Hey, thanks for your patience while waiting for this update. Heads up, there's gonna be some gory bits later in the chapter. Quick thanks to all of you who reviewed, it's a priceless gift of motivation and inspiration to hear from you and I really appreciate you sticking around for the rest of the story.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It's been three weeks since I made the decision to follow my human, and except for the terrifying revelation that the ship I'd boarded had no seating for canines and was being piloted by an overly-enthusiastic teenage pilot from fucking outer space, I'd been enjoying myself. I found out my new home would be on a small mountain off the coast of Rhode Island with several members of the people that had rescued me. To my delight my human was one of them and I was able to stay with him in his room.

As it turns out, the people I'd come with were bona fide superheroes - with the costumes and secret identities to match. They were all around my age and apparently working for another, larger group of adult heroes based somewhere else.

Once the ship had docked into a garage cut into the mountain we disembarked to find one of those adult heroes waiting for us. A tall, well-built man wearing a strangely-shaped mask watched us stoically until everyone was present. I'd been working hard to fight off the nausea and dizzying anxiety that had plagued me the moment I realized the red vehicle I'd boarded was actually a jet being driven by a green teenager that reeked of desperation, but seeing a grown man in black and grey spandex gave me enough pause to calm down.

I'd never seen anything like it. The mask he was wearing had weird points on top, like it was imitating cat ears or something. Looking down, I snorted in amusement at the rest of the ensemble. A gold belt, really? And the black knee high boots? I started wheezing a little in an imitation of laughter when I focused in on my favorite part of his outfit: The black underwear. The dude was wearing black tighty-whiteys on the outside of the pretty little grey tights wrapped around his legs. I couldn't stop a little bark of hysterical laughter from escaping me at the site.

Feeling the warm touch of my humans hand on my side, I forced myself to turn and meet his curious eyes before giving a small nod and settling down. If the confused and disturbed looks being shot my way were anything to go by the others probably thought I was having a rabies-frenzy or something. Totally worth it though; I hadn't been that amused in years, even before my first transformation from human to wolf. Ignoring me, the underwear-man cleared his throat and waited until everyone's attention was on him before speaking.

Though he had distant body language and was outwardly expressionless I could smell a small cloud of relief waft from him as he looked over the group. Scenting something else familiar about him, I took a moment to concentrate while he addressed the group and asked them to report on the mission's success. It took a moment, but I quickly realized he and the masked-boy in red and green shared a similar base scent. Looking between them I could see they carried themselves similarly as well and decided they must be family. Father and son maybe? It would definitely help explain the interesting way the masked-boy dressed himself if he'd had to grow up with a dad with such an unusual sense of fashion.

When the others became distracted and started going on an unrelated tangent during the report I watched as the two of them took the opportunity to exchange small nods and the hint of a smile before getting the others to focus again and finish their report. Maybe the rest of the group doesn't know of their relationship? I wondered curiously. Why wouldn't they want the others to know? They'd all seemed pretty familiar with each other during the ride on the ship…..

"-and Wolf was among the animals we found working under the Brain's control."

Hearing my new name, my thoughts were unpleasantly cut off when I realized the topic of conversation had turned towards me. Feeling the prickle of awareness that always shot through me whenever something turned their attention to me, I looked up to see the stares of everyone there while the underwear-man asked for more information behind my presence.

Explaining where I'd come from and what I was as far as they knew, my human and his pack rushed to defend bringing me with them. It took nearly twenty minutes of convincing and pleading from them and an embarrassing attempt on my part to flash the eccentrically clad underwear-man puppy eyes before he finally gave in and gave the ok for me to be there – with conditions.

"Fine, it can stay provided he undergoes a full physical examination and blood analysis," he said with an undertone of irritation. Looking at me with a barely-concealed grimace, he added that I had to stay in the garage with a member of the team until I was given a flea-bath. Leaving it up to the teenagers around me, he turned and gave a dramatic flip of his cape before exiting through a green door that I later learned would lead deeper into the mountain's center. I barely had the time to feel insulted over my reaffirmed status as male around these people – seriously, were they all fucking blind? – and the implication that I was so bad at keeping myself groomed that I had fleas on me before the fast-boy gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and announced he was on it.

Zipping around too quickly for me to follow with my eyes, he reappeared triumphantly, inexplicably holding up an inflatable children's pool in his left hand. Blowing into it with a speed and skill that made me wonder what or who he had to have practiced on in the past to get that good, he quickly finished and pulled over a hose attached to the garage wall to start filling it.

Grinning at the group, he tossed out a quick "I'll be back in a few minutes!" before zooming back out. True to his word, he came back four minutes later holding a couple boxes in his hands victoriously.

"The guy at the store said one box of this stuff would be enough to treat a large dog about the size of a golden retriever. Since Wolf is like three times that size I got two extra boxes. Better safe than sorry, right?" he asked before opening the boxes and dumping the white powder they contained into the pool. Using the hose to mix the solution evenly, he swirled it around until the water became cloudy and stood up.

"Wow, that's some strong stuff," The blond girl in a ponytail commented, wrinkling her nose in distaste. While the others nodded in agreement I had to hold myself back from growling at the pungent odor clouding my senses. Over my own discomfort I barely noticed my human gagging before covering his nose and mouth with both hands.

"Understatement of the century." He said in a muffled voice before turning around and walking a few steps away.

"Connor, are you okay?" green-girl asked in concern.

"I'll be fine," he answered back. "It just burns a little."

I couldn't agree more. The smell of the chemicals was strong enough for my eyes to water and make the inside of my nose start to burn uncomfortably. Backing away slowly from the menacing pool, I couldn't stop a whine of pain from escaping my throat as the stinging in my eyes and nose only grew stronger.

If it was this bad now, I couldn't even imagine how bad it would feel to actually be standing in that damned pool. There is no way in hell I'm going in there! I thought to myself desperately, trying to keep my eyes open enough to find an escape.

"Well buddy, time to take a bath. Hop in!" The fast-boy called out to me encouragingly, tapping the side of the pool in invitation.

Fuck. You. I growled back.

Confused, the idiot looked to my equally debilitated human expectantly.

"Uh, little help here big guy?" Ignored, he turned to green-girl and raised an eyebrow flirtatiously.

"How 'bout you beautiful? Care to give a guy a hand?"

Looking unsure, she glanced between my human and me.

"I don't know Wally, Wolf seems like he's pretty uncomfortable with the smell of the chemicals. If Connor is having a hard time being around this stuff I can't even imagine how strong it must be for an animal with such a sensitive sense of smell," she said doubtfully.

"Hey, I hear ya," he agreed, "but you heard what Batman said. He may be a genetically-altered super wolf with above average intelligence capable of teaming up and kicking bad-guy butt, but he's still a wild animal that's spent all its life in the jungles of India. I'd be more surprised if he didn't have at least a couple bugs crawling on him right now. All it takes is one quick dunk in the pool and we'll all rest easier knowing we won't have to deal with his blood-sucking parasites finding their way to us."

Looking slightly more convinced if a little guilty, she bit her lip and nodded in silent agreement before turning towards me and raising her arm. I jerked in disorientation as I felt myself being slowly lifted off the floor. Trying to stay anchored to the ground, my nails futily scrabbled for purchase on the cement floor. Realizing what she was about to do I violently twisted my body around, growling and snapping to try and yank myself free from the invisible hands carrying me over to the hazy water now swirling less than a couple feet away.

