Alley-Fang surveyed his surrounding more closely; he was suspended six meter over a blade filled pit in a cage forged entirely from silver. He was in homid, so silver wasn't burning him, but it jammed his gnosis and to make matter worse, his arm, not fully regenerated, hurt like hell in this form.
On his right, another poor soul seemed to have fallen in the same trap. A man was suspended by the shoulders over the pit; well man might not have been the best term. The creature had bat hears and nose, scar pattern all over his body and his skin and hair were completely white. Probably a metis and judging by the spiralling pattern on his chest, a black spiral dancer metis.
From where he was, he could see two armed guards on the side of the pit, beyond them was a large metal door, the only thing that actually hinted he was in a scientific facility; the rest of the room was sculpted from rock.
"Ok, this could be worse…" he looked at his still bleeding arm , the bandage had been torn by his shape shifting and it was no longer regenerating "…then again, maybe not."
Meanwhile, Alley-Fang's pack was making its way back to the city with Sarah lagging behind them.
"Would you mind waiting for me?" She protested.
"Get a move on, we already have to walk on two legs to accommodate you, we're not also going to slow down to your pace, or it's going to take us the weeks." Sarika replied.
"Could we at least take a break, I'm exhausted…"
"we've hardly been walking for twenty minutes!"
"And that's about the longest time I've spent on foot in years!"
Sarika growled in exasperation. "Fine, we stop, for five minutes, and then you'd better keep up the pace."
The whole pack stopped. Cry-the-red-tear took a bowl and used a gift to fill it with water, which he shared with the three women. His two packmates were use to that kind of "miracle", but Sarah was amazed. "How did you do that?" she asked, hesitatingly drinking from the bowl.
"I just did, it's what we call a gift, a bit of spirit magic we werewolves can do, given proper practice and tutelage."
"Aaron made all sort of refuse fly around a room to hit a Wyrm creature, was that a gift too?"
"Yep, it's called trash magnet, Alley-Fang learned that from a trash spirit." Asenka said.
"A trash spirit?" Sarah asked, unsure if it was a joke…
"A trash spirit, everything as a spirit."
"Am I the only one who heard there's a Wyrm creature in that building, you know, the one where our packmate his held captive…" Sarika intervened.
"There was a wyrm creature, we killed it. Well, I assume it was a Wyrm creature, given what Aaron told me about them."
"And that thing that wanted you dead for knowing too much?"
"I can't tell, I mean, I didn't actually see it, Aaron just told me it was somewhere in the building."
Sarika only grunted. "Say…" Sarah asked "…what exactly his you guy's relationship with Aaron?" Cry-the-red-tear raised an eyebrow and Asenka looked at her with suspicion.
"Well…I mean, his he like family, or a friend or…you know…more than that…" She was looking from Asenka to Sarika as she said that.
"In every aspect save the bond of blood, Alley-Fang and I are sibling." Sarika answered, not looking at her.
"In case that's what you wonder, he and I are just friends, for that matter, going further than that would be illegal." Asenka said.
"Illegal? You're underage or something like that?"
"The three of us as well as Alley-Fang are part of a social unit called a pack, the bonds that ties us, like Sarika said, makes us like sibling." Cry explained. "As for the illegal business Asenka was referring to, our laws forbid two werewolves from mating with one another, such relationship giving birth to…."
"GLS-2…"
"Pardon me?"
"We…had this kind of werewolf under study, those who seemed to be born in the wolf-man form, often with some unexplainable physical or mental deformity. It's long been a wonder why, knowing that, two werewolves would engage in such activities."
"We call these bastard child metis. I'm one of them. The reason for these deformities is a sign of Gaia's displease at us, for we are the product of incest, not in flesh but in spirit, as all werewolves come from the same spiritual family."
"Your explanations really put my colleagues at shame, their theories may have scientific bases, but they sound ridiculous compare to what you're saying…well, once you accept the umbra and the spirits as a fact."
"Say, what was your interest in knowing me and Sarika's relationship with Alley-Fang?" Asenka asked teasingly.
"I...I was asking to all of you, what was that suppose to mean! We've rested enough, let's go." Sarah replied, distinctly blushing.
They all stood up and they heard a gun shot. Cry-the-red-tear fell to the ground, reverting to his crinos breed form, there was a dart in his back. The two Arhouns felt their rage flare as they saw their packmate fall; they took cover behind trees and took out their weapons. Sarah looked away from the unconscious form of the metis and swallowed an anti-delirium pill hastily.
Unaware of these events, Alley-Fang was getting bored, hungry, thirsty and was bleeding badly. So many way to dies so little time, he though.
The great metallic door opened and the sigh of the creature stepping through threatened to send him in frenzy. That wretched eight legged freak, Leicher. "Now, now, calm down, you don't want to assume your war form in a small silver cage now do you?"
"There you are. I've wanted to talk to you ever since I woke up."
"Oh, and about what?"
