A/N: Phew! Finally got this one out. If you all are wondering about the rating change its 'cuz I reviewed the storyline a little bit and there some violence and :ahem: language that might not be as appropriate for the previous rating.

Toa Nuva: Yeah that's great and all but when do we get in? All you've been writting about are these weirdos.

Me: I'm gettin there I'm gettin there hold your horses. Anyway, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: Eh, you know the drill.

Chp. 4-The Freak Show

J.J. had heard his master's screams and ran into the forest, trying to find Tommy's whereabouts. Once the screams had subsided, he had to rely on scent to try and find him through the vegetation. J.J. sniffed the air, now extremely puzzled. It was something like his master's scent; only there was something strange mixed with it. Regardless, J.J. began to follow this somewhat familiar scent, throwing all caution into the wind.

J.J. finally came upon what it thought was Tommy, only it looked completely different. So different that J.J. became afraid of it and tucked his tail between his legs and began to whimper. When Tommy gave out a groan, J.J. retreated under a nearby tree, hoping that he wasn't seen. His attempts, however, weren't very good ones and was noticed by Tommy, who was now trying to call the frightened dog over.

Tommy, now awake with only a slight headache, was now confused by his dog's behavior. Usually J.J. would go nuts whenever he called out for the Australian shepherd. Now he acted as if he was some fiend of sorts. Tommy gave out a sigh and began to rub his temples. While he was massaging his cranium, he ran his hands over his ears and noticed something disturbing. He didn't feel the firmness human ears usually had. As a matter of fact, he felt something furry and much narrower and longer than human ears. Tommy began to panic and began to run back to his house, wondering what happened to him.

Tommy tore through the woods, across his backyard and into his house, slamming the back door right into the wall in the process. On the way he felt a sharp pain in his lower back, but he kept that aside until he got into the bathroom. When he turned on the lights and looked in the mirror, what he saw caused him to yell out in surprise and fall on the floor. Tommy began to breathe heavily, hoping that what he saw was a complete hallucination. Slowly, the boy got back up to confront his reflection once again.

What he saw was definitely no illusion. Somehow, he changed into something that any regular person would label as a monster. His head was now shaped like that of a wolf, only most of it was still human flesh and red fur grew like side burns a few inches from his now elongated mouth. His entire body, except for his chest, stomach, and the front of his neck and inside of his arms was covered in red fur. Two wolfish ears poked out from his hair from where his regular ears used to be, now parallel to the ground.

Tommy just stood there in complete shock at what he saw. He felt his fingers twitch from his fear at himself. He looked down at his hands; the palms now callused and now had dark claws instead of fingernails with the back of the hands covered in red hair. He looked down at his feet, which were changed in the same way. Tommy looked back at the mirror and opened his mouth. Inside were two pairs of long canines and other intimidating looking teeth as well. To make sure he wasn't officially insane, he brought his hands up to his head and began to feel around it. He felt his extended mouth, stretched out nose holes, deadly teeth, and the fur on the side of his face, now convinced he wasn't crazy.

He was finally aware of the pain in his lower back and felt back there. He felt an odd furry lump. Tommy gave a tug at it and looked back there. He now had a red furred wolfish tail that reached to his ankles. Tommy reached down and tore a hole in his pants to make room for this. Tommy once again looked at the mirror with wide eyes and uttered three words at his refection, "Oh my god…" he said in horror.

That was when panic hit Tommy with full force. He knew he couldn't let anyone see him like this. He knew that he also had to get away from home as soon as possible. His mom would be devastated at his absence, but her reaction would be worse if she saw him at that moment. Before he could plan any further, he heard his cell phone ringing from his pocket, something that surprised him more than it should have. He didn't want to let someone know that he was at home, fearing someone would come looking for him. While he let the phone ring, Tommy almost sprinted to his parent's room.

Tommy remembered a large trench coat and wide-brimmed fedora his dad used to wear. He began to tear through his dad's closet, finding the trench coat first. Tommy threw this on, which just barely reached ankles and covered up the tail. The hat he had trouble finding, but after ten minutes he was able to find it. The hat and the coat were a dark brown, and the hat reminded him of the hat Indiana Jones used to wear. Tommy gave himself a final once over when he had the hat and coat on. He then came to the conclusion that as long as it was dark outside and he kept the coat's collar up, no one should notice much of a difference.

Tommy, out of curiosity, took out his cell phone to see who called, which had now stopped ringing. He saw that he had a voice mail from Abby, which caught his interest. He flipped open the cell phone and began to listen.