"Guys, he's making this really hard with all that moving; I need help or I'm going to drop him before we even reach the pool," she called out in a strained voice over the snickering of the masked-boy and blond-girl.

"Wait," my human called out before walking over and wrapping me in his arms. Feeling the unseen grip she'd used to lift me dissipate, I stilled and waited to see what they would try to do next as he carefully put me down on the ground and met my stare. Normally I'd consider that a challenge to my authority, but the part of me that still seemed to recognize him as a potential mate helped to quiet the stressed out wolf instincts clawing through me.

"Wolf, I can smell how strong it is too but it would really mean a lot to the team and me if you'd get in the pool. If you do this now I promise you'll never have to do it again; I'll even stay next to you the whole time you're in there if you want."

Keeping an eye on his body language to see if he was being sincere, I took a moment to consider. Being less than three feet away from the pool, I could already feel myself getting a little light headed from the fumes emanating from the flea poison. I wasn't going to kid myself by thinking all I would have to do is stand there with my paws in the water for a few seconds. No, I was at the very least going to have to roll around in the solution and let it soak for a few minutes.

Decision time. Was I willing to do this just so I could stick with them a little longer? If I refused to go in, I'd probably have to leave; they may even try to force me so I'd have to fight my way out.

"Dude, somehow I don't think he's going to understand a word you just said. It was a nice try, but you're just going to have to grab and dump him," the redheaded devil began with a shake of his head, snapping it up in alarm at my bark of annoyance at his words. That boy is seriously starting to piss me off, I thought in annoyance as I resignedly walked over to the pool and stepped in. True to his word, my silent human followed behind me after shooting a glare at the surprised boy and kneeled down with his jean-clad thighs pressed against the side of the inflated plastic.

Trying to breathe shallowly, I forced myself to lie down in preparation for rolling over, but I hesitated. In this position the water barely reached the middle of my chest, but it was close enough to my face for me to feel like I was drowning in the effect it was having on me. The skin touching the water lightly stung and the suffocating fumes felt like acid gas burning its way through my nose, eyes, and lungs. Getting dizzy and wondering if I would pass out in the water, I barely felt my human's hands soothingly rub from the top of my head and down my back before dipping into the water and lightly splash over my back; doing this several times until every inch of fur was soaked before pausing and looking up.

"Wally, how long does Wolf have to sit in this stuff for?" he asked quietly. Clearing his throat, the red head zipped over to the trash and picked up one of the containers.

"About three minutes," he read off the box. "Then he can get out and we can rinse him off. In about a month we'll have to get some sort of ointment and put it on the back of his neck to keep the fleas off in the future, but you were right; he shouldn't need to take a bath like this again. Apparently it's a lot harsher than the ointment but necessary to get rid of the initial flea infestation."

Nodding and getting out the hose, my human waited until the time was up before stepping back a few feet and waiting for me to get out.

And believe me, nothing would make me happier…..but everything was getting fuzzy and I was having a hard time holding on to a thought long enough to follow it and get out. I felt my head slowly slide a little closer down to the water and loosely wondered why it didn't seem to smell so strongly anymore. Even the burning seemed to have lessened.

"Wolf? You can get out." I heard distantly. Well, that's nice, I thought pleasantly but it's actually not that bad anymore. What had I been so worried and uncomfortable about before? If anything being in the water made me feel numb. Like a rock. A warm rock. A wet, melty, warm rock.

I wanted to smile and laugh at the funny things fizzing in my head but I couldn't. I looked up at the worried look on my human's face and tried to tell him I was fine, but I all I did was pant and whine a little. Weird.

Oh, wait. That's right. Not human. Wolf. I'm a wolf. I can't laugh when I look like this. What did I look like before? I can't' rem…..

The last thing I remember from that day before everything went dark was the feeling of my human's strong hands wrapping around my stomach and lifting me out of the water.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

These last three weeks had kicked some serious ass. That first night aside, I'd enjoyed every minute in my new home living with my human, the green-girl, and the boy that smelled like the ocean. I'd quickly found out that everyone on the team except sea-boy went to school, so when everyone else was gone I was left alone with him for most of the day. I quickly grew to like the dark-skinned male and his peaceable manner as we played on the beach or I napped on the floor during his meditations. I got the impression he was glad for the company, and had to wonder how lonely he must have been before I'd arrived. The poor guy was left completely alone for the better part of five days a week on an isolated mountain with only the occasional visitor from their parent group of adult heroes as they stopped by to check in.

Hanging around him was entertaining though, and I was intrigued by the scent of the wild unique to marine life that he carried with him. In the mornings after my human had left we'd go down to the beach and he'd manipulate water from the ocean into different shapes for me to chase or play fight with me until it was time for lunch. After eating he would sit and meditate for a few hours while I dozed off under the warmth of the sun shining through the window until he was done and we could move on to a different activity.

Overall I was living a pretty sweet life and immensely enjoying the company of my new friend, but deep down there was always a small part of me that wished I was spending the time with my human instead. The second he came home I couldn't stop the rush of excitement and joy over his return that had me running to his side and refusing to leave like a stubbornly attached puppy until he had to leave for school again the next morning.

I have to admit that the human in me couldn't help but be a little smug when my presence seemed to interrupt the time he spent with the Martian green-girl. I was still working through my feelings for him and exactly what I wanted to do about it, but my territorial instincts had me feeling a petty rush of victorious vindictiveness whenever I smelled the disappointment the green-girl now exuded every time she saw me by his side.

I might have started feeling bad about it but my human gave zero indication of minding the interruption when they were alone together. I tried not to look too much into the meaning of it in case I was just pushing my own feelings on to him, but on occasion I thought I could even detect a faint hint of relief when he saw me coming in to intrude on whatever they'd been doing at the time.

From the way the she watched him when she thought he wasn't looking though, it was clear she viewed him as a mate. And though it wasn't as obvious for him, I figured he saw her as a mate as well – or at least as a potential one if the way he let her hang around him so much was any indication. It tugged at my wolf's instincts uncomfortably every time I saw them together, but it was easy to console myself when I remembered that I saw him naked more often than she did; if she ever even had to begin with.

Did you hear me right? Yes. Completely and gloriously naked.

Much to my pleasure I found out my human was fond of sleeping in the nude and did so almost every night. I think he may have felt slightly awkward about it the first night or two I slept in his room because he wore black pajama pants to bed, but seemed to get over any hang-ups pretty quickly. While my wolf was just happy to know he felt comfortable around me to sleep in such a vulnerable state, my human side couldn't help but feel delighted that strength and looks were not the only impressive things about him.

As the days turned to weeks and I spent more time around the interesting group of young heroes surrounding my human I found myself wanting more and more to become human again myself. After the flea treatment debacle I hadn't been subjected to any of the blood tests or examinations underwear-man wanted from me but I knew it was only a matter of time. If I wanted to reveal my secret to the others myself I'd have to do it soon, before their guilt over my flea-bath wore off and they found out from any medical tests they would perform on me.

