30 minutes later, I found myself getting creamed at Smash Brothers yet again by Raven's flawless gameplay. I had been playing this game for years, and she was making me look like a novice. I was no match for her and she knew it. She also found it hilariously amusing.
"Hahaha. So how many milkshakes do you owe me so far", asked Raven in between her laughter with a smug look on her face.
"Three", I respond with my arms crossed as I sink into the chair I was sitting in. I then look over to my left to see Raven doing a little victory dance. Except it wasn't just a little jig that people did whenever they were victorious at something, Raven was legitimately dancing, in fact she was doing "the monkey". She even went as far as to add her own little twist by adding a cute little hip movement to the dance. Upon seeing her do this, my frustration with losing the video game melted away as I found myself staring at her hips. It was also at that point that a huge and cheesy-looking grin stretched across my face, and I started to react. Now feeling a familiar sense of panic, I quickly look down at myself while Raven isn't looking and cross my legs upon realizing that I couldn't get out of the chair, not unless I wanted her to know, which I didn't. I look back up at Raven's cute little dance and notice that her eyes were closed and her smile had returned to her face, bigger than ever. It was like she had forgotten that I was there. She was just lost in her own little world, jammin', and happy. Though I had only known her for a few days, I knew this was a rare sight that I was witnessing. Why must you try to hide this side of you, I thought to myself as I compared this happy dancing Raven, to the monotoned persona she made great efforts to express on a daily basis.
My thoughts were immediately interrupted when I noticed a large book on the bookshelf behind her outside my room "glowing" black. It was cloaked in her aura. Upon realizing this, as if on cue, the book shoots off of the shelf and flies towards us. It misses Raven's face, but just barely (the closeness of the book as it rushed by her face was enough to snap her out of her dance), and flies at me. Still in the chair, I lean back so that it'll miss me, but then it adjusts its path and follows me. Unable to escape it, I fall backwards in the chair as the book's spine slams square-on into my nose. Raven then gasps as she rushes over to assist me.
"Oh, my God! Are you okay", she asks as she stands over me. Before I answered I found myself resisting the urge to look up her cloak.
Come on, Fernando! You're better than that! Plus you just got the cool-down you wanted, I thought to myself upon realizing that my boner had disappeared. "Yeah, I'm okay. Webster is just a dick, that's all", I say jokingly as I look over to see that it was a dictionary that attacked me. Raven chuckles for a moment at my joke before speaking again.
"Need a hand?"
"That would be nice." Raven then walks around to where my feet were propped up due to me falling in the chair and reaches over and offers me her hand. I stretch my arm towards her and grab her hand with mine. She then begins to pull me up. I was going to suggest she helped me from the side because it'd probably be easier and because I wasn't exactly light, but much to my surprise when I saw her actually managing to lift me up, at least enough to where I could begin to lift myself up. With one last tug, Raven manages to get me onto my feet, but soon lost her balance due to my weight and stumbles backwards. To keep her from hitting the wall I pull her back towards me, but did so a little too hard. Dammit, Fernando! Stop man-handling her, I think to myself as Raven pushes into me. I then notice that she had pushed me back far enough to where the backs of my knees collided with the still knocked over chair, causing me to fall backwards again, but this time with Raven pressed against me. I grunt in pain for a moment before I start to laugh for having fallen into the exact same position as before. Upon realizing what just happened, Raven also begins to laugh with me. Eventually our laughter dies down as we make eye contact with one another.
It was then that I seriously struggled to not get lost into her eyes again as that would almost always happen every time I looked into their beauty. I also noticed at that point that my tail was also trying to wag on its own again, but only wasn't because my weight was preventing it. And lastly, I noticed that one of Raven's hands was placed over my heart as it raced faster and faster like it was running an Olympic race. I then felt my face moving closer to hers just as it did earlier that day in the woods. We come to a stop when we hear the rushing sound of something else flying over us. We then look over to my left (her right) in time to see another framed picture crash into the wall. I look back at Raven just in time to see her blush as she levitates off of me and floats over towards the picture. As she floated away from me, I noticed she had grown quiet and that her head was hanging a little low.
"What's wrong", I asked her as I awkwardly rolled off of the chair and rose to my feet.
"My powers…. they're…. it's", she began with her back turned towards me.
"Having trouble controlling them?"
"Something like that."
"Need any help?"
"No, I'm fine. Really, it's nothing", said Raven sort of defensively as if she could see my doubt and suspicion through the back of her head. "Besides, you've got some explaining to do", said Raven as she then floats past me and takes a seat on the nearby couch. I was tempted to call her out on trying to change the subject, but the fact of the matter was, I technically had been doing the same thing since we had arrived in Box Elder, and I didn't want to be a hypocrite.
"Alright then, ask away."
"Okay then, first thing's first, where are we?"
