Chapter two

Author's note: the parts of this story with bold text are Boris Romanov talking much like what happens in various flashbacks you see in movies or TV shows the italic text is Natasha Romanov.

Natasha Romanov

Zurich, Switzerland

Friday, September 8, 1945

1200 hours

Why where you at that boarding School in Switzerland, again?

Because our parents didn't want me to see any of the war, so they shipped me off to a neutral country.

I was sitting under a tree, doing some math exercises that my teacher had given to me, when something blue caught my eye. It was in the deep foliage underbrush. I yanked it out, stumbled backwards, and landed on my back. I examined it, a cube of some sort, it had strange markings on it, and it was about the size of my fist.

I remember you sending me a letter about that. Did you find out what it was?

Yes, but that's not until later in the story though.

"Hey, Natasha! Need some help with that?" a Chinese accented voice said. I turned, it was T'ing Leang.

"Oh hello Leang," I said.

"Do you need some help with that? I don't think it's wise to put that box into your binder."

"Why not?" I asked, but too soon. The binder fell out of my hands, papers flying everywhere.

Leang laughed. "THAT'S why." She said and started to help me pick up the papers. She picked up the cube, held it for a while, and then handed it back to me. We got the notes arranged like I wanted them to, and Leang left.

I saw some rustling in the nearby bushes; I got up and walked over to the foliage and a dark grey and black Siberian husky dog stepped out. I searched for a name, while the dog seemed friendly enough. I found a name, "Chitzkoi"

"Well Chitzkoi, let's see if we can't find your owner, da?" I started to pet him, and he went limp for a few seconds, and then I took him to the local dog pound. Someone must have picked him up a few days later, probably because of the posters I put up.

Saturday, September 9, 1945

0250 hours

There was a light-night movie on the television, plus, it was Friday, so I decided to stay up late and watch it. But before the movie came the news, which I always watched to see how the war was going.

"In world news," the anchor began "the People's Republic of China, Korea, and Vietnam have captured Japan, and are now moving on to the Hawaiian and Solomon Islands. In the Middle East, fighting has intensified as the countries are fighting to become the dominate power. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and Libya are fighting against Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the western portion of India (Pakistan). Over in North America, Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada had declared war on Russia and her allies four days after Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain. The United States of America's president Roosevelt has decided that the US will not get involved in the war. In Africa, civil war continues, but it seems that Britain will withdraw her troops because of the war. That's all the news for this hour; join us at nine for War Watch."

Most of that broadcast was true; however, some parts had either been fabricated, or where inaccurate. Japan did not get attacked yet as a freak typhoon appeared and sank the invasion fleets, China was only sending supplies to Russia and not actually involved in the war. The part about the Middle East was true; they wanted to finish what disagreements they had to later join the Allies or Soviets. The part about Canada and the United States was also true, Canada had gained independence from Britain and to prove it, they declared war after the British did.

The movie came on; it was one of those new horror movies from Hollywood. (Keep in mind that this is 1945, so this is what we would consider the classics) this particular one was about the Wolf Man. When it was over, I was still a little jumpy and the post-horror thoughts still lingered in my system. I saw the full moon outside, remembering the movie. I felt an itching sensation across my hands. I started to scratch it, but it didn't go away, it only intensified and spread across my arms. I looked down, and saw that they where sprouting fur. I saw my fingers curl up into the paws of a dog, and I realised that the fur colour was the exact same as Chitzkoi's. I fell over, and tried to undress myself, but that was quite difficult as I now had paws instead of hands. I heard a sharp CRACK! As my face started to push out and form a muzzle and replace my teeth with more canine teeth. My vision dimmed and went black-and-white, while my hearing and sense of smell heightened considerably. My spine was next to follow the change. I felt the end of my spine start to push out into a tail, and my balance was thrown out of whack again. Within a few minuets, I was Chitzkoi.

I heard a banging on the door to my hotel room. "HEY! I THOUGHT I SAID NO DOGS! I'm Allergic to 'um!" oh shit. My roommate, Alexis Alexander. I started pacing the room, desperately trying to think of something, when she came in.

