Brand, with his foot glued to the accelerator, reached Chunk's house in no time at all. Which was ideal for the situation they were currently in. He briefly glanced the rear view mirror to get a look at the patient in the back.

"How's he doing Mikey?"

The youngest Walsh boy chanced a look up briefly when he heard his name, and then turned to Data, who was still sat unconscious next to him.

"He's still asleep, but I think he's breathing better." Mikey realised his own hands were shaking as he said this. Andy reached over and placed a hand on Data's shoulder gently.

"Come on Data, you can pull through this." Her voice was soft, but urging. They were all urging- for Data to wake up. For Data to say something. For Data to be ok. And the fact that he might not be scared them. As far as they could tell, only his foot had been injured. But there had been cases heard of where someone looked fine, for the most part, but ended up being the complete opposite of fine. Dear god did they hope this wouldn't be one of those cases.

Perhaps it was God, perhaps it was something else entirely, they didn't care. Something out there granted them luck. The small boy next to Mikey Walsh stirred, and whimpered quietly, and managed to pry open his eyes a smidge. But a smidge was enough- in fact it was more than enough. Mikey forgot his etiquette for a moment as he yelled out.

"Data! Data's awake! Data's awake!"

Data winced at the offending noise. He didn't know what was going on, only that his sense of hearing was now being mauled by loud cheers and cries of joy. What the heck was going on?

"Data!" cried Andy.

"How are you feeling?" questioned Stef.

"You want something to eat?" offered Chunk.

Mouth and Brand remained silent but kept their eyes on him- and they were eyes filled to the brim with worry and concern but also relief and joy.

"Guys?" came Data's low and somewhat husk voice. The question was almost an interogation. He couldn't remember what had happened, only that his foot was stinging like crazy, and all of his friends were crowded around him in Brand's car. Looking out the window he saw they were now pulling up outside of Chunk's house.

"Guys?" he asked again, "What's going on?"

The others shared brief glances at one another, trying to decide who should be the one to explain. Brand, feeling guilty for the whole mess they were in, decided he would do it.

"Look Data, I'm sorry. I should have gone out there, not you. I didn't know there was a beast out there, I thought you were just joking about-"

"Beast? What beast?" Data was getting worried now. And so were the others, by the looks of it. Did he really not remember the attack that almost cost him his foot?

But then the memories began to trail in. He remembered being dragged out of his tent. The rest was a little blurry, but he could recall the others stampeding out of the tent, and there were screams. Theirs or his? He couldn't remember. And then he hit his head, and it all went black. The others could see it in his face now as he let out just one single

"Oh..."

Brand dragged them away from that for the moment as he stopped the car with a jolt. He got out, and ran around to Mikey and Data's side, opening the car door with expedition. Everyone squeezed out and allowed room for Mikey and Brand to help Data out. Mikey took Data's arm and slung it around his own shoulder, easing the burden of walking for the time being. Chunk ran up his driveway and started calling out for his father.

"Dad! Dad, hurry! Daaad!"

Walter Cohen almost crashed through his front door onto the porch, he reached it with so much speed. He had fallen asleep in front of the television set, as he often did on Friday nights, when he was dragged from his sleep by what sounded like his son calling out to him. When he remembered that they were supposed to be out camping the panic began to set in. There was only one reason they'd come to him- someone was hurt.

As he stepped out onto the porch, grey dressing gown waltzing in the wind, he scanned each of them, until his eyes landed on Mikey Walsh who had the arm of Richard Wang hung around his shoulder. The boy appeared to be limping, favouring his right foot over his left. It was dark, but he thought he could make out a substance glazing the unfavoured appendage- blood immediately came to mind.

"Dad!" Chunk cried out again, "Dad! Its Data! There-there was this beast a-an-and it attac- it attacked Data an-and-"

"Easy, Lawrence!" Walter interjected his son from his ramblings, "Take it easy, and explain, slowly, what happened?"