"Box Elder", I said with a cheeky grin.
"You know that's not what I meant." I chuckle a little more before giving her the serious answer.
"I don't know what the term for this would be, but it's like we took the concept of time travel and combined it with the concept of reliving memories."
"What do you mean?"
"Well speaking based off of movies and such, if I were reliving my memories, then we'd be observing specific events without being able to interact with anything. And if we had traveled back in time, then everyone should still be able to see us. But somehow neither one seems to be the case. We're in the past, yes, but somehow we became invisible and independent spirits in the process. Not only can people not see us, but we aren't bound by my past self, and we can somehow still interact with inanimate objects."
"I don't think people can hear us either. I mean you practically cursed out you mom earlier." It was then I remembered how neither Mr. Buck or the two squirrels noticed me talking to them, and how nobody noticed my howling earlier. "What's up with that by the way", asked Raven as I snap out of my inner thoughts.
"What's up with what?"
"You and your mom." Without saying anything, I walk over to the couch and take a seat on the far other side of it. "Hey, I didn't mean to pry. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"It's okay. She and I, we've just never seen eye-to-eye." I ended that topic there without another word. "Anything else on your mind?"
"Well, you could tell me about this house, or about your hometown. You told me it was a bit complex to explain. I don't seem to have anywhere to go at the moment."
"Okay, then." I pause for a moment to get my thoughts together before speaking. "Well, I was born in Oklahoma City, and moved to Portugal when I was a year old. After that, I moved to Japan when I was four, and then here when I had just turned twelve."
"Where at?"
"Excuse me?"
"Where in Japan did you live?"
"I take it you've been there?"
"We visited Tokyo once a couple of years ago. Strictly for business of course", she said with a raised eyebrow and a small grin.
"Oh yes, of course. Business." We both chuckled at our silliness for a moment before I continued. "I was on the tropical island of Okinawa for about five years, and then moved up to the mountains of Misawa, about eight to ten hours North of Tokyo."
"Sounds cold."
"I know, it was awesome."
"Weirdo."
"Look who's talking", I said as I moved my arms in my seat pretending to do "the monkey". We both chuckle again. "What were y'all doing in Tokyo?"
"We were lured there by a shaman called Brushogun."
"Oh, I remember him. His terror was well-known throughout Japan the last time I was there. I heard rumors that say that the last time anybody saw him, he became some giant glob of ink and destroyed a comic book company."
"Oh, that wasn't a rumor, that was fact. I was there. We all were."
"No way! That was you guys? You destroyed Brushogun?"
"Not exactly. Turns out he was just a puppet."
"How so?"
"Long story."
"I've got nowhere to go", I said as I pulled my shirt over my head pretending to be Raven with her cloak's hood pulled up. Raven giggles with her hand over her mouth before continuing.
She told me the story about how an ink warrior called Saico-Tek attacked Jump City, luring the Titans to Tokyo to investigate. She told me how Brushogun had been captured by Tokyo's former hero Uehara Daizo and was forced into slavery as he made him create monsters using his powers via a special printing press. A quiet growl rumbled in my chest upon learning the true colors of former Commander Daizo.
"What about you", asked Raven once she had finished her story.
"Me?"
"Sure. I'm sure you have some stories as well."
"*scoffs, you don't know the half of it." That one sentence led us into an endless conversation that consisted us of sharing stories about the people we'd met, the villains we'd fought, and the fun times we'd shared with our friends. I don't remember which villains I told Raven about. The only stories I remembered sharing with Raven were ones about my Patriot Pack, though I left out how my Pack came about gaining their powers. I told her how Mikaela left South Dakota after high school, and how April and Charlotte expanded the Pack's territory by moving to Rapid City. As for the others, Alyssa and her boyfriend bought and moved into the Buck family's old house some time after they left, and Sammie moved into my old house with her husband Nathaniel, where they soon had their first child, Charlie. I also told her about one of my former friends, Alex Polinski, before he went rogue and betrayed the Pack.
Raven's on the other hand, I remembered all by heart. She told me stories about five villains. One was a sadistic, mad scientist called Killer Moth, one was an overweight super-nerd called Control Freak, one was a masked psychopath called Slade, one was a hypnotic, and obsessive old man called Mad Mod, and one was a mentally unstable magician called Mumbo.
"Wow, and I thought the people I fought were crazy", I said upon thinking about Raven's story about how Robin was forced into a high school prom with Killer Moth's batshit-crazy daughter.
"Yeah, you missed out on a lot."
"Sounds like it. Can't wait to meet up with these guys."
"Trust me, you can live without meeting those weirdoes."
"Fair enough. I mean, I don't know how you top psycopathic magician."
"Well there was the one time we built the Titans Tower out of a crashed space ship."
"That's how you built that thing? And here I thought Cyborg was just a construction worker."
