So finals are finally over and I can focus on summer now! Of course I have lots of other events to do like volunteering, but I will try to upload more frequently if possible. Anyways, here's chapter 8!
"Wait, Gray? But I thought you were Gray? Wait, I'm confused" Chase stuttered.
"Here, let me explain. Gray is the same one that was the voice that guided me in the lab, and Gray is also the one who, um, I became when I was reborn" Rocky tried to clarify.
The other pups stared at Rocky with blank stares and confusion.
"So he is you, but he's not actually you because he's right here. Something doesn't add up here" Chase asked suspiciously
"No no no, you see, I'm kinda like a reborn version of Gray because Gray is the one who is the god, I'm just, like, connected to him" Rocky replied.
Gray sat next to Rocky, looking amused at the conversation going on around him.
"So are you a god or not and is he you or not?" Marshall questioned.
"It's probably better if I just explain what happened after I was reborn as Gray" Rocky suggested.
"Please do!" the group responded.
After Gray was born, he seemed to notice everyone glaring at him occasionally. Gray would look around and see people staring at him, whispering to their friend about who knows what. Gray never understood what was to talk about him. What was there to talk about him? He was the son of the Queen and King, next in line to be royalty, and even had a strong set of powers. These powers Gray had he had called copycat. Gray is able to detect energies and powers and use it for himself. He could be as strong as his mother, but also as weak as a peasant depending what powers they had. Gray's abilities also include heightened senses, allowing him to be able to do activities others could not as well as the ability to manipulate anything in front of him in his line of sight. For the longest time, Gray never told the queen he had these powers until the queen straight up asked Gray if he had any powers. Gray responded truthfully and told the queen that he had powers and the queen left with a scowl on her face. Gray got curious and eavesdropped on his mother talking to his father. Gray crawled through a air vent that went right above his mother's room.
"He has the exact power the book describes! He matches the description perfectly! What are you exactly?" the queen asked.
"How do you know it was me? It could have been you that caused it!" the king responded.
"I know it isn't me because I have led this kingdom to victory on multiple occasions! Tell me who you are or you will make me force it out of you!" the queen threatened.
"Try me!" the king shouted back.
The queen snapped at that remark and started to charge at the king. She conjured a energy arrow from thin air and shot it at the king. The king dodged the arrow and the arrow hit the wall of the room. The impact caused the wall to collapse and shards and dust flew everywhere, obstructing Gray's view. Gray left the grate, terrified of getting his mother mad. As soon as Gray put back the cover, Silver came to Gray to confess something.
"Gray, I have to tell you something. I can't hold it any longer. Mom and Dad wanted me to keep it a secret, but I can't anymore. You've noticed how others just watch you, right? Well, the reason they watch you is because, well, because you're fur color is gray, not white" Silver confessed.
"So? Just because my fur color is gray, it doesn't mean anything right?" Gray responded.
"No, you don't understand, you see, the pups that are allowed to live in the queen's kingdom, all of them have white fur showing purity. Since your fur is Gray," Silver continued.
"What about my fur? What make me different from anyone else? I'm here like everyone else, so what makes me so different?" Gray exploded.
"Your fur is gray because one of our parents isn't as pure as they seem. It could be mom or dad that has darkness inside of them. Mom wanted to wait to tell you that, but I can't hold it any longer" Silver cried.
Gray stared at Silver with confusion. Darkness? No, It can't be! I'm not evil, am I? Gray rushed into his mother's room. He saw the queen standing on the ground with another arrow at the ready. She aimed at a black figure flying in the air. The figure had a pitch black coat and black feathery wings with glowing red eyes. He had a smile on his face, then spoke.
"I'm surprised that you haven't realized sooner you stupid old fool! After your real husband left to fight me, he knew that he wouldn't come out alive, even you knew, but when 'he' came back, you accepted him, not realizing it was me, and now I have one of my own here! Hah, I had a small margin of chance of pulling this off successfully, yet it worked. I finished my job, I'm leaving back to the underworld. Have fun with our half breed son!" the figure spoke, then flew away.