As Chunk began explaining what had transpired in the Forest of Fears, Walter Cohen led the group inside and brought out a stool for Data to rest his injured foot upon. He then proceeded to remove the chomped up remains of Data's left shoe. The sight was far from pretty. The Goonies flinched at the sight. His foot looked as if a bear had tried using it as a tooth pick. The bite mark went all the way through to the bottom, and there was blood oozing everywhere- so much so that Mouth had to go and get paper towels and newspaper to keep it from staining the floor. Walter filled up a basin with water to rinse off the blood, and then he used rubbing alcohol to cleanse the wound. Finally, he wrapped a bandage around the entire foot, and got Chunk to fetch a clean pair of socks.

"Alright Richard," began Walter gently, "I want you to bend your toes for me, ok?"

Data complied as asked, although he had a little difficulty in doing so. His toes would bend, but not all the way. Miraculously, none of the nerves in his foot had ben severed, but some may possibly have been damaged slightly.

"Good, Richard. That's very good," Walter started, and then sighed an exhausted sigh, adjusting his glasses a little also, "Alright kids, I think that's about as much as I can do for now. It'll need stiches, but we can take care of that tomorrow. Why don't you kids set up your sleeping bags and stay the night?"

By the time 1:30 a.m. had rolled around, every person in the house had fallen asleep, safe from any beasts for the time being. Silence settled in first, until it was accompanied by the soft sounds of gentle breathing. Nobody stirred until morning.

When the morning did come about, the sky began eminating an exuberant orange glow. The birds joggled the slumber from their ruffled feathers and went about sightseeing in an effort to locate the best worms. Some dog somewhere was barking at a rooster that had cawed it from its sleep. It was around an hour later when the effects of sleep began wearing off, and one by one, the Goonies stirred from their slumber. Mouth tried desperately to hold onto it for as long as he could, but between the morning rays beaming through the window, and the shuffles of the others to the bathroom and back ultimately stole that leisure from him. He too decided to visit the bathroom, then.

As Mikey returned from his trip to the toilet, he sat down on the floor next to Brand, who pulled him into an embrace, ruffling his hair vigorously. Mikey laughed a little, and eventually managed to pull free. He punched Brand on the shoulder but to Brand it felt like more of a tap, and he let a smile dance across his lips. Mouth got up to use the bathroom and passed Chunk, who was returning. Chunk, however, must have been in the kitchen because when he came back into the room he had a spoon shoved in his gob and a bowl that was overpiled with cereal. There was a stream of milk dribbling from his mouth to chin. He settled down on one of the armchairs- most likely the same one his dad had fallen asleep in last night before being interrupted by them. Brand stole a glance at Data, who had gone to sleep on the couch last night, but wound up on the floor at some point- Brand guessed it was caused by a fitful night's sleep. The boy was still asleep, drool slying from his hung mouth. Pity tugged his heartstrings, and Brand lifted the boy back up onto the couch to let him sleep some more. As he sat back down, Brand began wondering when the other Goonies began becoming brothers to him.

"Hey Brand?" Mikey startled him from his thoughts, barely registering Mouth's return.

"Yeah, Mikey?"

"Do you... well, do you believe the stories? You know, the ones about the Forest of Fears?" This garnered quizzical looks from Chunk and Mouth. They, however, were not looking at Mikey, but at Brand, as if they were genuinely curious too, now that Mikey had mentioned it. Brand sighed at this, but not out of frustration.

"I believe a lot of things Mikey," he began, "but I don't believe in silly stories. And that's all they are, got it? Just silly stories." He was beginning to wonder if, from the way he was talking, he was trying to convince himself more so than the others. All the same, the others nodded their understanding.

He couldn't blame them for being curious, though. That thing that attacked Data last night sure looked like some sort of fairytale monster. Granted, it was dark last night. All the same though, no creature they had ever seen before had been that large, or had blue eyes that glowed incredulously. The rest had been hard to make out. There were no distinct features they had been able to make out because they blended into the shadows. They could only tell how big it seemed because it didn't blend perfectly. They were just about able to tell a silhouette from a shadow. Also, they guessed that from the position of the eyes, that's how tall the head had been from the ground.

Data began stirring from his sleep, which in turn stirred everyone else from their melancholic thoughts. As he was waking up, Andy and Stef came in from the spare bedroom they had slept in. They joined the others on the floor.