"Hahaha. No, we just used the parts and rebuilt the ship into the tower."
"Well that might explain why it's sitting on its own island. But how did y'all even get that ship to crash?"
"Well it all started about four years ago when we all met. I was in an alleyway when I saw Robin fighting a rampaging alien girl with orange skin." She was obviously talking about Starfire.
"Why am I not surprised by that", I asked sarcastically. It was then that I heard the sound of a rooster crowing. It was 11:15 am, and my alarm clock was going off.
"Isn't Curious George a monkey", asked Raven suspiciously.
"Yeah, apparently my parents bought it from the back of some guy's truck."
"Naturally."
"Of course." We both chuckle again for a moment before I rose to my feet. "So, shall we", I asked Raven as I Changed to Lobomon and assumed my gentleman pose that I did a couple of nights ago when I led Raven back to her room.
"Where to", asked Raven, still seated on the couch.
"If there's one thing I've learned from this small town, it's that everything pops off during the lunch hour."
"Okay, but where are we going?"
"To a twisted, horror-filled environment that's so nerve-racking, so cut-throat, so fowl that your heart will go into cardiac arrest for the entirity of the visit and your palms will sweat floods just from walking through the front door", I responded in my Yami Bakura voice.
"I see. I thought maybe you were going to take me to your old high school or something."
"That's what I said, isn't it", I asked returning to my normal voice. Raven giggles again. My tail begins to wag upon being once again successful at making her laugh.
"You're funny. I bet you talk to all the girls like that."
"Only the really cute ones." Raven then pushes her hair out of her face as I notice her cheeks starting to blush. Keep it going, keep it going! "Shall we", I repeated. Raven then rises to her feet and bows to me just as she did the other night.
"Lead on." Raven then floats behind me as I trot upstairs and turn left towards the front door. I then open another shadow portal and step to the side to let Raven pass through first, which I hoped translated to her as being the equivalent of holding the door open for her.
I just got this hot gothic chick to laugh at my joke and I'm holding doors open for her all while standing on four legs without any thumbs. Meanwhile, most other guys can do neither task with thumbs. Suck it, humans, I thought to myself as I hoped I was impressing Raven. Once I had followed her through the portal and we were back outside, I turned right and led her back downhill towards Creekside Drive. Once we reached the bottom of the hill, I lead Raven across the street and past the Bucks' house.
"I thought we were going to your high school", said Raven as we soon left the street and headed towards the grassy hilltop behind the wall of houses that made up Pheasant Place.
"We are, but I wanna check something first", I said as I came to a halt at the edge of the hill. Below us was a relatively steep ("relatively" meaning that most humans couldn't safely scale it or even be bothered with it) dropoff that led to an open plain, which then led to the main highway of the town. The highway itself consisted of two streets, one leading left towards the city border, and the other leading right further into town. On the other side of the two streets, starting near the city border, from left to right was a small casino, a strip club, a pawn shop, and a trailer park, which sat at the bottom of the hill where the highway had a left turn leading uphill towards the Air Force Base.
"What are we checking for exactly?"
"Oh yeah, I never finished that part."
"What part?"
"Well, like I said, I moved here when I had just turned twelve."
"Yeah?"
"Well I wound up living here for about three years, taking me through my middle school years, and only my first year in high school."
"So?"
"So, since we don't know how far back in time we went, I'm checking to see if this is my freshman year of high school or not."
"And how will you determine that?" It was then, as if on cue, something caught my eye over towards my left.
"There. That's how", I said as I pointed my claw towards a patch of tall grass on the other side of the closest street. From down below, if you were walking by on the same leveled ground, you wouldn't be able to see what lurked inside. But from where we stood at the top of that hill, you could clearly see it. From inside the tall patch of dead prairie grass, was a young and hungry werewolf with pitch-black fur.
"Fernando, is that….", began Raven.
"Here comes lunch now", I said pointing further towards the left, outside of the city border. Among the usual traffic of cars, was a man riding a moped, which had…. character, to be polite about it. It had a rusty color to it, it was full of dings and scratches, and it's model looked like it was from the year 2001, which even during the time I was living in Box Elder, was old. The rider himself was covered from head to toe wearing all black leather. On his feet were thick, steel-toe, black army boots, around his neck was a black bandana with the generic white patterns all over it that came with most bandanas that people bought by the dozen, and on his head was a black motorcycle helmet, which surprisingly looked more expensive than the moped itself. The rider had just passed the city border, entering Box Elder, and was about to pass the wolf's hiding place when Raven spoke again.
"Should I be concerned?"
