch looked at Candy in awe, amazed at the beauty of her singing voice, but also paying attention to the song's lyrics. It was obvious Drew really hurt her.
"Candy... I'm not breaking your heart like he did, but how exactly did he break your heart?" Hutch asked in a calm, sincere tone. "After all.. we're being honest with each other's feelings, so I'm guessing you were honest with Drew too."
"He fell for another girl wolf, and I couldn't be with him; he was just clueless that I exist."Candy sighed sadly. "I mean, okay, he is free to fall in love with whoever he wants, but he knew I liked him, a lot... and he just ignored me as if I were nothing. Not even a 'Hey, Candy, I'm sorry, but we can still be friends' thing."
"I see... the guy is a jerk." Hutch frowned. "Say the word and I'll shove him in front of a buffalo stampede."
"Nah, it's fine... that wouldn't solve anything." Candy grinned before changing her head into a buffalo's. "But the idea sounds fun."
"Heh, that's so good... how many shapes can you take?" Hutch asked her.
"Mmm... wanna see them?" Candy grinned while returning her head back to normal. "We can go to another place so I can show you. After all, this is mostly a romantic place, and not somewhere I can show off."
"I'd like that." Hutch smiled at this.
After finishing eating, the pair went to the river; of course, to avoid any dangerous situation, they went to a calm area of the river, without any hard, fast water currents.
"Check this out." Candy smiled while stretching her legs until they were as long as tree logs, and then started walking in the river, her paws touching the bottom and keeping the rest of her body away from the water surface.
"Hey, that is a very useful trick... I can tell I'd have loved to do that today." Hutch chuckled.
"Oh, and this is just the beginning." Candy stretched her neck to move her head right in front of Hutch's face. "Stretching is cool and all, but it's the most basic of my abilities. Look at this."
Candy, still walking on the river, morphed into a ball, allowing herself to get carried away by the current. Before Hutch could panic (obviously getting a flashback of what happened to him earlier that day), Candy stretched her tail until it was as long as a very large line that Hutch could grab. Hutch gave her a good yank and then she returned to the shore. Candy's tail then returned to normal and integrated itself to the ball shape; then, she started bouncing around Hutch before doing it over him. Hutch grinned and started bouncing Candy on his head, having a lot of fun.
"Hey, this is great. You have lots of talents." Hutch said without stopping bouncing her.
"Bounce me a bit higher so I can show you another transformation." Candy said to him. Hutch did as said and Candy started taking very deep breaths until she lost her ball shape and replaced it with her normal self but incredibly inflated, to the point she started floating over Hutch. Again, Candy stretched her tail so Hutch could get a hold in her so Candy wouldn't end floating too far away.
"Guess I had a LIGHT meal." Candy joked, losing a bit of air but taking another deep breath to replace it, so she continued floating at the same height. Also, her voice sounded deeper than usual.
"Now you're literally looking down at me." Hutch grinned.
"Oh, you have a sense of humor. Nice." Candy grinned before getting another idea. "Okay, now impulse me over the river. I'm showing you another trick."
Hutch did as she asked him, and then she returned the tail back to normal size. Then, she started expelling the air excess and, slowly, went down to the water. At that moment, Candy morphed the lower half of her body into a fish's, and started swimming around, even jumping out of the water at times like a dolphin or a salmon.
"Wow... now you're an aquatic angel." Hutch gasped in amazement.
"Technically, a mermaid... but thanks." Candy, smiling, modified her head's fur as well, getting a long hairdo, plus changing her upper body to resemble a human female (a VERY gifted human female), making herself even more similar to a real mermaid.
"Why I suddenly feel even more eager to hug you?" Hutch admitted.
"Something like this?" Candy got closer to the shore and stretched her arms to pull him into the water, and then gave him a very tight hug, still keeping her arms and hands stretched to cover him completely. Hutch smiled at this and rubbed his head on her breast and head.
Without stopping to hug him, Candy morphed her lower body into strong human-like legs, and, being close enough to the shore, started walking out of the water, carrying Hutch in her arms. Candy then morphed her body into a very muscular anthro form and put Hutch down to make a muscle pose for him.
"You like this, Handsome?" Candy flexed her muscles, showing a physical power that would make Mister Universe envious.
"Wow... you get more impressive at every moment." Hutch confessed. Candy stopped flexing but conserved her Amazonian anthro body, and approached Hutch to scratch behind his ears.
"You like it, uh?" Candy grinned when noticing his smile and his wagging tail. "You'll like this even more."
Candy started giving him a belly rub, and Hutch laid on his back, so the massage was much easier for her to apply. She then changed to a non-muscular anthro form to continue rubbing him; after all, Candy was still a rookie and conserving a muscular build was much more tiring than a non-muscular one, plus she obviously didn't need a lot of strength for this task.
"And... you say... you're not an angel? Because... Mmmmm... I'm in Heaven..." Hutch moaned in delight as she continued.
"You'll be in Heaven in a moment." Candy started morphing into her sexy canine form even if still conserving her human-like hands to continue rubbing him; she even changed her clothes so they didn't cover as much as before, allowing Candy to show more of her sexy body.
Hutch looked at her and, if she wasn't rubbing his belly at the moment, he would be on top of her right there and now.
"Oh... this is soooooo good... and kinda funny..."