It was about four days ago when I first attempted the transformation. Sea-boy had left to go visit his home in the ocean and the others were all in school, giving me the perfect opportunity to see if I could still be human without fear of being discovered by anyone else. I'd gone into my human's bathroom to see myself in the mirror and took a moment to study myself for the first time since arriving to the mountain. It felt enlightening to see myself so clearly; the reflections I'd seen in water back in India hadn't let me see as plainly as I could in front of a well-lit mirror. Looking straight ahead, I observed a tall wolf with gold on grey eyes staring back at me curiously. I was covered in blindingly white fur with a long, bushy tail and had some heavy scarring down the insides of my legs, but otherwise was rather impressive looking if I did say so myself.

Sitting down and closing my eyes, I breathed evenly to calm myself and tried to remember what I looked like as a human being. I remember being slightly above average in height at almost five feet and nine inches tall. I remembered having blue eyes too, but I couldn't recall what shade they were. I had curly hair, but the knowledge of what color and length it was remained frustratingly out of reach. Every time I tried to think of specific things like colors or the shape and size of my body I just started thinking of what I looked like as a wolf.

I stayed there for nearly an hour just trying to remember what I used to look like and the effort started to pay off as my memories started becoming a little sharper.

I was blond. I had curly blond hair that was long enough to reach just past my shoulders, but it'd almost always been up in a ponytail or braid. I remember sporting a pretty serious farmer's tan on my arms, and I had a couple scars on my stomach and left shoulder from an animal attack when I was younger – but l didn't know which animal had given them to me or how old they were. Sighing, I opened my eyes and rolled my neck back to stretch out any kinks from staying still for so long.

Now that I had a better image of what I might look like in my head, I stood up and focused on my paws. The transformation had always started there when I'd wanted to become human in the past. I concentrated and flexed them a little, feeling the heavy weight of my body shift and balance over the rough black pads protecting them. I could hear the soft scrape of my nails against the cool white tiles beneath them and imagined it was my short human fingernails instead.

As soon as I felt a pins and needles sensation shoot through my paws I knew I was successful. Moving into a half-crouch, I embraced the ripple running down my spine and steadied myself as I felt the first painful shifting of bone and muscle under my skin. Groaning in a distorted voice that was half wolf and half human, I fell down on my side after a particularly painful shift in my face that snapped my jaw and smoothed down my snout until it was the rounder shape of a human face.

The entire process was terrifyingly quick and efficient, with my body simply reabsorbing any extra tissue or bone back into itself in under a minute. By the end of it any outward trace of my wolf had disappeared, leaving a panting human girl behind in its place.

My arms and legs were still pretty shaky, so it took several attempts before I could pull myself up on the edge of the counter and lean forward to keep most of my weight off my feet. I'd always had a hard time readjusting to walking on two feet in the past and figured that being wolf for almost a year and half wouldn't exactly help in that regard.

Lifting my head I watched my human lips part in a soft gasp as I looked at the face in the mirror. The color and shape of my hair was exactly as I remembered, and I couldn't help reaching a trembling hand up to take a lock and rub it between my fingers. I distantly found myself wondering how it had managed to grow so much when I'd been a wolf most of the time, but pushed the thought away as I leaned forward to look at my eyes. My face fell in disappointment at the amber eyes glittering back at me, but at least the grey surrounding them had lightened considerably. From far away people might not even be able to notice that they weren't quite white.

Shifting back, I gingerly let more of my weight center over my feet and slowly took a precarious step back from the counter until I was standing without the support of something to lean on. My legs were still painfully wobbly and I kept having to move my arms around to stay balanced, but it let me see what the rest of my body looked like.

I couldn't absorb clothing, so whenever I'd become human in the past it was always completely naked. This time was no different, but I found myself wishing it was. In addition to the scars I used to have my skin was now littered in fresh reminders of the last two years. I could see every encounter with a hunter, every fight for dominance with another wolf, every experiment and torture I'd suffered under the care of the brain-machine. Hearing a quiet splash of liquid hit the floor, I glanced up and saw tears silently trailing down from the wide and haunted eyes of the girl standing in front of me.

I didn't recognize this person. She was older and curvier than I was, with fuller breasts and longer hair. She stared at me sadly with gold eyes instead of my own blue, and she was covered in more scars than I'd even known it was possible to have. Hesitantly twisting her torso around, I barely managed to look at her back in the mirror with toppling over but managed to steady my balance. There were more scars there, but under that I saw the detailed black ink outlining a long cluster of roses curling over my shoulder blades and down my spine. My lips lifted into a ghost of a smile and a sigh of relief echoed softly in the room.

It was one of the last links I had left of my past, and a part of me had been afraid that it wouldn't be on this stranger's body. I couldn't remember when or why I'd imprinted the tattoo on my skin, but I knew it had happened before my first transformation into a wolf and was important to me.

I stood in front of the mirror for what must have been hours in a trance as I reacquainted myself with my human body, and it was only the sound of someone entering the base that jerked me out of it.

I immediately recognized the sound of my human's footsteps moving through the common area and the light sound of his backpack hitting the floor.

"Wolf? Are you there?" He called out in hesitantly. I could imagine the cute crinkle appearing on his forehead as he paced around and looked for me. Since the day I'd arrived he'd come to expect me at the door waiting for him after school, and while it warmed me to know he'd immediately noticed my absence I knew it meant I wouldn't have much time to change back before he came looking for me in our room.

Pushing down the panic bubbling in my chest, I dropped down to the floor and braced myself for the change back to my wolf form. Focusing on my face this time, I concentrated for a moment before I could feel the sharp ache in my gums signifying the start of my shift. I held back a whimper as my jaw cracked and elongated while my skin prickled unpleasantly from the fur sprouting out of it. I heard the heavy steps of my human come down the hall and willed the change to go faster as a heavy pressure at the base of my spine signified the emergence of my tail.

The door to the room opened and I barely managed to roll over onto my paws and stagger out of the bathroom in time to meet him at the foot of the bed. Tilting his head to the side curiously, my human's forehead relaxed of worried wrinkles and he smiled at me in relief.

"You had me worried for a minute there, Wolf. Did you accidentally get locked in the room?" He asked amusedly. Too tired to do much else, I tilted my head and blinked at him innocently. Rolling his eyes, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, burying his face into my neck and sighing.

It wasn't something he ever let the others see, but my human was surprisingly affectionate when no one else was around. Like clockwork, every time we were left alone he'd immediately wrap an arm around me or cuddle into my side only to move away whenever a member of the team or one of their adult mentors came by.

Wolves are very affectionate creatures as a general rule and the desire to be physically close to the ones you care about had carried over to me, so on a personal level I loved seeing that affectionate side of him come out. As a fellow alpha however, I understood the instinct to maintain an aloof and weakness-free image in front of the others, even if they were friends. In both of the packs I'd led in India I'd had to maintain a certain level of emotional distance from the other wolves or I would have been constantly bombarded with challenges to my authority. It was an unfair fact, but showing too much affection for them was viewed as a sign of weakness.