"Just watch. And get ready", I responded as I Changed into Gizamon. When the moped rider was close enough, the wolf emerged from the tall grass and lunged at him with a mighty roar, so mighty that even Raven could clearly hear it, without the use of super werewolf hearing, enough for her to gasp, despite her knowing full well what was going to happen. However, the moment of shock and terror was short-lived, because the rider neither panicked or was shaken, as indicated by his maneuver as he swerved out of the wolf's airborne path, causing him to tuck and roll across the road into the grass on the other side before he could rise back up to his paws. The rider then revs the engine a couple of times and then flips a switch on the handle bars, activating some kind of turbo boost (I don't really know how motorcycles work or the terminology for them) as he speeds off down the road. The moped was now traveling fast enough to where it could pass as a motorcycle. The wolf, now back on his paws, roars again and then chases after the rider down the highway. "That's our cue", I said to Raven as I opened my wings and dove over the edge of the hill.
"If I had a nickel for every time I followed you today with only a small fraction of vague information to go off of….", began Raven as she flew after me.
"Hey, I like to keep you on your toes", I said with a grin as I looked back at her. By the time Raven had caught up with me, I was already flying above the wolf's hunt. Despite the rider's speed boost, the wolf was doing an exceptionally well job of keeping up with him. I look further ahead up the road, where the highway had its left turn that led up the hill. There was a team of three men, and a fourth man with a dump truck full of dirt. They were there to fill in a large trench that someone or something dug up on the side of the road on the other side of the turn. They had just gotten to that spot, as indicated by the fact that they were in the process of setting up the warning traffic signs, but the driver of the truck had already, I assumed by accident, poured a small patch of dirt in the middle of the road. "Ha! I remember this", I shouted as my tail began to wag in excitement. I noticed Raven shaking her head jokingly at me out the corners of my eyes upon hearing me.
The wolf, now so close behind the rider's machine at this point that if he were chasing a deer rather than a moped, this would be the point during the hunt that he starts nipping at its legs, noticing the workers up ahead lunges at his prey once again, this time with a smaller leap. With quick thinking, the rider swerves towards the right slightly and then uses the outward movement to prepare for a wide turn to the left.
"Heads up, Hard Hats", he shouts, probably because his machine wasn't equipped with a horn. Upon hearing him, the workers, the exception being the guy in the truck, all scamper out of his way, but get drenched in a cloud of dust as the rider drifts through the dirt to make his turn. "Sorry", he cries back to them as he drives off. The wolf, stumbling, but not crashing, from his second failed lunge leaps forward again, and like his prey, uses the dirt to his advantage as he, too, drifts for a moment before speeding to his left after the rider.
"Whoops, my bad", the wolf shouts to the workers as he runs away.
"Stupid kids", shouts one of the workers as he shakes his fist in the air like another movie cliche. I notice Raven looking at me out the corners of my eyes again as we turned left and flew after the wolf and his prey. As they traveled uphill, I look up ahead towards the right to see a Pizza Hut, which they were about to pass. It was then that the wolf gets a second wind and speeds up as he prepares for one final attack. With one final roar, the wolf lunges at the rider again, but deliberately does so in a way that even if he missed, he would safely land on all four paws and keep running. The rider then swerves to the left and out of the wolf's path, but in doing so, played into the wolf's hands, well paws rather. Once he had landed, the wolf immediately leaps towards his left, straight into the rider, who at this point was too close to him to dodge. He tries to hit the brakes with the hope that he would stop his bike enough to where the wolf would shoot past him, but to no avail. He exclaims in shock as the wolf tackles him off of his bike and into the grassy area on the side of the road. The bike, now without a rider, continues on its own for a moment before crashing on its side in the middle of the road, fortunately there were no cars around at the time.
"Oh, my God", shouts Raven.
"He's fine, watch." We fly over and land beside them in the grass to see the rider playing with the wolf as if he were a dog. The rider laid on his back, petting the wolf through his leather gloves as the wolf playfully nipped and tugged at his thick, leather jacket.
"What the….", began Raven before I cut her off.
"You see, two months into my freshman year, my now brother-in-law, Nathaniel, who was a junior at the time, dropped out of high school and became a delivery boy for the Pizza Hut we just passed. Since pizza was 90% of my diet back then, I would order delivery for lunch all the time. One day, as a prank, I requested for him specifically. I thought it'd be funny to hunt down my pizza mid-delivery. What started out as a one-time thing turned into a weekly thing, and then into a daily thing.
"I say again, you're a weirdo."
"Yeah, but we're friends", I respond with a cheeky grin. It was then that the wolf, now revealed to have burning, yellow eyes, broke away from the rider and headed towards the crashed moped.
"Alright, alright, take your trophy. It's all I'm good for anyway", said the rider sarcastically as he sits up and takes off his helmet. The rider revealed himself to be my brother-in-law, Nathaniel Ross, a thin, yet built white boy, born and raised in Box Elder. He had a bit of acne on his face, mostly between his cheeks and his nose, and he wore glasses.