"You want funny now?" Candy grinned while morphing her clothing into a clown/jester's, a transformation that she had seen Lilly adopt in the past. To make it even closer to a real clown's, Candy shaped part of the outfit into a real jester hat plus making her nose light blue colored, and bulbous.
"Hahahaha... Yeah, that's fun... whatever it is." Hutch chuckled. Like any wild wolf, he had no idea of what a clown was, but he found the transformation quite funny. It became even funnier when Candy turned back into her anthro form while still wearing the jester outfit, and started jumping and bouncing around like a wacky clown; again, something she had seen Lilly do in the past to entertain the pups.
"Kate and Lilly say this is a clown; some wacky disguise humans wear to entertain their pups." Candy admitted. "Hey, wanna see how I'd look as other species?"
"You'd look lovable as any animal." Hutch said while nodding.
Candy grinned and changed back to her normal wolf shape, and then started morphing into the kangaroo shape she had seen Kate and Lilly adopting many times in the past.
"What... wow... what kind of animal is that?" Hutch admired Candy's transformation. "It's... interesting... you still look very cute, but it's also something I'd never seen."
"It's a 'kangaroo'; you are not seeing any of these around here." Candy chuckled while jumping/bouncing around. "Basically, it's like a mix of a giant mouse, rabbit and deer. It even has a pouch in the body to carry stuff."
"Hey, very practical." Hutch admitted.
"Look at this other one. Kate and Lilly say that the domestic dogs come in many shapes and sizes, and I've seen them turning into those different kinds of dogs." Candy morphed back to normal before doing her next transformation; being a rookie, she still didn't dominate switching from one animal to the other, so she had to change back to her normal wolf form before morphing again.
"You mean, they aren't all like those dogs that human hunters travel with?" Hutch was now very surprised. Being forest animals, most of the time the only dogs they saw (whenever they saw one) were hunting dogs, meaning all of them were hounds or some similar breed.
"Yeah, it seems the dogs get different abilities from living with humans, and those abilities give them different shapes too." Candy shrugged before transforming. She made her ears longer and falling down, but now as much as a basset hound of dachshund; she narrowed her muzzle a bit, and made her fur a bit longer and fuzzier, plus getting slightly longer and thinner legs. When finishing, she looked a lot like an Irish Setter or an Afghan.
"Ooooh... not as sexy as your usual self, but still very close!" Hutch complimented her, smiling lovingly at Candy, who then gave him a very flirty face.
"Mmm... I can get even closer." Candy started rubbing her body against his side and moved her tail under his muzzle, caressing it. Unknown to Candy, she was now starting to use her pheromonal control, making herself a lot more attractive to any straight male wolf... curiously, with Hutch, it wasn't working, but that didn't stop him from seeing her sexier by the moment, probably because he already was extremely attracted to her, and she had been flirty with Hutch almost the whole time of their date, meaning his mating instincts were already working overtime, as much as his morals to keep him from pouncing on her at the spot.
"Ehem."
Candy and Hutch stopped their 'almost' making out session when hearing Sweets behind them.
"Candy, we need to talk."
"Can't you wait for a few minutes?" Candy groaned before giving Hutch a quick glance and then looking back at Sweets. "Make it two hours."
"Candy..." Sweets frowned.
"Give me a few minutes." A sighing Candy turned at Hutch. "This won't take too long."
Hutch nodded and then left, without going too far. Candy then turned, more than a little upset, back at Sweets.
"What's your problem, Sweets? This is the first date I've had since I've had my heart broken..."
"You are letting a date make you forget about our powers and what we can do with them? And I don't mean just the stretching ones!" Sweets snapped before getting a sly tone. "Think about it... we can use our abilities to rule this pack; all the male wolves will be our servants, and all the females will be our loyal followers."
"Okay, cut that." Candy frowned. "I don't want to be a queen or anything like that. I just want to have a happy life and maybe get a good mate for myself."
"You can have a super happy life as a queen, and have all the mates you want!" Sweets growled. "If you want, you can make Hutch your favorite one..."
"I don't need a favorite one; I just want Hutch and only Hutch. He's nice, handsome, sweet, and understands me." Candy frowned. "We're wolves, Sweets; we mate for life, remember?"
"Well, normal wolves have no elastic abilities, so better get used to it!"
"No, I won't Sweets. Everyone needs someone to love, and if you're smart enough, you would know you need someone to love, too." Candy snapped and then started walking away. "Sorry if I was too rough, but I wouldn't be your friend if I didn't say these thing to you."
Sweets almost growled at Candy but stopped herself. Candy had a very valid point; even if it hurt to hear this, Sweets knew that Candy cared about her and would never be mean to her on purpose. The last time Candy was this tough with her was when they were young, and Sweets was being a very big pain to all the other pups, so Candy had to snap her out of this mean attitude and actually made her to mellow a bit, at least enough to socialize with the other wolves.
"Candy... I hate when you are right... and it's because you're always right when it comes to pointing out whatever I'm doing wrong." Sweets sighed and looked down, talking to herself. As a wolf, she had a natural instinct to find a mate for life, but she hadn't been lucky at all in this aspect, and she had been very hesitant about compromising herself with any male after seeing how much Candy suffered from her heartache... but now that Candy had, apparently, found herself a good mate, Sweets' natural urges were returning with a vengeance.
Sweets looked back at the path Candy left, and sighed again. Despite their argument, Sweets couldn't help but feel happy for Candy.
"You are a lucky female, Candy. Hope I can get some luck myself."