It is now time for the long-awaited Chapter 9! Reasoning? Well, this is a collab chapter of course! I've been working with Doctor Wheel on this chapter for you. (When I say worked I mean he wrote it and I went through and Edited it) Link to Doctor Wheel's profile: u/7431089/ . ENJOY!

Chapter 9 - Another Dead End

"...and so ah hoped yah could help," Engineer said into the transmitter of the pay phone.

"A werewolf, huh? Not something you'd hear about on a daily basis, ya? Vicious basturds, ah remember the time- " a gruff voice said back.

"Focus partner, ah don't exactly have time for stories."

"Right, right, don't get yer pantyhose in bunch, goggles," it said back. "Now yus say yer friend was "cursed" right?"

"Right."

A huff was heard on the other side. "Well, tah be honest, a cursed werewolf is harder to cure than a bitten one. Not impossible, just harder."

"How harder?"

"Most folks who are bitten can be cured by killing the wolf who bit them, easy as pie. But fer someone who's been cursed..."

"What is it?" Engineer said as he gripped the phone tighter.

"...all ah can say is that yah gotta find the undo thing."

"Can yah please be more specific than that?"

"A counter spell of some sorts, but it doesn't hafta be only that," it said. "Usually curses can be lifted by fulfilling some kind of...request. Ya know, like in dem fairy tails stuff, like ah...ah! Beauty and teh Beast!"

"Ah see..." Engineer slowly nodded.

"Yeah, sorry ah couldn't be more of help, goggles,"

"It's all right, at least we have something to go on."

"Oh, one last thing...how many times did yer friend transform already?"

"Why...?"

"It's because, cursed werewolves become more and more aggressive with each transformation."

"WHAT?!"

"The longer ya wait to find the cure, that beast is gonna get stronger, and stronger until one day yer friend will become the beast," it said. "And at that point, he's too far off to be saved."

Engineer nearly dropped the phone, speechless at what he just heard.

"Ah've seen it before and it ain't pretty. Had tah put one right between the eyes," a cough was heard. "But don't get too worked up about that, yer friend sounds like he in good hands, and ah have faith y'all find the cure."

"..."

"If ya need anything else, just ring me. Ah'll be waiting, partner..."

The line went dead.

Engineer placed the phone back onto its hook. "Well don't that beat all..."

He'd hope his occult savvy friend would've given him some more answers about Sniper's condition. He was the only other person the Texan personally knew that dabbled in the unknown and supernatural. If he and the team didn't find a cure soon, things are not going to end well for his Australian teammate.


Demo flipped through the pages of his spell book. The drunk Scotsman had to have gone through the entire book at least a couple dozen of times already looking for a counter-curse for Sniper. He grabbed his bottle of Scrumpy and took a long chug from it.

"Why do these bloody curses hafta be so hard to reverse?" he said as he put the bottle down.

"Any luck partner?"

The Scotsman looked up and saw Engineer walk into the room. "Sadly no, looked through this bloody book as all my other bloody magic books at least twice by now. Did yer friend have anything to say?"

"Nope. Just more bad news."

Demoman facepalmed and sighed. "Things just keep getting better and better."

Engineer quickly told him what his friend had told him over the phone. Demoman picked up his bottle, "This is more serious than ah thought, now we're on a timeframe."

"Am 'fraid so partner," he replied. "Ah do not like it either."

Demoman took a long chug from the brown bottle before setting it down, "If those nightmares never happened, then we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Yeah, they sure rattled Sniper. Ah always thought of him as a fearless one, like Spy, but ah guess he has his limits as well."

The two sat in silence for another minute or so before Demoman spoke, "Asking Merasmus

is out of the question, ain't it?"

Engineer brought a hand up to his chin. It was tempting to ask Soldier's roommate to help them to remove the curse, but then there was a chance it could backfire and make it worse. There was also the fact the wizard could also screw with them even more. The mercenaries were not exactly on the best terms with him after all.

"Well, ah'd say we only ask Merasmus for help as a last resort. He isn't the type that would actually help us in these types of situations."

"Unless you give him some good old "persuasion", eh?"

"Right, but ah don't think threatening wizards is gonna help Sniper a whole lot."

"Ah know, ah know, lad."

"What are you two wankers talking about?"

The two turned and saw Sniper walk into the living room. He rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn. The Australian had a couple of bags under his eyes and did not look like he slept well at all.

"Morning Sniper, we're just trying to find more ways to alleviate your condition." Engineer said.

"And...?"

"Nothing, dead ends everywhere. Sorry man."

Sniper waved him off. "No worries truckie, it'll be fine..." He left the room in silence, the two looked at each other before adjusting their seats.

"Say, what were those nightmares about anyways?" Demoman asked. "You've been talking with him more than ah have."

"Not much partner, but it hasta do with some kind of wild dogs/wolves or something like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Sniper mentioned it every now and then, but the last one he told me...it was pretty vivid."

"Ah'm all ears."


Run.

That was all he could do.