"Aw, nobody likes a sore loser, Thanny Boy", said the wolf as he investigated the bike's cargo hull, which Nathaniel had constructed out of an old pet carrier and attached it to the back of the bike. The wolf pried it open with his claws and pulled out the black delivery bag that held the pizzas.
"Top one's yours", said Daniel as he rose to his feet and walked towards the wolf. The wolf had already begun digging into the pizza before even pulling the box out of the bag it was in. "Easy, easy", said Daniel as he yanked the wolf from the bag by the scruff of his neck. He then closes the pizza box and pulls it from the bag. After that, he tosses it off to the side into the grassy area. The excited wolf races towards it and immediately continues to eat his meal. "Bring your A game tomorrow, I've got a new engine I wanna try out." The wolf simply barked twice in response. "Alrighty then, later, Fernando. Enjoy your pizza." And with that Nathaniel rode off back down the hill. I look back at my younger self, who by the way was the same size as me in my wolf form, as he devoured his pizza like an animal at the zoo.
"Damn. I was hyperactive back then."
"That's putting it lightly", said Raven sarcastically. It was around this moment that my younger self had just polished off his meal. He then folds up the box with his paws, and then begins to dig a hole in the ground. "What're you doing", asked Raven.
"I was also pretty lazy back then, too." Once my younger self had finished digging, he pushed the box into the hole. After that, he lifted his paw, and from it came a small fireball of purple, black, and red. The fireball shot into the pit the wolf had dug and began to burn the empty pizza box. The wolf then lets out a large yawn as he curls up beside the tiny bonfire for a nap. It was then that a low, rumbling-like noise could be heard coming from the wolf's chest, except it wasn't his usual growl, this sound sounded more feline than canine.
"Are you…. are you purring?"
"By the way, did I mention I'm part cat", I asked Raven with a cheeky grin as I Changed my eyes from purple to blue for effect.
"How exactly does that work?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
"It's too crazy to believe."
"How crazy can it be?"
"Okay then. After I turned fourteen, I was haunted by the ghost of a cat, who would follow me around and heal my injuries whenever I got hurt. As an unpredicted side effect, I gained a new form." To further prove my point, I Change into a form I hadn't yet revealed to the Titans. As I Changed, my wings shrunk back into my back, and my mane grew even larger and more defined. My tail, which was bushy with a thick layer of fur all over it, Changed into a long, slender one with a thinner layer of fur, with a bushy tuft of it at the end. My paws grew even bigger, my muzzle, shrunk a bit, but became wider, and my roar was much more dominant and defined as my body underwent the Change from canine to feline. When the Change was complete, I stood before Raven as a four-foot tall, melanistic African lion with blue eyes. In this form, I referred to myself as Pantheramon.
"So that's it? That's the story to justify the fact that you're a lion?"
"Um, well let me see: ghost, cat, lion", I began as I counted on the toes of my front paw as if they were human fingers. "Uh, yeah, that's pretty much it."
"In that case, yeah, you're right. That is too crazy to believe."
"Told ya so." It was at that moment that a small gust of wind blew behind us, and with that, something caught my nose's attention. "Hey, do you smell that", I asked as I turned to look behind us. Raven awkwardly sniffed at the air, awkwardly in the sense that she was human-shaped and not animal-shaped, so it looked kinda weird for her.
"I smell old pizza and dead grass, so unless that's what you smell, then I've got nothing." I sniff the air again, this time deeper. The smell was sharp and strong, and familiar. "I smell…. it kinda smells like…. spray paint."
"Spray paint?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure of it. Follow me", I said as I trotted back towards the Pizza Hut.
"Why am I not surprised by this", asked Raven sarcastically as she flies after me. We were just entering the Pizza Hut parking lot when another gust of wind bombarded us with the smell. "Yep, now I smell it. It does smell like paint." We then turn to our left and the parking lot next door. As we walked over to it, we saw that the small parking lot housed half a dozen school buses. At the edge of the parking lot, right at the point where we passed to enter it, there was a pole with a billboard-like sign at the top of it that read, "Property of the Douglas Patriots". "School mascot", asked Raven as she pointed up at the sign.
"Yep."
"And it's safe to assume that you named your Pack after it as well?"
"Yep again."
"Lack of an imagination at the time?"
"Wow, you're on fire today, aren't you", I asked with a cheeky grin as I walked further into the bus lot. Off in the corner, separated from the rest of the buses, sat three of the six school buses. Two of which were painted green, and the third had its front half painted green while its back half remained yellow, indicating that they didn't finish painting it.
"So, is this place doing anything for your memory?"
"It is. The chase with Nathaniel isn't the only reason why this day stands out to me."
"Why's that?"