"The decoration here sucks man, what's with the whole creepy dungeon and suspension above blade pit thing, this isn't the Dark Age anymore you know. That some sort of twisted arachnid fantasy of something?"
"Ha…why did it have to be a new moon?" He said rolling his eyes. "Well, rejoice, I've brought you and you're little cellmate food and water."
"The black spiral dancer was still sleeping."
"How nice of you, if I didn't know there's a catch I'd actually be thankful."
Leicher shifted to his six armed form, crawled to the ceiling and climbed down the chain anchoring Alley-Fang's cage to the ceiling until one of his six arms was within reach of the cage. He threw a bowl of grey paste that looked like the result of a cooking gift, only worse tasting and a bottle of water.
"Care to tell me why keeping me alive is such a great concern, I somehow doubt you're just a really compassionate guy."
"I actually need you and that other guy (he pointed the dancer) for my personal sustenance."
"What?"
Leicher jumped from Alley-Fang's cage and onto the sleeping dancer, who woke up, surprised by the impact. "NO! GET OFF ME YOU BLOOD DRINKING ASSHOLE!"
The fallen garou tried in vain to throw off Leicher, but his arms were bound and the werespider seemed use to that kind of acrobatic feat. He sank two prolonged canine, not much unlike a vampire, into the dancer's skin. His prey stopped fighting back at this moment, leaving Leicher the luxury to feed on his blood as he pleased.
He let go shortly after and stuffed something in the dancer's mouth. "There, swallow that, all you need to stay alive and healthy, wouldn't want my herd to get sick…"
"When my pack comes here and set me free it's gonna be my pleasure to tear your legs off one by one…"
"We already talked about that, remember? Your dear pack will never make it here alive, nor his (he pointed Alley-Fang). But rejoice, now you have a cellmate to keep you company, I wouldn't want you to get any madder…"
"Enjoy this while you can, filthy Weaver spawn, neither you nor anyone who does not serve the Wyrm will be spared when the great corrupter's time come. And it will come very soon."
"That so? Well unfortunately for you, I'm afraid the all consuming Wyrm's day of terrorizing this world are counted. But keep hoping, if it makes you happy."
He jumped off, landed near the pit's border and headed toward the door. "I'll leave you now, I'm sure you're dying to know each other better." He walked out.
"Hi! I'm Alley-Fang, ragabash of the bone gnawers!" He said with stupidly cheerful tone.
"Great, as if a servant of the bitch mother wasn't enough, it had to be a trash eating clown."
"You know, you should be nicer, especially to the guy who's got a plan to get us out of here."
"What? You're pack's gonna come and save you? Hate to admit that, but wall crawling psycho is right, ain't no way in or out of this place."
"Don't know about a way in wyrmspawn, but I'm sure we could claw our way out of here with enough surprise effect." He had started to talk in what little Garou language he could manage with his human mouth.
"We? You don't seriously expect me to cooperate with you?" He also used the Garou tongue.
"Well, you "could" spend time, energy and probably a fair share of blood trying to take me down once we're both out of here, who knows, you might even succeed, or we could rationalize that we aren't the most direct threat to one another's life and try to cooperate against our common blood drinking enemy and make it out of this damn complex, where we can resume the whole Gaian Garou vs. black spiral dancer thing."
"Assuming I agree to help you in your little escape plan, how the hell do you expect to get us out of here?"
"Well you see, there is a fatal flaw in every plan, and in Leicher's plan…"
He got two items out of his pocket, a dart gun and a silver key.
"…to assume he had figured out every trick in the trickster's bag."
The metis's twisted face seemed to smile.
"Taking the forgotten, that makes you a Fostern, if I'm not wrong."
"Yep, I took these two from Leicher when he came within arm reach, now not only does he miss a key and a gun, he forgot he ever had them…"
"You know, I might just cooperate with you yet; your skills could be useful in getting out of here. I'm Slice-The-Heart, galliard of the black spiral dancers, a former child of Gaia and a Fostern like you."
"Ok, just don't tell me where you got that deed name and we should be able to orchestrate a successful escape plan."
He loaded the gun and aimed at one of the guard.
Meanwhile, Asenka and Sarika were waiting for their enemy's next move in Glabro form. The fire had ceased, but they seemed to know they were there. Sarika told her packmate, via the totem link, to stay under cover.
She readied her spear, pledged the spirit within it to help her and steeped out of cover. The five men spotted her immediately but Sarika's reflexes, sharpened by the spirit of the fray gift, proved superior to theirs.
She hurled the spear at the men, a clap or thunder and a crackle of lighting accompanied the fetish weapon on its way toward its goal. The first soldier was impaled by the spear and fried by the storm spirit's power, the spear continued through the hapless man and onto the soldier directly behind him, burying in his chest. Sarika took cover again immediately upon releasing the spear, dodging most of the counter fire, but a single dart struck her arm.