"…Um…hi Tommy," Abby sounded very timid, not to mention frightened, at the beginning of the message, "I j-just wanted to call wondering if anything…disturbing had happened to you. I c-called the other guys and t-they said that something happened to them t-to. We'll be in the woods in your backyard in fifteen minutes and please be there." With that, the voice mail was over.

Tommy placed his phone back in his pocket and began to ponder his decision. On one end, he didn't want to go since his pride didn't want him to be seen like this. But on the other hand, something happened to his friends and he would be a coward not to help them. Tommy gave out a frustrated sigh. The only decision that made any sense at all was to meet up with them and find out what happened. His mind was taken off of this subject when he heard the garage door opening. His mom was coming into the house.

"Crap." Was all Tommy said as he ran faster than he ever did in his life into the kitchen. What he did next was what one could only describe as downright stupidity. Before heading out the backdoor, Tommy took a small piece of paper and a pen and wrote a hasty note goodbye, not mentioning anything that happened to him that evening. Right before Tommy had his hand on the doorknob, he heard a voice he almost dreaded hearing at the moment.

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT'RE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!" said a shrill voice. Tommy looked around slightly to see his mom, Helen, staring at him with wide eyes. He was pretty sure that his mom was never this scared in her entire life.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE YOU…WHATEVER YOU ARE! GET…OUT!" His mom, who had pulled out a rifle from under the couch, was now pointing it at Tommy. Tommy wasted no time and opened the backdoor, running like a madman through his backyard. When he got to the other side of the yard, he heard a gunshot and felt something whiz against the side of his face. Tommy went up to fell it and looked back at his hand and saw a small amount of blood on his fingertips. He involuntarily stopped at the edge of the forest and looked around. His mom was now standing in the doorway with the rifle cocked at him.

His mom yelled at him ferociously, "GET OUT OF MY PROPERTY MONSTER OR YOU'LL END UP WITH A SLUG IN YOUR HEAD!"

Tommy took this warning and started to run back into the woods once again. On the way, Tommy thought he felt something wet in his eyes. He realized that they were tears. He quickly rubbed the tears out of his eyes.

"Damn it," he muttered to himself, "Don't do this!"

Tommy then continued onto where he was pretty sure the group was meeting. What he had in store for him he could never predict.

Pete gave out a frustrated sigh. He was making his way through the woods near Tommy's house, trying his best not to get to close to the neighboring houses. He didn't want to become a new discovery on display at a local zoo or get dissected for that matter. So far, he had a very eventful evening to put it nicely. He was thankful that he got out of his home before his mom arrived at his home, but he had to make some interesting preparations before he left. He was now wearing a very baggy black sweatshirt with the hood covering a good portion of his face, something he didn't want other people to see at the moment.

As he came into the clearing where the gang would sometimes meet, Pete noticed a figure standing near the edge. He thought he saw a glimpse of red hair on the figure and assumed it was Tommy.

He called out. "Tommy? Is that you?"

For some reason, this surprised Tommy very badly and spun around to meet him with a surprised glare. When Pete had gotten a good look at Tommy, he, very embarrassing when he looked back, gave out a yelp of surprise.

Tommy growled at this. "Yeah yeah I don't look very pretty at the moment. You don't need to point it out anymore than I have as is!"

Pete raised his hands in apology. "Hey I've just been having a very bad day too, just to let you know, so don't think you're alone."

Tommy looked Pete over suspiciously. "What's with the ghetto look?"

Pete gave an exasperated sigh. "You really want to know?" Pete took a gloved hand and pulled his hood back. Tommy's only reaction was a pair of raised eyebrows. Pete was changed in almost the same fashion he was only he was something else. Pete had a head shaped like a wolverine and was covered in dark brown hair. He also had a long brown bushy tail, claws on each finger, and two bear like ears in place of regular ears. The one thing that Tommy had to refrain from laughing at was that he was still wearing his treasured bandana.

Tommy snorted. "Small world, ain't it?"

Pete ignored the remark. "So has anyone else arrived yet?"

"I don't see anyone else here yet so I guess that answers the question." Tommy said dryly.

"Just to let you know, that's about to be disproved in a moment." A voice called out from the edge of the forest. It sounded a lot like Benny's voice and Tommy saw four figures emerge from the forest.