Closing my eyes, I relaxed into my human's embrace and found myself wishing I was able to wrap my own arms around him. His sudden arrival home had made me panic and change back into a wolf, but with no one else here it would have been the perfect opportunity to reveal myself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning I woke up to the sound of a quiet pinging noise coming from the intercom by the door. Blearily, I lifted my head and looked over at the naked man curled against my side and waited for him to get up and put an end to the annoying sound so I could get back to sleep, but he just continued to snore. Huffing in irritation, I twisted my head until I could stare right at his face and opened my mouth wide in a yawn before bringing my snout close enough to lick him. Almost immediately I heard his heart rate and breathing change as he woke up and moved his head away to escape the tongue bath. Blue eyes opened to lazily glare at me as the arm wrapped around my side was taken away to wipe the spit off his face. Glancing at the still pinging box by the door, he sighed and got out of the bed to shuffle over to the wall and with more force than necessary poked a red button at the top.

"What?" He asked gruffly. A chuckle of amusement came out of the speaker before the voice of masked-boy on the other end answered.

"Sounds like I woke you up. Sorry man, but Batman sent me ahead to let you know we've got an important mission coming in and we're gonna need all hands on deck for it."

"Fine. We'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Better make it ten, it's time sensitive." I could practically hear the smirk in his next words. "Wolf, can you get him down here quickly please?"

Ignoring the offended look sent my way, I barked an affirmative.

"Cool, see you guys in the mission room."

My human scowled at the intercom and roughly pressed the red button to end the call. Hearing the white plastic creak in protest, I watched him in amusement as he stomped over to the dresser and grabbed a clean black shirt before bending over to grab his jeans from the floor. I waited until he finished dressing before getting out of the bed and crossed the floor to reach the door. Following our usual morning routine, he opened it to let me out before closing it again and heading to the bathroom. Jogging over to the elevator, I lifted my paw and pressed the button to go down. Luckily it opened immediately and I pressed another button inside that would send me down to the ground floor, leading directly outside so I could take care of my own business.

After I was done I reentered the elevator and used it to go back to our room. I could hear him brushing his teeth and decided to wait in the hall for him while he finished up. Figuring we had about two minutes left of our ten minute deadline I barked at the door and listened to the usual grumbling about pushy dogs until he opened the door and followed me back down the elevator.

Walking out briskly, I almost ran into green-girl. It was obvious she'd been waiting outside the elevator, and with a soft smile she greeted my human delightedly. Still feeling a little grumpy about his interrupted sleep, he briefly acknowledged her and walked next to me until we'd reached the mission room where masked-boy and sea-boy were dressed casually in jackets and jeans while sparring. As we approached they took a break and started chatting.

"Heh. You know they're a couple, right?" Masked-boy whispered to his companion.

Glancing between my human and the painfully attentive girl next to him, the sea-dweller nodded and smiled. "I believe I knew before they did."

Subtly gesturing towards the redhead and blond making their way down the hall, the shorter boy said something else but it was drowned out by the sound of my human's annoyed sigh. Feeling regretful, I pressed against him sympathetically after remembering I wasn't the only one with a heightened sense of hearing. He probably didn't enjoy being gossiped about, regardless of whether the information was true or not.

Entering the room, fast-boy stopped and dramatically crossed his arms as he took a quick look around, his gaze narrowing as it lingered on the man-child eating breakfast and an unfamiliar man dressed in a tuxedo standing off to the side.

"So. If Zatara is our babysitter of the week, why's he still here? And why is he eating my snacks?!" He asked indignantly, frowning at the man-child as he blithely chewed on a protein bar.

"Recognized: Batman zero-two" the computerized voice of a woman suddenly announced, keeping any one from replying. A blue portal appeared in the corner and underwear-man strode in smelling heavily of apprehension and stress. Without delay he immediately turned towards the center of the room and called out his instructions.

"Computer, national news."

Staring in fascination, I watched as a holographic screen appeared out of thin air and turned to a local news channel. Gravely looking into the camera, a blond woman with grey eyes and a high pitched voice spoke.

"-the initial attack was short-lived, but Metropolis was only granted a short reprieve." The camera switched to birds-eye view and revealed what appeared to be the giant vines of a plant thrashing around and damaging entire buildings across the city.

I could smell fear and anxiety rolling off the people around me as we all watched one of the vines completely crushed a building like a rowdy kid toppling a sandcastle. Terrified people that'd been standing on the roof of the collapsing building were whisked to safety by a man dressed all in blue spandex and red underwear as he flew out of view of the camera.

"Despite the intervention of Superman and the Justice League, there seems to be no end in sight." The woman finished worriedly.

"Should we get out there?" Someone asked.

"No. The League will soon have the situation under control; that's not why I'm here." The dark-man replied in a firm voice. "According to your Intel, Sportsmaster supplied Cadmus' blockbuster formula to Kobra–"

" –Who combined it with Bane's venom to create Kobra venom," Fast-boy continued.

"Which the Brain then used to create his animal army," masked-boy finished in agreement. I couldn't see his eyes behind the shades he wore on his face, but I could feel his gaze join the rest of the group in their quick glances towards me at the mention of the drug responsible for the mutations I and countless others had been subjected to. Either unaware or uncaring of his teammates pointed stares, my human smiled good-naturedly and gave the fur on my neck a quick scratch.

"And upgrade wolf," He chimed in confidently. I wanted to bite him in the ass for that comment, but figured it wouldn't look good at this particular point in time.

Still, though. Once I turned human again we were going to have a conversation about our differences in opinion on how being physically and mentally tortured for months by a sociopathic robot with a French accent counts as getting "upgraded". Huffing in irritation, I resisted the urge to move away from my stupid human and stayed still to listen as they continued to talk about my ex-kidnapper.

"The brain also used upgraded versions of the inhibitor collars of the ones at the penitentiary." Green-girl recalled, watching the light-hearted expression on my humans' face hungrily as he continued to pet me. Smelling a small spike in the scent of desperation she carried around with her, I glanced at her curiously and wondered what she wanted. To see more of the expression on my human's face? Or maybe she just wanted him to pay attention to her instead?

"Batman, is it possible that plant thing's on Kobra venom too?" blond-girl asked curiously.

"I had Green Lantern run a spot analysis," he replied, moving his hand to flip through the images on the screen before stopping on some diagrams.

"And divine cellulose does contain trace amounts of a Kobra venom variant."

Looking pensive, sea-boy spoke up as well. "These cannot be coincidences; unrelated criminals are cooperating with one another worldwide."

"Exactly. It's now clear our enemies have formed some kind of secret society of super villains; the attack on Metropolis is only the beginning." Underwear-man responded.

It was at this point that I zoned out. Believe me, I totally understood that this was a serious matter and lives were at stake, but it wasn't like I could do anything about it except maybe try to pee on the vines. It would take a week or two to work, but if I drank a lot of water I'm sure I could kill off one or two of them.

I was also having a hell of a time trying to take the underwear-man seriously when he was still wearing that ridiculous getup and saying things like oh yeah guys, there's a secret society of supervillains waiting to gang up on us. That's right, you heard me. They're not just a club of socially retarded people with too much time on their hands, they're "secret" SUPER villains that like to play with GMO plants in their off time.

Yeah, underwear-man, we get it. The world is being held hostage by mutated vegetables with a resistance to weed-killer.