She felt dizzy for a second but shook it off. She was more resistant to that kind of poison then Cry-the-red-tear, whose wasting disease made him easy picking for that dart.
"They're using tranquilizing dart, which mean a low rate of fire and easy to resist, let's teach them not to mess with full moons."
"I'm right behind you."
The two werewolves shifted to crinos and charged the three remaining soldiers. The men tried to shot them, but the dart either bounced back their skin or didn't slow them at all. Within short seconds, the two monsters were upon them, rending them to pieces with teeth, claws and rage.
Standing above the savaged corpses of the DNA soldiers, the two arhouns howled in triumph. Sarika picked up her spear before returning to their fallen packmate.
Sarah saw the two monstrous wolf-women come back. The sound of shattered bone, rend flesh and splashing blood had reached her, even though she refused to watch this carnage. Seeing them now, there claws and fangs dripping with blood, she realized that the two women she had spoken with earlier were gone, two terrifying beast stood at there place, snarling between them and looking at her with feral eyes.
The anti-delirium pill kept her from begging their mercy as she usually did under the delirium, but it didn't seem like such a bad idea know that she was within claw reach of Sarika, who seemed to have no love for her to begin with. That made her wonder, who was the delirium meant to protect, the werewolves or humanity?
Asenka reverted to her human form. "Ok, relax, I know everything she says might look like a threatening snarl, but she's really talking to me in the Garou tongue. With Cry down, we're gonna have to travel in crinos, our other forms are just too weak to carry him around."
"I'm sorry to be such a dead weight…but I don't think the anti-delirium pill I took will last this long."
"hey, you're not dead weight, ok? Aaron thinks you're worth all that trouble then we'll give ourselves all that trouble."
"Your alpha seems to have a different opinion…"
"Sarika was going to to the DNA lab with hope to be reunited with Aaron and she got you instead, no offence. She's plays though, but the truth is, she's scared to death of loosing a packmate, and taking you to safety means getting away from Alley-Fang, and she won't forgive herself if anything happens to him before she can at least try anything to help." Asenka whispered her.
"I see. So how are we going to do this?"
Sarika and cry-the-red-tear vanished. Sarah felt slightly better now that the two crinos form werewolves were gone.
"Well, she will carry him in the Umbra and you will take a little hispo form ride."
"Hispo form?"
Asenka turned into a huge, feral looking, black dire wolf and made Sarah understand she should climb on her back. She did and Asenka started to walk at a good pace toward the direction of the city.
Alley-Fang shot the two guards one after the other, using the build up rage all those events had granted him to enhances his speed. They both fell heavily on the stone floor.
He unlocked the cage's door with the key and threw it away. "This is the tricky part." He jumped from his cage to Slice-The-Heart, catching one of the leather straps holding his arms. "Wonder why he used leather rather then chain…"
"To make sure it breaks if I try to assume crinos form."
"Makes sense."
He assumed glabro form and chewed the strap he wasn't holding with his teeth. It resisted, but it eventually broke, leaving the dancer to hang with only one arm.
"Now what?"
"Grab on to me, I'm gonna chew the other one, once I'm done, you're gonna jump off, I'll follow."
Alley-Fang chewed, Slice jumped off, he followed. That wasn't in the ragabash's habit, but for once, one of his plans worked on the first try. It couldn't have come at a better time too.
They both headed to the huge door, only to realise it was guarded by a keyboard lock: "Damnit!" Alley-Fang said.
Slice-the-heart stepped up and typed the code, the door opened. "Been here for a week and I didn't intend to stay. I had more then enough time to learn the sequence by heart."
"See, I knew we'd make a good team."
"Show me your arm."
Alley-Fang raised an eyebrow.
"Come on, you're not useful to me one armed, show it to me."
He showed the dancer his mangled left arm. He placed his hand over it and invoked a gift. Within seconds, Alley-Fang's arm was good as new.
"That's gonna leave a battle scar, not that I intend to let you live to tell this tale."
Alley-Fang picked the assault rifle on one from the downed guard and the clips from the other; he threw the second rifle down the pit.
"That little baby's loaded with silver bullets, don't force me to use it on you until we make it out, ok?"
"We're in for a tense cooperation I see."
"Hey, I said I was willing to help you, trusting you is another matter."
"Right back at ya."
"Let's go, if we hurry we might catch back with Leicher."
"He's mine." He snarled.
"Come on, can't you share the fun?"
"MINE!"
"Fine, fine, he yours, jeez relax…"
"Wish they kill one another" he though.
The two werewolves stepped into the complex corridor, uneasy about each other, unsure of what was awaiting them.
(((And a fifth chapter folks. Thanks to the person I usually thanks in this section for the reasons I usually mention. (They know I appreciate it).
If anyone as suggestions, pairing they'd like to see, character they'd like to see die or live, other WOD faction they'd like to see, I'm open to them. (Note that for personal reasons, no amounts of review are going to convince me to make Alley-Fang or Sarika die))))