The queen growled and shot the arrow at the figure, but clearly missed. She sighed, then looked over at Gray with a glare. She looked angry, enraged, but also had a look of sorrow. She walk over to Gray who was cowering under a table in the master bedroom. Next to him, he saw the book that his mother was looking at earlier. It read this:
The Curse of the Deviled God
This curse is a very rare condition where a child has both parts of good and evil. No one knows how a child of this kind is born, but some theorize that two powers of equal good and evil will have a child of this sort, but it is still rare with a chance of ~0.1%. From from few cases from the past, the child will contain equal power from each parent of good and evil. The child will have gray hair (or fur if it is any kind of furred animal) and have a special power that the child possesses. This power is the power of copying other abilities around them. A child of this sort is also infertile and will not be able to reproduce.
After reading the passage, Gray looked up at his mother, scared.
"Are you going to kill me? Am I actually evil, part of the devil?" Gray asked.
"Well, I guess the truth had to come out. Yes, you have a part of evil in you, I assume half of you is evil. But this does not mean I have to kill you. Gray, my son, you will always be my child, and I will never kill one of my children. Go into that room over there and retrieve the necklace inside" the queen spoke.
Gray nodded, then went inside the room his mother gestured at. Inside that room were giant marble pillars lined next to a long pathway and a long chamber which was all white. On each pillar contained a torch glowing brightly. At the end of the chamber, Gray saw a giant statue of the queen sitting on a giant marble throne. Under the statue was a pedestal with a bright blue picked it up and brought it straight to his mother.
"I want you to wear this. This necklace contains some of my power that will help you overbalance the evil inside of you, but the necklace will need to take away your powers to be able to work. You may unleash the powers inside by breaking the chain. The chain will reform after it senses you are finished using your power. Also, you may break the centerpiece to unleash the full power of the necklace. It will give back your power permanently, but it will also give your evil back as well" the queen told Gray.
Gray gulped, then nodded and put on the necklace. Gray felt something drain out of him and saw lights swirl around him. The lights went into the center of the necklace and disappeared. Gray tried to use his power and sense the energy he felt in his mother, but realized that he could no longer feel it, just like how his mother described. After the necklace was done, the queen pushed Gray out into the hallway, telling him that she needed to think about what to do. Gray walked down the hall and into his own room. It was white marble with a giant bed in the middle and a huge carpet on the ground where Gray would constantly lie down on it and think about what he would do. He had a bookcase in the side with many books about multiple different topics such as combat, science and magic. Along with the bookshelf there was also a dresser opposite of the bookshelf. On the dresser was the giant mirror that he would stare at, admiring his own reflection. Now, he scowled at his own reflection with the gray coat, cursing at his own reflection. Why couldn't I have been white Gray thought.
Gray tried to fall asleep, but was too riled up to fall asleep, so he decided to take a walk. Now when everyone was whispering about him, he now knew why they did. They were talking about how he has evil inside and wanted to stay away. Gray started to slow jog, and then started to run, tears forming in his eyes. He couldn't bear the fact that everyone was afraid of him, wouldn't talk to him just because of his corrupted father. All the places he loved to visit on his walks were now unappealing such as the giant statue of his mother put up in the middle of town. Days went by and Gray lost interest in the outside. What's the point? People would just judge and stay away. Finally, Gray couldn't take it anymore. He marched up to his mother's room and barged in.
"Gray! What in the heavens are you doing?" the queen shouted.
"I can't take it anymore mother! I can't live like this, knowing that there is evil inside of me and everyone else knowing as well. I want to go somewhere else where others won't look at me as if I'm a freak. I want to be free! I want to enjoy my life!" Gray pleaded.
"Where would you go? The only other place is down where the mortals live, but even if you wanted to, there must be a condition or reason to visit down there" the queen questioned.
"Well why not? Isn't being cursed enough?" Gray pushed.
"Well, not a good enough reason, and where would you go?" the queen urged.
"I'll find a place, I can survive down there, I have the necklace after all" Gray pushed.
"Well, I guess you could, but if you go down, you will no longer be able to return up here unless I personally retrieve you and you know how much I hate going down there, as well as gaining the curse of infinitely reborning as a different pup. Will you go down to earth knowing this?" the queen sighed, defeated.