"Good morning." Stef droned out in a washed out voice. The others mumbled something back along the same lines.

Data, having been distracted from his slumber, opened one sleepy eye. The rest of his body felt numb from tiredness. He sigh-yawned, and lifted his head up slightly. His hair sprung out into a wild black mane. He pushed himself up, and went to stand up, forgetting about his injured foot. As he put pressure on it, his left leg buckled a bit. Brand rushed to get up and help, but Data just waved him off, readjusted himself, and limped groggily to the bathroom, returning a minute later. The essence of drool had been wiped from his chin, they noticed.

From there on, the morning had been pretty uneventful. Chunk's father came in at some point, and stiched up the wound on Data's foot, and then rebandaged it. Mikey suggested that they all come over to his and Brand's house later that evening to have a movie night, to make up for the camping trip catastrophe the night before. They all agreed, and Brand offered to drive them all home. Data thanked Mr. Cohen on his way out, and soon they were all headed for home.

It was around 7 that evening when the Goonies arrived at the Walsh residence, ditching their bikes viciously as they neared the house. Data was the only exception to this is his house was neighbouring Mikey's. Though he doubted he'd have been able to pedal a bike with how his foot was feeling in its current state, anyway. As Mikey and Mouth were going through movies to choose from, Chunk was on the phone ordering three large pizzas, each piled with extravegant toppings from the sounds of it.

The pizzas took about half an hour to arrive. Brand used the money his parents had given him while they were out for dinner and a business meeting that night on the other side of Astoria. Once the pizzas had come, Mikey went about turning on the movie. It was some old pirate movie, and Chunk made a remark- something all the lines of 'I've seen this before somewhere'. The pirate ship in the movie had a lot of similar features to Willy's ship, the Inferno, and the pirate's action sequence reminded them all of when Sloth and Chunk had saved them from the Fratellis. Eventually they all quietened down, and settled into the movie.

It was around the mid-way mark, or just over it a little, when Data began feeling cramps in his muscles. He ingored it at first, it most likely was a repercussion from the night before- from when that thing attacked him. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to ingore. A gong went off in his head suddenly, and he pawed at it in agony. Mikey was sitting next to him, and this caught his attention.

"Data? You ok?" Brand heard this and stole a glance at the boy in question.

"Yeah, I think s-" Data tried to reply, but the muscle cramps hit him like a brick out of nowhere.

"Grah!" he cried out in agony, clutching and pawing at his stomach and chest.

"Data, what's wr-" Brand was cut off.

"Holy McKenzie..." Mikey murmured under his breath at the sight- it was both awesome and terrifying.

As Data lifted his head to look at them questioningly, his brown eyes flashed yellow- they stayed that way.

The other Goonies rose from the couch and started to back away slowly, not really sure if they should run away from Data, or run to him. They decided to choose the latter. Running forward, Data let out a howlish growl, and stumbled backwards, knocking over the lamp on the coffe stand behind him. This startled him, and allowed an opening for the wolf. The poor boy had been resisting, but now was its chance to take control.

The others stayed silent, watching as their best friend, growling painfully the whole time, shifted. Black fur began sprouting over his skin, and his teeth lengthened and sharpened into daggers, while his nails cracked out into talon-like claws. A tail bone tore through the flesh on his lower back, and Data screamed in agony. Flesh and fur meshed itself over the bone, and he now had a tail. The transformation was complete when Data stood, hunched over as if ready to sprint on all fours. His tail swayed behind him, and he stood about 5 inches taller than Brand. He threw back his massive head, and howled into the night, before whatever was left of his human mind realised what he was. It was the last bit of control he had before giving in to the inner beast. Lower himself on to all fours, he leaped the entire couch, and broke through the door. He turned one last time to stare into the eyes of those he called family, before taking off once again, disappearing into the night.

"Data, wait!" cried Mikey, but Brand grabbed his shoulder to stop him, not once letting his eyes leaving the broken doorframe where there friend had just been.

Mouth managed to pull himself from the shock he found himself fixed in, and without letting his eyes leave that spot either, made the remark.

"So Brand, still don't believe those silly stories?" This earned him a palm-smack on the back of his head.