This Little Doggie 2

Wally checked the pressure levels of the gauges on the wall. These gauges were attached to the various water cannons mounted on the walls of the training room. They were close to red-lining. Any breach of the padded walls... any attempt of lethal force... would trigger a torrent of high pressure water that would not let up until Primal was huddled in his den in the far corner.

He let this knowledge penetrate the back of his head.

When he was sure his inner wild-child understood, he nodded to the training lad tech, who opened the safe like door to the training room. It opened in, to make it that much hard to break-out. Primal had only broken the door down once, before Peter had designed an almost non-violent way of controlling the monster.

Feral was inside already, jumping rope. Currently, he was a five and half foot tall hamster with white and fawn fur evenly thick over his naked body. "Sorry for the delay, Chester."

Chester nodded a hello and seemed to count off a fur more jumps, before coming to a stop. "Yo, man, you want to spend time with your little squeeze, I understand. Ain't no big thang." He tossed the rope aside and suddenly his ears grew larger, his fur thinner, and his furred tail grew more than a foot. A moment later, the rest of his body seemed to put on mass and then he was quite obviously a naked mouse. A very tall mouse. "We can skip this, yo'no?"

"Actually," Wally said stepping into the red circle in the middle of the room. "It was my father, but the boss wants this. And what the boss wants, the boss gets. Here, knock me out of the circle."

Feral flex his neck this way and that and then walked towards the wall. At the wall, he turned and studied Wally.

Wally grinned with his too many and too large teeth. Basketball smothering hand twitched in a come hither motion. His massive, clawed feet each were easily a foot wide with the toes splayed out.

"What the hell are you wear'n, Dog?" Feral gave him his best mouse sneer. "A fur covered jock strap?"

"It's a merkin," Wally stated, not falling for the distraction. "Every ninja knows, keep your sword sheathed unless you are ready to use it."

"I'm just saying, that's whacked."

"That's an excuse, stop stalling." Unlike martial artists, the streets that taught Feral how to fight did not exactly embrace mutual respect as a cornerstone of their traditions. "Come on, little boy, I got a man to get home to."

The mouse charged, but it was a Lion that roared. In addition to the wicked transformation from bucktoothed mouth to a catlike-throwback jaws, Feral's body went very lean and muscular as he ran across the room. Wally watched with a detached fighter's eyes, but also with the eyes of an artist. He could see how most targets would be disturbed by experience of an oncoming, changing monster.

It was, in a way, nice to see it from the outside.

Of course, with Feral, those moments where his body was in flux was when he was most vulnerable. He relied too heavily on his Chimera mode to disorient his opponent; but to be fair, it had worked very well for him in the year since the young fur had been forced to swallow the gene pool.

Wally leapt about five feet into the air, just as Feral reached the circle. He pushed his left hand into the sprouting mane and pivoted his legs up and over so that he was nearly vertical as the young male ran into the circle. Wally's right hand went into the small of Feral's back as he became parallel to the floor. Feral was pushed off balance and stumbled to the floor as Wally's oversized feet slapped back on the floor.

Feral corrected his stumble, but lost his momentum. He turned back to glare at the black wolf, who looked quite pleased with himself with an over the shoulder glance. "The first time I tried to cartwheel over an opponent, it didn't work out so well."

Completely Lion now, Feral's new tawny tail swished back and forth as he glared at the Wolf from a few yards away. He began stalking around the circle. Around Wally. Wally moved only his head, watching Feral without comment. He stayed a Lion until he snapped his arms under Wally's and then behind the Wolf's head in a full nelson. Wally let him, and - in an awkward moment or two – Feral had him outside the circle. The tech rang the bell.

"You let me have that one," Feral half accused as they broke.

"You didn't try charging me again." Wally said stepping back into the circle, looking Feral up and down for signs of shifting. Still a full Lion. Fawn body fur and a gingery mane. Pink palms and pinkish nose blotches of brown. He could pass.

"I figured we're here to train me, not you."

"Good Answer," Wally said with a smile. He kept his own tail from wagging. "It was a great grapple, you picked a form with arms that were long enough to grab me and legs broad enough to hold me if I had resisted. But... You didn't seem to know what to do with me once you had me."

"I knows what to do with you, Dog, But you don't wants what I'm selling."

"Little less sweet talking and a little more action." Wally turned his back to Chester and set his furry black arms akimbo. "Keep this form and let's try again."