I was debating whether or not to take my afternoon nap a little early when the sound of static coming from the screen caught my attention. When the static stopped, a pale man in a purple suit with green hair appeared on the screen. Looking like a wannabe pimp, he knocked on the screen a couple times and smiled before taking a knife out of his pocket.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt your regularly scheduled mayhem to bring you this important announcement from the Injustice League!" Chuckling darkly, he grabbed the camera filming him and panned it around to face a group of colorfully dressed people.

An older man speaking in a thick accent I didn't recognize began to speak.

"We are responsible for the attacks on your cities. If you wish to save them, a ransom of ten billion American dollars is required. Delivery instructions have been sent to the United Nations and there is no time limit, but the longer your governments wait…"

"The more we get to have our jollies!" the pimp-man finished with relish. He cackled until the screen cut out and turned to static again. Turning away from the screen, underwear-man put a hand to his ear and seemed to be listening to someone.

"Roger that, Aquaman. The UN will prepare the ransom as a fallback, but it won't come to that," he promised. Tapping away on a holographic keyboard, masked-boy brought the video back up and rewound until a paused image of the weirdoes hovered on the screen above.

"Count Vertigo, the Joker, Poison Ivy, Ultra-Humanite, Atomic Skull, Black Adam, and Wotan. Seven heavy hitters and probably behind everyone and everything we've faced so far." Masked-boy commented with an air of vague disbelief.

"There's your secret society," Fast-boy replied solemnly.

Next to him, blond-girl shook her head. "Not exactly secret anymore are they?"

"Perhaps after India they realized we would deduce the truth and saw no point in hiding any longer?" sea-boy proposed with a hint of doubt in his voice.

"Yeah, that was their mistake. Right now I say we go kick some plant creature ass!" the redhead decided more optimistically.

Reentering the conversation, underwear-man held up his hand and halted that thought.

"The Justice League will handle the plants; I have a different job for this team."

"Aw, man." Fast-boy replied, the disappointment on his face turning into a grimace when the blond next to him jabbed her elbow into his unsuspecting stomach.

Ignoring the exchange, the older man gestured to the screen above them. Pictures of different cities from around the world being destroyed by the plants hovered on the display.

"With the plants attacking so many locations simultaneously, there must be a central control system.
Your mission is to destroy it."

Breaking his silence, the tuxedoed man from earlier stepped forward smelling of worry.

"You realize what you're really asking them to do?"

"They're ready."

Looking between the two as if they were having a tennis match, the redhead interrupted again.

"Um. Ready? Ready for what?" He asked before getting hit in the stomach again.

"Ow! Will you cut that out?!"

"Hello, Wally! If the big guns are fighting the plants, who do you think we'll be fighting?" The blond archer asked with a look on her face that showed she clearly thought the speedster was an idiot.

"I don't know, I guess we'll – Oh." He responded, finally getting it.

Looking unconvinced, tuxedo-man acquiesced. "Well Batman, I trust you're correct."

"I trust you can locate the enemy." He replied smartly.

"Indeed. Wotan's informants suggest sorcery is part of how the plants are controlled. Robin, if you will provide a holo-map I'll search for signs of concentrated sorcerous activity."

Nodding, the raven-haired boy's fingers flew over the keyboard and a large holographic projection of Earth appeared in front of him.

Raising his arms, tuxedo-man chanted in a foreign language before pointing to a red dot that now hovered over the southeastern United States. "There. That is where you will find the Injustice League's central control system."

Nodding, masked-boy tapped a couple keys and looked up. "Coordinates are now locked in on the Louisiana bayou."

With a sharp nod sea-boy turned towards the adult heroes in front of us and officially accepted the mission.

"We are on our way."

In an eerily synchronized motion the entire team turned and ran back down the hall towards the locker rooms to change and get ready. Jogging lightly with them, I waited outside with my human for the others to finish up. I was impressed at their speed when everyone gathered outside and was heading down to the garage less than two minutes later.

Once we'd arrived I sat down and sighed while they boarded the red ship, wondering if I should go hunting around the beach before my nap. I was in the mood for a snack and the exercise would help keep my mind off of the danger my human might be putting himself in. As the ship's door began to close, my human poked his head back out and looked down at me expectantly.

Was I not supposed to be here? I got up to turn and leave when I was stopped by the sound of his voice.

"Uh, Wolf? You coming?" He asked quizzically.

Oh. Good question. Probably should have expected that might be a possibility.

Hell yes! I barked back excitedly. As if he understood exactly what I'd said, he grinned and waited while I ran over to the reopening door of the ship. I slipped into a moment of déjà vu as my paws skidded on the metal and I violently tripped forward on a collision course with him. Looking like he half-expected this, he had his arms out and ready to catch me as I slammed into him hard enough that it would have knocked over and cracked the bones of a normal human being. Hearing the muffled chuckle coming from the face pressed into my neck, I was relieved to see he was fine.

"Superboy you can play with Wolf later. We really need to get going and I can't have the bioship take off if you're not buckled into your seat," Green-girl firmly reminded from the pilot's chair. Feeling his arms drop, I huffed and followed him to his seat in the back. Ignoring the amused smirks coming from the rest of the team, I set my head on his lap and enjoyed a moment of bliss while he absentmindedly scratched behind my ears. Once the ship was in the air and flying south the team quickly worked together to figure out how they were going to confront the enemy.

The plan was pretty simple and didn't take long to put together. Personally I thought it lacked any finesse or subtlety, but as the masked-boy pointed out…..

"These villains have even given members of the Justice League trouble and we can't afford the time it would take to get in there with the element of surprise. I wouldn't be surprised if they had systems in place to detect us long before we'd even arrive so we're going to have to take a more direct approach."

"And exactly how are we supposed to that? If it were all of us against one or two of them maybe we'd have a chance of beating those guys in direct combat, but there's seven of them and only six of– "

Growl.

"– Jesus, Wolf take a chill pill; seven of us. It's barely going to be one on one!" blond-girl exclaimed with an annoyed toss of her hair. Nodding in silent agreement, green-girl kept her eyes on the terrain sweeping by the ship pensively. Sighing, fast-boy leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"Honestly we just don't have enough information at this point to try making a more sophisticated plan. Once we get there and know more we can figure out the details, but until then we'll keep it simple." Opening his eyes, he glanced at sea-boy and raised an eyebrow in question. Seeing this, the quiet leader of the group confirmed the assessment.

"Kid Flash is correct. Our priority is destroying the device responsible for the enemy's control over the plants wrecking the cities. We will try to subdue and capture members of the Injustice League should we encounter them, however it is a secondary objective. When we arrive Miss. Martian and Robin will use stealth to enter the building and locate the controller. Once we receive confirmation that the device has been found Artemis and I will follow in as backup while Superboy, Wolf, and Kid Flash maintain a perimeter watch."

"Sounds good. By the way, what's in the duffel?" the redhead asked suddenly, pointing to a canvas bag sitting on the floor. I'd been curious about this myself, as it had some seriously freaky scents wafting off of whatever was in there. Giving it a quick glance, sea-boy shifted slightly in discomfort and pensively replied.

"Plan B."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Smelling a surge of adrenaline from green-girl, I looked up in time to see her clutch her head in discomfort and make a noise of distress. Looking up in concern, my human asked if she was alright.

"Dizzy," Was all she replied back.

"Martians get airsick?" masked boy asked in amusement.