Lawrence pushed through the branches and bushes that stood in his way. He needed to escape one way or another. It didn't matter how, he just needed to escape. He dare not look behind him, as doing so would allow his pursuers to catch up. He heard their snarls, howls, and grinding of razor-sharp teeth in the background.

Coming into a clearing, he was blindsided by a black blur. He was knocked to the ground and found himself staring into the red, glowing eyes of a wolf. The black furred canine snapped at his face in an effort to tear the flesh from his skull. Lawrence managed to push the wolf off of him and run back into the woods.

The howls were coming closer to him and he was beginning to tire. His heart was pounding, legs were aching, and sweat covered his entire body. Despite the pain, he continued to run.

"You can't run forever, Lawrence." a familiar voice echoed in his head.

He ignored it as he continued to run.

"Just give in Lawrence, it will be easier for the both of us."

"Like hell I will." he responded.

He path through the forest soon ended up in another clearing, but this time, the area in front of his was a large rock face that was too steep to climb. He tried running another way but was stopped when wolves emerged from the brush. He quickly found himself surrounded by the canines, all growling, snarling, and barring his teeth at him.

"Now you see Lawrence," she said. "You are running from the inevitable."

"I will not give in Casey!" he shouted. "We both know that for a fact."

"Of course Lawrence, but who will break first?" he could see her giving him a smug look.

The pack slowly closed on him. He noticed a wolf in front of the others, it was colored very similar to him when he became a wolf. The wolf raised its head and sneered, "Nothing personal mate, it's just business." it said in his voice.

Then it lunged.


"So that's it, that bloody ghost of the former RED Medic is causing this trouble." Demoman said.

"It would seem so, partner. Well the nightmares at least."

Demoman tapped his chin. "So now we have two problems. First, we have Sniper turning into a dog, and secondly, we have a crazy ghost lass that's trying to take over his mind," he mumbled something incoherent. "Ack, this is getting bloody complicated."

"It is, but we can't give up! The last thing ah want to do is put a bullet into his brain," Engineer said. "You have some ways to purge ghosts right?"

"Aye, purging ghosts is easier than trying to remove curses," Demoman said as he flipped open his spell book. "Ah can easily think of several ways we can exorcise this lass. Just me and Solly, a couple of chants..."

"Soldier? Why?"

"Ah, Solly is the only other person here who is just as proficient in the supernatural than I am," he responded. "My counterpart isn't as, ah, competent in this line of work."

"Ok..." Engineer could see the many ways this can turn horribly wrong, but at this point, what other options do they have? He stood up, "Do what you need to do partner..."

"Aye."

"...and also, don't be drunk when you perform the exorcism. For Sniper's sake."

"Ah'll remember that lad."

Engineer nodded and walked out of the room. As the Texan left the Scotsman, he started thinking of a way to rid Sniper of his curse. It wasn't easy though, he was a man of science, with eleven PhDs to prove it, yet none of those degrees had a solid understanding in magic.

"There gotta be a way, ah know there has to be a way..." he muttered as his hand curled into a fist. "Ah'll find a way, even if it kills me."


"I thought I told you to never call me again, Conagher," a voice hissed.

"Ah know Tina, but ah need your help."

Engineer found himself back at the same payphone. He remembered another person who frequently worked with the supernatural, but he wasn't exactly on good terms with her.

"And why should I help you, Conagher?" Tina replied. "Why should I help someone who RUNS OFF with another woman on their WEDDING NIGHT?!"

Engineer winced, he didn't expect her to bring that night up. "Look, ah wasn't thinking properly, and ah was stupid. We can talk about this later, but this is urgent."

He didn't hear anything for a few moments, and almost assumed she'd hung up, but to his relief, she spoke back, "Fine, but I ain't done with you just yet, cowboy. What's the problem?"

Engineer quickly gave her the rundown: how a coworker accidentally cursed another coworker to become a werewolf.

"Huh, that's new. People are usually bitten to become werewolves, it's rare for a curse to be used," Tina said. "Only reason for people to use curses is to make it hard for the victim to find the cure."

"We kinda found that out already."

"Don't need your snark Conagher," she said back. "Let me get my sister, Kelly, she knows a whole lot more of this spell/curses stuff than I do."

Engineer heard a bit of scuffling and mummers before a voice came back on, "Why are you idiots messing with curses?"

"Wasn't our exact intention Miss," Engineer reasoned. "It was an accident."

"Accident or not, you don't mess with curses, period," Kelly said. "Werewolf curse, huh?"

"Yup."

"Hold on," the fluttering of pages was heard in the background. "Oh that's an old curse, ancient by the looks of it. I know some people who I should has this on..."

"Uh Miss?"

"Oh right, ah...the easiest way out is killing your coworker, which I doubt you want to do," more pages were turned. "Ah, from what I can see this curse was intentionally made hard to reverse."

"Ah was afraid of that..."

"I'm afraid I can't help you as of now. I have to spend some more time on this before I can come up with anything," she said.

'CRASH!'

A loud noise sounded through the phone followed by a loud roar. "Hannah, shoot it for fuck sake!"

"Uh, I gotta go. If I get anything, I'll contact you. Kelly out."

The line went dead.