"Yes! Oh thank you! I agree!" Gray answered happily.
The queen sighed, then sent Gray down to earth, following Gray to send him off. She kissed Gray goodbye and went back up to heaven. Gray sighed in relief, then skipped around to the new place he was in. Finally, no more pups looking at him like a devil, he could finally find a place to live and experience his life fully. Gray first needed to find an alley. He saw a small alleyway that didn't seemed to be occupied. It contained a dumpster in the back and lots of junk littered on the ground. He organized the area and cleaned up all the trash on the ground. As he was cleaning he heard voices from the entrance.
"Well well well, what do we have here" A voice spoke.
"Well, I think it's a lost pup that wandered into our alley" another spoke.
"Oh, is this your alley? I'm sorry, I'll leave immediately" Gray responded to the voices.
"No no no, stay, we could use company" the third spoke in a malicious tone.
The trio walked up to Gray, teeth bared. Gray started to cower back to the end of the alley. He saw three pups, the first with a bright orange fur, another with yellow fur and the other with a light brown coat. They looked almost like kittens if Gray didn't look closely. They started to get closer, claws out, ready to slash at Gray. Gray back away until suddenly the yellow pup dashed around Gray with amazing speed and nipped at him behind. While Gray was distracted, the orange pup ran up to Gray and punched Gray in the side. It blew Gray to the wall with an amazing force that it left a dent on the brick wall. Gray coughed up a bit of blood and cursed. He realized that he wasn't going to make it out alive if he didn't fight back, so Gray took up a fighting stance. The yellow pup ran circles around him and started to dart in to nip at Gray again while the orange pup prepped another punch. Gray examined the three pups. He noted that the yellow pup was the fastest of the group while the orange one was the strongest. He hadn't seen what the brown pup could do, but Gray figured that he must have something special about him. Gray also noted that no regular pup could have such speed or strength and determined that they had powers like him. Gray deducted that it was only fair to fight power with power and finally try to unleash his power from his necklace.
Gray yanked on the chain and it snapped almost immediately. Gray felt his energy return to him and became energized. He could sense the yellow pup run around him and match speed with speed. Gray ran circles around the yellow pup. The yellow pup was taken by surprise at the speed of Gray and ran into the orange pup who did not move from the impact. Gray smiled at them and charged right at the three pups. The orange pup stood in front of the other two pups, ready for the impact. Gray charged right at them and knocked the orange pup into the air. The two pups gawked at their flying companion and the brown pup went over to catch the flying pup. The orange pup landed right onto the brown pup's back.
"Who are you and how do you have the same powers as us?" the brown pup questioned.
"Who wants to know?" Gray growled back.
"You're pretty strong. Fine, have our alley, we won't bother you" the yellow pup responded.
"No, I couldn't take your alley. It was yours. I'll leave" Gray replied politely.
"Tsk, you're too soft, you'll never survive here as an alley dog, but if you insist. Say, why don't you join us? You would make a great leader" the orange pup asked Gray.
"Oh, that would be great!" Gray responded.
"Well, let me introduce ourselves," the yellow pup told Gray, "My name is Cheetah, the orange pup is Tiger and the third is Lion."
"Tiger, Cheetah and Lion huh? I can see it. How did you end up here and how do you have powers?" Gray asked.
"Hey, why do you have so many questions, we are the ones that are supposed to ask the questions here" Lion snapped.
"Shut up Lion, he's clearly stronger than us. Do you want to be killed by him? Don't mind Lion. We were born in the same family, we had inherited our powers from our mother and father who had abandoned us because we were too much for them and their owners. I inherited the power of strength, Cheetah over there inherited the power of speed, but Lion didn't inherit any power, at least we don't know yet. What about you? Where are you from?" Tiger asked.
"Well, I'm from, um, up there?" Gray tried while pointing from the sky.
"No way! You're from heaven? Have our blessings been answered?" Cheetah replied, excited.
"Well, not exactly, I didn't fit in up there so I left, it's a long story. My name's Gray by the way" Gray responded.
"Gray, huh? Well, welcome to the pack! It's nice to have you here!" Tiger welcomed, "Wait, you never said how you had the same power as us."