"She does look a bit greener than usual." Fast-boy commented.

"Not me, her." She retorted, rolling her eyes in perfect imitation of the sarcastic archer next to her.

Flabbergasted, said blond looked at the others, mirroring their confusion.

"Um, I feel fine."

"No, not her; the bioship. She's trying to shield us, but –"

Grimacing in pain she hunched over and groaned. Before she could continue we all heard the sound of something heavy being slammed against the side and we flew into a barrel roll. I would have been tossed like a salad and gotten pretty banged up if my human hadn't thrown his arm around my side and tugged me close with an almost bruising strength. For a few terrifying seconds my howl joined the team's screams as we hurtled toward the water below us.

With a thunderous splash we crashed in to the swamp below and immediately began sinking as large vines like the ones I'd seen destroying the cities wrapped themselves around the ship and pulled us under. Hearing the sound of crunching metal I looked up to see one of the dark haired men from the video ripping open a hole in the ceiling. Screaming in pain as if she were the one being ripped apart, the Martian held her head in agony.

"He's hurting her!" She cried out, prompting my human to rip off his seatbelt and jump up to our intruder. Slamming his fist into the man's face, he quickly fell back down in surprise as a waterfall of murky water began pouring in from the whole.

"No!" blond-girl exclaimed angrily. "No way am I nearly drowning three missions in a row!" Shoving her hand into the bag strapped to her shoulder, she brought out a couple black devices and handed one over to a surprised looking fast-boy before biting down on her own.

"Wow. Uh, thanks." He replied before following suit and putting it in his mouth.

Feeling overwhelmed from the intense odor of anxiety clouding the air and all the ways I'd nearly died in the last four minutes alone, I missed the garbled exchange between the others and just felt alarm when green-girl smacked herself in head and opened a hole at the bottom of the ship.

Oh my god, she's trying to kill us all I thought in horror as more water flooded the ship. I barely had time to choke down one last breath of air before we were completely submerged in the murky water.

It was a terrifying experience, holding my breath as a wolf; I'd never had to do it like this before. All I'd ever really done was paddle across a lake or river in India, and even then I'd never dunked my head or tried diving. As my canine instincts threatened to send me in a panic and drown, I came to the conclusion that's there's a reason dogs generally don't try to swim underwater.

The relief I felt when I realized everyone was swimming through the hole to escape was short lived when I found myself having a hard time following them. My body kept drifting upwards and I couldn't seem to get enough momentum to sink deep enough that I could reach the hole. A short burst of bubbles escaped my burning lungs as I paddled furiously, but I couldn't seem make any progress no matter how many times I tried to make it.

Barely holding on to the last vestiges of oxygen in me, I tried propelling off of one of the seats and gave one last furious dive for freedom. Wanting to cry in relief, I finally reached the edges of the hole and hooked my paws around the edge to push off against the sinking ship and swim upwards. Breaking through to the surface, I gulped in several lung fulls of air and looked around until I spotted the rest of the team a couple of yards away and paddled until I caught up to them as they dragged themselves on to a patch of dry land.

Everyone seemed to be as winded as I was if their gasping and heavy breathing was anything to go by. The green-girl stood up and looked around until she pointed at the barely visible top of the ship we'd just escaped.

"She's in shock," she told the group. "She'll need time to recover."

No duh, I wanted say. We all needed time to recover. I was considering whether or not to shake myself off next to her when I heard the soft footfalls of several people heading our way. All I managed to get out was a growl of warning before we were all knocked down by a sound so piercing it seemed to create a shockwave.

"Vertigo!" fast-boy called out angrily.

"Count Vertigo to you, peasant." An older man in sophisticated clothes and a green cape replied back derisively. My human shot forward, pulling his arm back to punch him but was intercepted by the fancy-man's companion and got knocked back. Seeing this, sea-boy jumped up and summoned water from the swamp we'd just escaped. Thrusting it forward, he slammed the water into the cloaked man, pushing him back violently into a small cluster of trees. Using the confusion to their advantage, green-girl and masked-boy ran off in to the direction of the controller; leaving the rest of us to fight off the enemy.

The water-wielder looked back over his shoulder just in time to be punched by the second man attacking us. I recognized him as the one that had tried to rip a hole in the ship earlier and decided he would be a good target to take out my rage over nearly drowning. Leaping forward, I tackled him with precision and snapped my jaws around his neck. On a normal human I would have ripped his throat out, but this man had the same tough skin as my human and I was barely able to even pierce the skin before being thrown several feet back into the water.

Just as I was getting back up to attack again the bodies of two others slammed into me, shoving my head back under water. Choking on the gritty liquid, I wasn't able to avoid the onslaught of punches strong-man delivered to my side before he was tackled by a speeding blur. While they were busy I tried to make my way back out of the water as quickly as possible but the beating I'd gotten had broken a couple of ribs and was making it too painful to move very fast.

By the time I got to shore only sea-boy and my human were still conscious and fighting, while the others were all lying on the ground unconscious. The cloaked man from earlier had rejoined the fight and was directing another shockwave of sound in conjunction with his teammates brutal attacks. I barely had the energy left to keep standing let alone fight, but after witnessing a particularly vicious kick to my human's head that knocked him out cold I knew I didn't have much of a choice. While they were busy with the quickly overwhelmed leader of our group I thought through my options and made an attack plan.

I knew I wouldn't be able to do much against the strong one but figured I might at least be able to take the fancy-man down with me. Growling, I shoved down the pain and gathered the last of my strength for one last do-or-die attack. I launched myself at the my target's back and landed on top of him, immediately clamping down on his shoulder and tearing through skin and muscle with relish. Ignoring the guttural screams of agony in my ear, I twisted my head back forth and crushed through his collarbone until I heard his voice gurgle with the sound of blood. Hearing heavy steps rushing behind me, I clamped down even harder and jerked my head back when I felt crushing arms lift me off my victim.

Fancy-man must have passed out from the pain, because he didn't make a single sound as I tore out a large chunk of flesh and spit it back into the ground with a wet thud. With a glare, strong-man dropped me on the ground and brought his fist back in preparation for a punch, almost as if in slow motion. Before his fist connected and everything went black I took in the sight of my unconscious human and distantly found myself wishing I'd let myself meet him as a human when I'd had the chance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was too dark to see anything, but I could feel a pleasant wind rustling my fur. It smelled nice too, like I'd stuck my head in a cloud and could sniff out the beginnings of a thunderstorm. Being dead wasn't all that bad if staying in this strangely peaceful darkness was the tradeoff.

I could vaguely feel something tugging at the edge of my consciousness, but it kept slipping away the more I tried to follow it. Mentally shrugging when several attempts to remember whatever it was that was bugging me had failed, I relaxed back into the cool blackness around me and inhaled deeply to breathe in more of the refreshing air around me, but something was off. I could feel my face scrunch up in a frown when my thunderstorm began to take on a metallic tint. Almost like….blood?

Unfortunately that was a scent I knew all too well. An avalanche of memories and sensations from the recent battle slammed into me and I felt painfully disoriented for a moment as my head pounded in time with my heart beat viciously.

On the bright side, if the screaming agony in my head and ribs was any indication, I was in fact not dead.