"I don't know what the exact day is, but I distinctly remember the smell of spray paint as I ate my pizza today due to the buses undergoing their annual spray painting for St. Patrick's Day. I had never been near the bus lot during this time before, so I remember the one time I was like it was yesterday. The month is March, and the year is 2009, approximately six years ago.
"Any particular reason this is so significant?"
"Do you remember the day we met", I asked as I turned back to Raven.
"Like it was four days ago", she responded jokingly. I smiled for a moment as I walked up to her.
"Just keep that in mind", I said as I walked up to her left and lowered myself to the ground and looked up at her. Raven, confused by my gesture simply raises an eyebrow. I respond by motioning my head towards my back.
"Um, won't I need like a saddle, or something?" I then thought it'd be cute to imitate the voice of the Russian tiger from "Madagascar 3" to reassure her.
"'Tis fine, Raven. Take a feel, go ahead. 'Tis soft like kitten, no", I ask as I trail my tail along my spine. Raven then walks up to my back hesitantly with her hand stretched out. Chills shoot throughout my body as Raven's orgasmic fingers awkwardly explored my feline fur. Once she had gotten a feel for how my fur "worked", she began combing her fingers through it as she petted me. The large panther that laid before her began purring something fierce as his long and slender tail began to wag as if he was still in his wolf form. I turn my head back towards her and smile, and she rewards my smile by reaching for my left ear with her free left hand. Once she had gotten a hold of it, she began massaging it with her thumb. It was then that my right back leg began to thump the ground again like it did the night I joined the Teen Titans. Raven giggled at the sight of a large jungle cat acting like a spazzing puppy, and in her defense, I probably looked a bit ridiculous, but I didn't care, it felt amazing. I was perfectly content with staying with Raven like that forever. However, like every other time I tried to get closer to Raven, something interrupted it, this time in the form of a school bell, though I was the only one who could hear it between the two of us. Upon hearing it I turn my head away from Raven and twitch my ears.
"What is it?"
"Take a look", I said as I motioned my head back uphill towards where my younger self was sleeping.
"Shit", he exclaimed as he shoots to his paws and begins burying the bon fire.
"The school bell is ringing, and I'm about to be late for class." I then motion my head to my back again as if to say, "hop on". Raven, now familiar and more confident in the softness of my fur, climbs onto my back and adjusts her cloak to where she wasn't sitting on it. I could feel the fur along my neck and spine stand up as I felt the smoothness of her beautifully sculpted legs strattling the sides of my torso. Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up, I thought to myself, now feeling nervous about Raven riding on my back to the point where I almost regretted suggesting it. I immediately snap out of my whining when I notice my younger self starting to run further uphill as he just finished putting out the fire. "Hang on", I said as I thought to myself, I always wanted to try this. I then rise up to my back legs and paw at the air with my front paws, pretending to be a horse acting out yet another movie cliche of a horse rider preparing to ride off in a dramatic fashion. As I pawed the air I roared as loud and ferociously as I could. At first, poor Raven was nearly thrown off my back due to not being prepared for my spontaneous need to be dramatic, but she quickly recovered as she dug her fingers into my mane and positioned herself on my back as if she rode racehorses for a living. Once I was certain Raven was secure and ready, I returned to all fours and took off after the young wolf.
Most people assume that when comparing two animals of different species, that it's usually the smaller one that's the fastest. Unfortunately, most of those people had never met me. Though the wolf was younger, weighed less, smaller, and more agile, even with Raven on my back, not only was I just as fast, I was also faster. After a few moments of chasing the wolf as an invisible lion, I found myself running much faster than him, as indicated by the fact that I had passed him during the straight shot of running along the road. When this happened I deliberately slowed down enough to where I was running alongside the wolf. Even if I had beat him back to the school, all that would do is have me waiting there for him to catch up. Since it was "his" life we were witnessing, it made little sense to skip ahead in the story when the story couldn't continue without him.
We continue uphill along the straight shot for about five minutes, passing by a golf course and the main gate entrance to the military base along the way. Once we passed the main gate, the road took us through a tiny plaza area. After that, the road gave you two options, continue straight and enter the military base via another gate entrance, or turn right into the Douglas School District, which if you followed the road all the way around (the road looped around the district and then opened up at the other side of the bottom of the hill where we witnessed my younger self hunting), brought you by the elementary school, the middle school, the preschool, and the high school respectively. Since he was running late, my younger self decided to run behind the back of the plaza buildings to our right and cut straight through the tall grass. Though it was an effective shortcut, I remember how I would initially avoid it whenever possible. This was because this particular area of tall grass was left untamed and unused. Unlike the grass areas near the highway, that would occasionally be given the flash burning treatment by humans and acted as a grazing area for large game and occasionally livestock, this area of grass was left to grow as it pleased. Nobody mowed it, maintained it, or even considered buying the land in this small area. Because of this, the area soon became rattlesnake territory, making it the animal kingdom's equivalent of walking through a minefield. To make matters worse, my younger self was fifteen, and although I know for a fact that he possessed dark powers and several forms, I knew that he wasn't nearly as stong or experienced then as I currently was. Much to my surprise when I saw the young wolf out-maneuver the expected barrage of snake attacks as he ran. When we reached the edge of the snakes' territory, which ended right at the edge of the middle school campus, the wolf turned back at the snakes that hissed at him angrily from the safety of the tall grass. The irritated wolf's yellow eyes then turn green as he rattles his tail and hisses back at them before continuing to run again. As I ran Raven spoke again.