I stared growling and foaming at the mouth. Pretending to be a vicious, rabid attack dog. Alexis tried to calm me down like anyone else would, but didn't leave, so I tried barking and I even jumped at her. She screamed, turned, ran, and slammed the door just as I reached it. I slammed into the door, and fell to the ground. I got up, and started thinking about what to do now. Okay Natasha, think, if you became this by thinking about werewolves, then maybe thinking about your human body might reverse this. I tried it, and surprisingly, it worked. I got dressed, and ran downstairs to where Alexis was.

"Natasha, where were you?" she asked "there was a dog in our room. It tried to attack me!"

"Wow!" I said, pretending it was news to me. "Really? Well, maybe he's gone now, come on."

"Well, alright, but if he's still there, you're gonna have to fight him off."

"Okay," I said, and grabbed a broom. "Let's go."

We went back up to the room, I opened the door slightly, broom ready, then quickly shot through the doorframe. The room was empty, but there was some blood from when I hit the door.

"It's all right," I said "the dog's gone. Must have jumped out the window."

"Okay!" she called from outside. "Well, I don't know about you, but I've had enough excitement for one night. I'm going to bed."

"Da, me too. Goodnight." And with that, we went to sleep.

Saturday, September 9, 1945

0900 hours

I work up, groggy like I always do when I don't get enough sleep. I got up, got dressed, and had something to eat as well as some of what Alexis had offered me. She called it "Pepsi" it was way too sweet for my taste, but it got me to wake up a bit more. Then I went outside into the cool morning air. When I got to a mountain trail I liked, I saw numerous Swiss Police officers around the nearby hospital. I ran over to one of them and asked in German "What happened here?"

"Some moron brought a Snow Leopard here and it went berserk." He answered. "Scared the living daylights out of the late-night Janitor and some doctors then ran away."

"How's it get into here in the first place?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, also a patient is missing."

"Who was it?"

"There was no ID on her, but she was Chinese, and suffered almost fatal injuries while fighting another leopard."

I was silent for a moment. I knew for a fact that more snow leopards where making their home on the mountains, and it was getting unsafe to travel anymore. Good thing it was just one. I thought. Then, I decided against hiking for the day.

"Thank you for your time," I said and left.

I went to an indoor swimming pool, paid the fee, and went in. I saw Leang there and went to her.

"Hey, Leang, did you hear about the snow leopard in a hospital?" I asked.

"Umm… Yeah… listen, did anything weird happen to you last night?"

I decided not to tell her about my transformation and said "no,"

"Well, I know this sounds crazy, I don't even believe it myself, but last night, I was that snow leopard in the hospital."

Boris Romanov

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Outside Vladivostok, Russia

1300 hours

"What? That's it? I thought you said it would take longer!" I said in disbelief that Natasha ended her story there.

"No, it's not over, it's only the beginning. I cannot give you the complete story. No one person can. It will be more like a quest gathering fragments of information to form a complete picture."

"Terrific… so now who do I talk to?" I asked.

"AAAA General T'ing "Tigress" Leang. I'll come with you if you want." She said.

"Very well. Let's go"

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Base Dragon, Tibet/China Border

1600 hours

The Su-32 me and my sister where in was now over Base Dragon. When the radar technicians asked for identification, I said over the radio, "This is Supreme Commander Boris Romanov. Requesting clearance to land. Over."

"Permission granted, Comrade Commander, you are cleared to land on runway 0-5. Over."

"Do you know what you're doing?" my sister asked from my right side.

"I have flown almost every plane ever made. This is nothing." I said.

We landed and stepped out of the plane.

"Now remember, follow me, don't touch anything, and try not to talk to anyone. You are a guest here."

We got to Leang's Command Center, and walked in. we kept moving until we reached her office. Seeing as that I technically outranked her, I walked right it. She was busy sorting through many government papers and files when she looked up to see who came in.

"Oh! Comrade Commander! If I had known you where coming-" she stopped when she saw Natasha. "He knows?" she asked after a long silence.

"Da, he found the photograph." Natasha said.

Leang smiled. "I wondered when this day would come. But personally, I thought it was going to be sooner."

"Can we continue with this, please?" I asked.

"Very well," Leang began. "It all started at the beginning of the Second Great War."

End of Chapter two.