Keeping my eyes closed in case the enemy was watching me, I struggled to find any sign that I wasn't alone, wherever I was. If they were willing to keep me alive even after killing a member of their group then maybe they'd left the others alive too; even if for what I suspected were frightening reasons. Before I could hear or smell anything though, I felt a ripple down my spine and the tell-tale pins and needles sensation in my paws signifying an impending change from wolf to human.

Jerking in alarm at the sensation, I almost doubled over from the pain the movement aggravated in my ribs. Doing my best to ignore the discomfort, I focused on the image of what I looked like as a wolf to keep me grounded in my canine form until the urge to shift started to fade.

Where the hell had that come from? I'd been through things a thousand times worse than a couple of broken ribs or a concussion and my body had never tried to force a change then. If I managed to get out of this situation alive I'd need to investigate why this was happening, but until then I had to keep myself focused on staying wolf if I wanted to keep my secret. Thankfully the initial signs of an immediate change happening had dissipated, but I could still feel an underlying pressure wrapping itself around my bones and squeezing as if to let me know that I wouldn't be able to hold it off for long.

I tried to sniff out the scents of the others, but between the wind and the blood caking my nose I couldn't smell any hint of the others. Giving up on trying to pretend I was still unconscious when my movement earlier had probably already given me away, I slowly opened my eyes only to find myself looking into the bleary gaze of my human.

I watched while he slowly blinked a couple times as if just waking up himself; it only took a few seconds before his eyes focused on the blood matting fur and he stiffened in surprise. Ignoring my red splattered face, he brought his hand up and brushed his fingers through the fur along my body; pausing in worry at the muffled whine I let out when he pressed against my side too hard. Sitting up, he glanced around until he found the prone form of whoever was passed out next to him.

Trusting he had the task of waking the others handled, I lifted my head a little and saw we were in a large golden cage soaring through the air, heading in the direction of a strange glass dome. It was as tall as a skyscraper and looked to be some kind of greenhouse if the large vines bursting from the top were any indication.

Flying next to us was an intimidating man in red on gold spandex and a black cape. His hair was pitch black and spiked up on either side of his head, looking eerily similar to the pointed cat ears underwear-man sported on his mask. His skin was so pale it had the frightening grey pallor of a corpse, and I could easily see the veins crisscrossing underneath.

It was his eyes that disturbed me the most though.

The whites were completely blacked out the same way mine were after brain-machine forced my body to mutate, but instead of sporting gold irises his eyes were a disturbing blood-red color. In their depths was the hint of an ancient exhaustion that made me think of some of the captive animals back in India.

Sometimes when the brain-machine was bored or ran out of ideas for experimentation he would torture animals he deemed expendable, to keep his mind "fresh". He'd push them to their breaking point over and over again until they were physically incapable of taking any more pain. Eventually they would all take on the look this man had, of brokenly wanting to die but knowing it would only ever happen on someone else's whims.

Glancing down at me, the ancient-one smiled and flashed unnaturally white teeth in a feral grin that worked hard to hide the long wished for end to whatever misery he was experiencing.

"Ah, I see you awaken. You did quite a number on our dear Count. Why, if I hadn't arrived when I did I doubt he would have survived his encounter with you." Chuckling, he watched in amusement as my human grabbed two of the bars of our cage and tried to pull apart them apart with a grunt. When they didn't even budge the grey-man shook his head amicably and winked at me, acting like the two of us were enjoying a private joke the others weren't in on.

He gestured toward our cage theatrically. "As you can see, the cage is impenetrable. Even the all-powerful Superboy has no chance of escaping."

An inhuman growl sounded nearby, and someone else decided to try breaking through the gold prison. "You are not the only one trained in the mystic arts, Wotan!" Sea-boy called out angrily. The tattoos covering his body went from their dormant black to a bright blue color before fading back again when electricity crackled around the sea-dweller painfully and he let out a hoarse yell of pain.

"Please, Atlantean; do not pretend you're in my League. With the power at my command I could kill you with barely a thought and not lose any sleep over it." Glancing back towards me slyly, he curved his mouth back into the savage smile from earlier.

"Well, except for you of course. A dear friend of mine would love to have his lost puppy returned to him, and after watching you in action myself I can see why he would want his beautiful loupe back at his side where she belongs."

Snarling back, I had half a mind to try destroying the cage myself if it meant I could reach him. I knew who he was talking about, and it terrified me to know the brain-machine might be looking for me. He opened his mouth and would have continued speaking but wasn't able to get even one word out before a bright red ship smashed into him at high speed and sent the turd flying into the water below.

Sweet karma was in the mood to bitch slap someone today, and I certainly wasn't going to complain about who she'd chosen. Unfortunately the cage holding us disappeared as soon as the miraculously repaired ship made contact with the ancient one and we quickly followed behind him into the water below. Luckily we weren't more than ten of fifteen feet from the water and the fall wouldn't kill us, but we definitely wouldn't land without a few bumps and bruises to show for it.

I had no idea where he'd come from, but swooping in behind us was the strong-man from earlier with the bloody and unconscious form of fancy-man hanging limply in his arms. Instead of chasing us however, he just flew to glass dome ahead of us and disappeared into the opening at the top.

Bracing myself for an inevitably unpleasant impact, I was startled when my human caught me bridal-style in the air and hit the water feet first before dragging us both to the safety of land. The landing still jarred my ribs, but didn't hurt nearly as bad as it would have if I'd landed in the water myself. Feeling a surge of warmth and gratitude, I gave his cheek a quick lick before getting down and preparing myself to fight off whatever came for us next.

We didn't have to wait long before a white gorilla with a gun slung in its hands came barreling towards us. Not the same creature as gorilla-man, but she carried herself similarly and lacked any scent of the wild. I heard the sound of another enemy coming up behind us, but one glance at the determined faces of our teammates and I knew they had it covered.

Scowling, my human obviously knew who he wanted to fight.

"I hate monkeys." He muttered, and charged forward. Following behind him, I kept an ear out for our companions as we fought our attackers.

Blond-girl made a frustrated noise and I figured she must have discovered the loss of her weapons. "I feel naked, and not in a fun way," she complained to the Atlantean next to her.

"We will make our own fun as we have been trained. Maneuver 7!"He called back; either not getting the innuendo or willfully pretending he'd misunderstood.

Figuring they had things in hand, I focused more intensely on dodging the bullets being shot at me and barreled forward toward the gorilla-woman as fast as my injuries would allow me. I couldn't leap up and go straight for a killing blow, but I was able to get in several bites and gashes along her torso and arms to compensate. While she was distracted with me my human was able to come in from behind and knock her out with a solid kick to the back of her head. Once she was down I moved forward to finish her off when a loud explosion from the glass dome blew up the giant vines creeping out the top.

The pained scream of a red haired woman wrapped in vines and green spandex caught my attention and I watched as she staggered towards the smoking remains of the vines. "My baby!" She gasped out with a horrified sob before giving an enraged shriek and summoned more vines to attack a smug looking Martian and masked boy as they appeared out of the wreckage. Before the plants could even reach them however, the Martian lifted her arms and pushed out her powers to disintegrate them.

Walking towards the battle from the direction of the destroyed dome, the pimp-man from the video walked up to the scene with his hands on his hips.