"So how did that happen?"
"How did what happen?"
"You said you became a lion after being haunted by a ghost. How'd you become a rattlesnake?"
"A freak accident that nobody anticipated."
"What happened?"
"Unlike humans, werewolves, due to them being venomous themselves, are resistant to snake venom. We usually tend to recover quickly from it, or just flat-out be immune to it. However, back when I lived here, I was apparently allergic to snake venom, so when I was bitten by a diamondback, my body healed the only way it knew how."
"You absorbed it?"
"In a sense, yes. As the Elemental of Darkness, I was born with the ability to adapt, so when my body couldn't handle its allergy, it mutated me into something that could." It was at this point that were slowed to a stop as the wolf trotted up the front door of the high school. "We're here." The wolf then Changes back to his human form. I teleported us in front of him so that I could get a better look at myself. I was about 70 inches tall, and though still overweight, thinner then I currently was. My facial hair was extremely thin, to a point where you had to be up close to see it, and I had forgotten how much scruffier my mini afro was back then to what it currently was. Again, I wasn't anything to double-take at back then, but I looked better at fifteen then I felt I did at my current twenty one.
My younger self uses the reflection of the glass doors as a mirror to look at himself as he pulls out an afro pick from the back pocket of his jeans. After combing his hair, which still looked scruffy in my opinion, he returns the pick to his pocket and walks through the door. Unable to follow him without physically opening the doors, which despite us being invisible he could see, I open another shadow portal and walk through it. I emerge from it, Raven still on my back, into the main lobby of the high school. My younger self was behind us, just walking away from the doors, as he walked up to join us. The lobby and the nearby hallways were all empty and quiet. The clock that hung from a nearby wall read 12:30 pm.
"Wait, the hunt, the school, the exposition, the run over here, all that took an hour", asked Raven as she was also looking at the clock.
"My thoughts exactly", I responded.
"Dammit", muttered my younger self to himself.
"Late again, Mr. Adams", said a man as he emerged from the front office towards our left. "And once again, you left campus without permission."
"Double dammit", my younger self muttered again.
"Swearing too? I do believe I will be seeing you later this afternoon, in detention."
"Ugh", groaned my younger self as he rolled his eyes and marched into the principal's office. Raven broke the silence again.
"You needed permission to leave the campus?"
"Only juniors and seniors were allowed to leave the campus for lunch. Since I was only a freshman, I often had to sneak off campus."
"All of that trouble, for a measly pizza?"
"Hey, what can I say? I was a dumb kid."
"Fair enough", said Raven with a giggle as she turned behind her and patted my lower back. I jumped slightly upon her doing so, as it was just barely away from my rear. Taking note at her gesture, I lower myself back to the ground to let her off. "Thanks for the lift", she says as she returns to her feet.
"You're welcome", I respond with a cheesy bow, which brings a smile to Raven's face as she bows back. While we waited in the lobby for my younger self, Raven, while exploring the lobby, happened across a display on the wall covered by glass. Inside were newspaper articles that had been cut out of their respective papers and pinned on the wall. They were all headlines that had pictures of or mentioned Box Elder's two Hero Wolves, one black, one blonde.
""Hero Wolves Foil Robbery". "She-Wolf to the Rescue". "Wolfman Extinguishes Wildfire"?", asked Raven as she read a few of the headlines.
"That wasn't easy either. Two and a half hours I will never get back", I said with a chuckle as I walked over to Raven. I Changed back to my human form and stood beside her as she spoke again.
"So we're not the first to call you "Wolfman"?"
"'Fraid not. Not many names to choose from. I also occasionally go by "Big Bad" if that seems easier."
"I'll keep that in mind", said Raven with a small grin on her face. "Which one is this", asked Raven as she pointed at the She-Wolf shown in one of the photographs.
"My little sister, Samantha."
"She's beautiful."
"Yes, I agree."
"But didn't you say there were a total of nine of you?"
"I did, but remember, we're in the past. Sammie was the first wolf to join my Pack back in 2007, and the Pack consisted of just the two of us for about three years before having recruited the others."
"I see. Is that her again", asked Raven pointing to a picture of me and a young girl. She was an even five feet tall, with long, blonde hair, and hazel eyes.
"That's her."