Each person seemed to be transformed in the same way Tommy and Pete were, only each looked like something else. Abby, who was the first to come out of the woods, had a triangular shaped head and was covered in blue scales, with a dorsal fin sticking out from her back and a long shark-like tail. Tommy also thought he saw parallel slits that looked like gills on her neck. Curt came out too, only he was covered in gray hair with dark spots with a leopard tail swaying leopard tail revealing itself from the back. His head was shaped like that of a big cat with ears made in the same fashion, only he looked very indifferent to the situation. Duncan revealed himself as well, only he looked very odd since he had a deer shaped head, had light brown hair growing all over him and had a pair of antlers growing from his head. His feet had now become large hoofs instead of regular human feet. Benny, however, looked even stranger than Duncan. He had brown feathers growing around him with a bird-like tail, had a large pair of brown wings that had sprouted from his back and he had a large beak instead of a regular mouth. His hands and feet looked like the feet of birds of prey with each fingertip having a large talon.

Benny gave out a loud laugh. "Looks like the entire freak show is finally here!"

Everyone else, however, glared bloody murder at Benny with Tommy telling him to 'shut his pie hole'.

"Benny, right now is really not the time," Abby said seriously.

"What? I've got to lighten the mood somehow." Benny said mischievously.

Abby sighed at this and turned towards the group. "Did everyone get here okay?"

Tommy groaned at this. "If you include getting shot at by your mom then yes."

Abby became concerned for Tommy. "Your okay aren't you?"

Tommy glared at Abby. "Let's see; I passed out at a party, changed into something from a horror movie and got called a monster by my mom while getting shot at so things are just peachy." He said cruelly.

Abby was taken aback at this. "It's just a standard question."

Pete gave Tommy a look. "Tommy, she's just being concerned! No need to get up in her face like that we've all gone through it!"

Tommy got up into Pete's face. "Yeah well at least you all got out with some of your pride intact!"

"Which you have more than enough I might add," Curt said dryly.

Tommy then glared at Curt. "Now don't you start with me!"

"I think Pete was the one who started with you."

Tommy turned bright red in the face. "Alright that's it!" he then began to lunge at Curt, but was stopped by Duncan and Pete. Despite being held back, Tommy continued to fight against the two, growling and glaring daggers at Curt in the process.

Duncan gave Tommy a look. "Good grief Tommy you're acting like your dog with rabies! What's gotten into you?!"

"Very good question,"

Everyone jumped to see a dark figure leaning against one of the trees. The man, who was a very tall and slim person, then walked into the clearing revealing to be a dark haired man in a business suit. Abby thought the one thing that made the man very creepy was the fact that he wore dark glasses after the sun went down.

Tommy glared at the man, still in Pete and Duncan's grasp. "Who're you and why were you watching us?"

The man shrugged. "I was watching you. Just to see how far the venom has gone along to this point."

Tommy almost went berserk at this. "What'd you do to us?!"

"I didn't do anything." The man said simply.

"LIAR!" Tommy was able to wrench himself from his holding and charged at the man, intent on landing a punch on him.

The man, however, didn't seem phased at this and simply side stepped to avoid the punch. Tommy ran past the man completely and began to charge at him again, yelling at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately for Tommy, whenever he would try and land a hit on the man, the man would dodge the attacks without any effort at all using simple side steps, ducks, and the occasional jump.

After this went on for about a minute, Tommy began to pant while the man didn't even look tired at all.

The man looked at Tommy. "Unless you want to keep this little dance of ours going, I suggest you at least listen to what we've got to say."

Abby gave the man a surprised look. "'We?'"

Almost as if to answer this, a woman with blonde hair and green eyes stepped into the clearing. She wore a light brown blouse with dark brown business pants and carried a very kind air around her. When she caught sight of the group, she bowed in apology.

"Please forgive us for this entrance," the woman said apologetically.

Duncan cocked his head. "Apologize for what?"

The woman gave a gentle smile. "I'm sorry if my brother caused harm to your friend in any way."

"I know this may sound childish, but he started it." The man said pointing at Tommy, who gave the man a dirty look.

The woman sighed. "Anyway, what we wanted to tell you was that we know what happened to you all and the only way we can help you is if you give us your attention please."

Abby became curious. "What did happen to us exactly?"

"Before we begin," the woman started, "we should probably introduce ourselves. My name is Gali and this is my brother Kopaka. What you've been infected with is Visorak venom."

A/N: So, how was this one? Yep, I finally got the toa into the picture, but if I screw their personalities up at anytime, could someone let me know?