"Oh, I have a power that allows me to copy any ability I see" Gray responded.
The three pups dropped their jaws. "What?! You can copy powers?!" the three said simultaneously.
"Yup! Oh, also, you need to vary up your strategy. The first attack was nicely executed, but what was your second plan afterwards?" Gray questioned.
"Well, usually other pups don't last that long after that attack" Lion replied sheepishly.
"Well, I have some ideas to fight pups like me" Gray suggested.
"Oh, please do! That's why we are making you leader" Tiger replied.
After Gray got situated with the alleyway, the three brothers showed Gray around the town they lived in. They showed Gray where all the best places to steal food from were located. One of which was a giant meat shop. They told Gray there was a hole in the wall that allowed them to enter undetected. They had just visited earlier and stole a few pieces to also showed Gray where to avoid such as the pound and the police station, as well as some alleyways to avoid because they were too strong to deal with. Gray took a gaze into those alleyways and examined their powers. Some powers were extremely strong that Gray had never seen before in heaven such as the power of illusion, but some also contained powers that were weaker compared to Gray's power. After the trio finished their tour, they found a group of pups rummaging through their alley.
"Oh, this will be interesting. Ok Gray, this is a regular occurrence here in the alleys called raids. Usually pups will gang up and raid alleys for food or resources. Here's a pack that obviously was oblivious that they are raiding a high ranking clan. Let's get them!" Tiger explained.
The four pups rushed into the alleyway. The gang of pups looked up and saw the four pups charging up to them. After recognizing the four, their eyes grew as big as dinner plates and tried to rush out, but was blocked. The gang was pushed back into the end of the alley and the trio attacked, but before the trio could rush up, Gray's eyes glowed a bright blue and the gang started to levitate. Confused, both the trio and the gang looked right at Gray. Gray sent the gang flying out the alley. After they landed, they ran away with their tails between their legs
"Ok, what was that" Cheetah asked Gray.
"Well, I never used it, but I have the ability to manipulate anything I see" Gray explained.
"Well then, with you, we could become the strongest gang in the city! We have to go to the Masked Club tomorrow to tell everyone there's a new member in the Feline Fiends!" Tiger said, overjoyed.
"The Masked Club? Where and what is the Masked Club?" Gray asked.
"Oh, let me explain," Cheetah started," the Masked Club is a place where groups and gangs are announced, as well as a place where anonymous pups can chat about recent activities. The most important is the ranking board where each clan is ranked. Hopefully we can get to the top!"
"Wait, how does it work? I can sense powers of others, and with that I can sense the high ranking pups" Gray asked.
"The club owner had a spell over the club where no pup is allowed to use any sort of power inside. There is also a charm that each pup wears that allows them to disguise as a fake identity," Lion explained. "Cheetah's is Vortex, Tiger's is Genesis, and mine is, well, Gray, heh"
"Well that's convenient. where do get one of these charms?" Gray asked again.
"You need to get one from the entrance keeper where you will receive a random form. You can call yourself anything" Cheetah explained.
After the pups finished talking,they gathered up all the trash and put them back to where they belonged. It had been a long day, and the trio slept. They each had a bed made out of newspaper and thrown out pillows inside a cleared out and abandoned dumpster located in the back corner of the alley. It wasn't too cozy to Gray, but it had to work. Eventually, Gray fell asleep after multiple tossings and turnings. Gray woke up with sirens outside of the alleyway and gunshots after the sirens. The trio, Gray noticed, was not in the dumpster bedroom. Gray leaped out of the dumpster and looked outside. He found the trio, injured, with Lion being the only one that could stand up on his paws but still injured extremely bad. The other two were lying on the ground, bleeding, eyes closed.
"Lion, Tiger, Cheetah, you are under arrest for multiple robberies and acts of murder!" a K-9 officer shouted.
So, it's the end of chapter 8, hope you enjoyed. I will see if I can post the next chapter as soon as possible as I have nothing planned for this week. This story has a big plot line and some have told me it might be getting too intricate, so just as a summary, the only parts you need to remember is Rocky's story both before and after the lab and this story line. The others are just fillers. Anyways, Hope you enjoyed this chapter and like always, grammar, spelling, thanks for reading!