"She's cute, but I do have one question though", Raven began. I noticed something about her voice that made her sound hesitant.
"You're wondering why she's white and I'm black, aren't you?"
"I didn't mean to offend you."
"Not at all. It's quite alright, it's a natural question, and I know you well enough to know that no offense was implied. And to answer your question, I do not share blood with my sisters."
"Sisters", asked Raven as she emphasized the plural of the word. "How many do you have?"
"Huh, come to think of it, I never really counted", I said as I chuckled for a moment.
"Why not give it a shot now", suggested Raven. I then went on to count off my sisters from oldest to youngest.
"Let me see here. There's April, Sandra, Alex, Jadzia, technically Megan, Katt, Sam L., Sam R., Alyssa, Sam K., Dax, Amanda, Krystie, Sam B., and Kalynn. So that's…. fifteen."
"Whoa. That's quite a few."
"I've also got three cousins, five brothers, two nephews, and a niece."
"I bet family reunions are a blast."
"Hahaha. Maybe one day."
"How did you happen upon that many siblings?"
"Well like many high schoolers, when you meet a group of people that become your best friends, they are instantly looked at as family and many times they will refer to each other as such. What separates my adopted family from most others is that we are all military children. The majority of us also happen to be mutants as well."
"I guess that helps."
"A bit, but they were lovely people before their mutation anyhow."
"Before?"
"Yeah. Out of all of my extended family members that are mutants, only two of my older brothers, my younger brother, one of my cousins, and my nephews were born as mutants. The rest of them all had it forced onto them."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's quite alright. They've all accepted their new gifts and all have turned into respectable mutants. But part of what made them family to me was their training."
"You trained them?"
"Every single one, just as I did with my Patriot Pack. And just like with my Patriot Pack, I began training them with the sole purpose of preventing them of hurting others or themselves. My only concern was my friends' safety, but despite that, long after their training was over, they all called me "Alpha", and have looked at me as a brother ever since."
"That's…. actually really cool." I then look to Raven and make eye contact with her. She opened her mouth as if to say something more, when a large explosion-like sound rang through the walls of the building. The explosion was far from the building, but close and powerful enough to shake the building as if we were experiencing a small earthquake. I instinctively embrace Raven as the very ground beneath us begins to tremble. I could hear teachers and students in the nearby classrooms beginning to panic a little as there was no way to play this off as anything natural. Raven, who upon my embracing her had her head rested against my chest, looks up at me and pauses for a moment as we make eye contact in awkward silence again. She then blushes as she asks, "what's going on?" It was at that moment that I was reminded of the conclusion that I had back at the bus lot.
"Wait for it", I said anticipating what was going to happen next. It was then that, as I had expected, Sammie howled from somewhere else in the building. Upon hearing my sister's cry, my younger self races out of the principal's office. He then cups his hands over his mouth and howls back. He then Changes into his wolf form and sprints down the hall, further into the school. "That's our cue", I said as I also Changed into my wolf form and sprinted after myself, with Raven flying by my side. We rounded the corner leading to the hallway to find myself running up to Sammie, also in her wolf form. The two young wolves converse with each other for a brief moment, and then look up towards the ceiling. The ceiling consisted of those tile things you tended to see in public schools that pushed into the ceiling whenever something pressed against the tile. Above the tiles the ceiling tended to be a series of little tunnels and air ducts that connected throughout the building, making it a perfect series of shortcuts for a couple of teenage werewolves. The two wolves were focussed on a particular tile specifically, one that led to a hatch towards the roof of the building. My younger self then kneels to one knee and extends his arms out towards his sister with his fingers locked together. Sammie then rises to her hind legs and steps on his hands with one of her paws. With the help of my younger self, she then jumps straight up and through the ceiling, pushing away the tile in the process. With Sammie already in the ceiling, and the tile moved out of the way, my younger self returns to all fours and leaps up through the ceiling after her, pausing for a moment to return the tile to its original position. In response to this, I embrace Raven again and teleported us to the roof, just before the two wolves made it there. Dammit! I did it again, I thought to myself as I awkwardly tried to play off the fact that I man-handled Raven again.
The two wolves emerged onto the roof through the large metal "air chute" that sat at the edge of the roof. It was then that another barrage of explosions occurred, shaking the high school once again. The wolves then run towards the side of the roof that faces behind the school, towards the preschool. Raven and I do the same. In the distance, beyond the preschool and towards the middle school, clouds of dust and smoke lifted into the air following the barrage of explosions. Through one of the clouds was what appeared to be a girl. She was floating and looking down at the middle school. She then screamed as she threw what looked like a light purple starbolt below her. The starbolt collided with the earth below, causing another loud explosion and another cloud of dust. The girl then flies back down like a dart and the explosions continue.
"Blackfire", said both of me with growls rumbling in our chests