"Children. Children foiled our plan?! Inconceivable. Unacceptable. Retributionable!" He yelled out angrily. Pausing, he seemed to ponder something for a moment before facing us and cupping a hand to the side of his face in a sudden 180, dramatically whispering to the group as if he were sharing a dirty little secret.

"So…..that last one might not have been a word." Shrugging, he smiled so widely it had to hurt his cheeks. "So sue me." He cackled after an awkward pause when it was obvious nobody really knew what to say. He must have recognized the interruption to the fighting he'd caused, because he pumped his arms up into the air exuberantly and encouraged his comrades to keep going.

"Kill them. Kill them all!" He cried out gleefully.

Now, maybe it was from how stretched thin I felt between fighting and having to resist the urge to become human, or it could have been from how hilariously uncomfortable he was making both his own allies and the team fighting them, but for some reason I really liked this guy. He was obviously insane, or at least doing a decent job of acting like it, but he was strangely entertaining to watch even if he was cheering for our deaths like a demented cheerleader.

Unfortunately his team spirit seemed to be enough to turn the tides, and we quickly became overwhelmed. Fancy-man and the gorilla were out for the count, but we were now facing four incredibly strong opponents who obviously relished the idea of killing us. My own strength had long faded and it was only sheer will power keeping me from shifting right then and there. The others were obviously struggling against their own fatigue and injuries as they sluggishly fought off their opponents.

I snapped to attention when screams and the smell of burnt hair and clothing filled the air. Before I could try to help I found myself struck by a blue crackle of lightning of my own.

It probably lasted only a few seconds, but it sure as hell didn't feel that short. It was so intensely painful that my screams came out silently, locked inside my throat as if afraid that letting out sound would only make the pain last longer.

Just as suddenly as it began however, it cut off. I heard a commotion around me and the horrified voices of my team, but it was hard to pay attention. I tried to get up and move; do something, but I couldn't seem to get my twitching muscles to obey. I was momentarily distracted by a bright flash of golden light before a vaguely familiar scent exploded over the area. It reminded me of whatever had been in the duffel bag sea-boy carried on the ship when we'd first arrived, but the odor now was so much more intense and visceral. As strange as it might sound, the only way I could describe the smell and feel of it would be restrained chaos. Images of bloody battles fought and won and of furious demons being held behind dark cages flew through my head almost too quickly to recognize, but the feelings of cold righteousness and grim justice they left behind seared themselves into my mind.

Breaking through the haze, sea-boy's voice boomed out distortedly.

"Surrender, Wotan. You cannot hope to defeat a lord of order!"

"None but the spawn of Loki may kill me, as you well know Vidar!" The ancient one called back heatedly.

"You may not die this night Wotan, but you can be subdued until that time comes!" a new voice called out. Lifting my head up, I was able to see a large group of adult heroes led by tuxedo-man flying down from the sky as they used their respective powers to defeat the remaining villains.

The heroes gathered the unconscious villains and dumped them into a group by the rest, encircling them to make sure they couldn't escape.

"It's over." Underwear-man stated, stepping forward.

"There will be another day," the plant-woman declared with a glare.

"Another day. Another day? There will be another day?!" pimp-man asked with outrage. "No! Not another day; not for any of us!" he called out with a hint of furious mirth. Pointing down at the water, the large vines from earlier swiftly rose up from the water; their thorns releasing a thick green gas explosively.

"Joker made spores, don't breathe!" underwear-man called out desperately as he dove forward and tackled the giggling man in front of him.

Lifting up into the air above the reach of the poisonous gas spreading over the area, sea-boy held his arms out in front of him, materializing a cross-like symbol in the air with golden light.

"Fear not," he called down righteously. "Fate has intervened!"

A loud noise like the reverberations of a large bell being rung sounded out and the cross-like symbol started sucking the large cloud of green spores before they could reach us. Feeling impressed, I watched as any trace of the no doubt harmful substance was whisked mysteriously absorbed and taken away in under a minute. As soon as the last of the pores were gone, sea-boy dropped his arms; letting the golden symbol vanish and flying back down to the ground.

An angry snort of disgust sounded nearby. Looking around to find the cause of it, I had to keep myself from sneezing at the sudden scent of anger and fear that washed over me as fast-boy stomped over towards the rest of our team with a pissed-off look on his face.

"What the fuck were you thinking?! How could you let him put on the helmet? Nabu will never release Kaldur now; he'll be trapped inside Dr. Fate forever!" the angry redhead roared to the Martian next to him furiously; looking sick with horror over his Atlantean friend's predicament.

To everyone's surprise, Sea-boy calmly shook his head and lifted his arms up, smoothly slipping the helmet off and cradling it against his side with one arm.

"Nabu let you go?" fast-boy asked in a strangled voice.

"He almost did not, but your friend Kent was most helpful." Smiling, he glanced down at the helmet and held it out for the speedster to take. "He says hello."

Making a chocking noise, the speedster gingerly grabbed the helmet and looked at it with an unreadable expression before nodding. Despite the positive outcome, I watched as he avoided meeting the others eyes and subtly moved away when it seemed like someone would come in to contact with him.

"We're done here," underwear-man ordered with a hint of exasperation in his voice. Subtly sniffing in his direction though, I detected the smell of relief and fading fear coming from him. Seems he wasn't quite as unaffected by sea-boy's experiment with the strange helmet as he wanted the others to think.

"The super villain secret society has been neutralized. As for your performance…..it was satisfactory." While most of the team brightened and congratulated each other as if they'd just received the best possible compliment from the man, I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes in annoyance but otherwise let his words go. The only other person that seemed not to be affected by the man's words was a subdued fast-boy as he continued to quietly avoid interacting with the rest of the team.

Standing up on all four legs, I gingerly walked over to my human and stood right behind him, resting my head on his right shoulder tiredly. Despite other people being around, he surprised me when he wrapped and arm around my neck and lightly squeezed, leaning his head against mine and sighing.

Noticing the gesture, underwear man ordered us to go back to base and treat our injuries before meeting with him for mission debriefing. Begrudgingly lifting my head off my human's shoulder, I sluggishly followed behind the rest of the team as they limped back to the ship tiredly. Settling down to the floor next to the seated form of my human, I had an unpleasant flashback of our near drowning. I hadn't even realized I was letting out a low growl until I felt the solid heat of my human's hand as he scratched behind my ears comfortingly.

"Wolf?" he asked. Swallowing the unhappy rumbling in my chest, I lifted my head and put it on his thigh, absorbing his scent and warmth.

I was exhausted, in pain, and struggling to keep from transforming. Being around my human helped lessen the painful prickling in my paws, but to be honest I was becoming more certain with every passing minute that I wouldn't be able to stop myself from turning before we got back to base.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Holy shit.

13,206 words spread over 25 pages. Again sorry this took so long to get out, I have some plot ideas that needed to be completely hammered out before I felt comfortable posting this chapter. There were tons of different directions I wanted to go and I ended up editing and rewriting this chapter a couple times to make sure this is how I wanted to move forward with the story.

If I've earned a review I'd love to hear feedback and get an idea of what you think. Do I use certain words or phrases too often? Is my writing style awkward? Are the characters being described well enough? Do they have enough emotional depth? Any words from you guys about this and anything else would be fabulous.