Chapter 22: The Moon Beast
One night, inside the secret ORCUS base, Cyran was walking through the hallway with his agents around him. Upon arriving at a door, Cyran placed his hand on a print-scanner and opened the door, revealing to be one of the base's special section areas. Suddenly, a terrible howl was heard, followed by loud scratching noises of claws against metal. Cyran walked up to a large cage in the room where one of his experiments was locked in as it bashed against its prison, trying to get out. "The beast is getting very impatient. I believe it's time for Experiment M00N, aka Selene Wolfbeast, to run wild in Copper Canyon." Cyran said gently. As he said that, the beast walked into the dim light, revealing itself to be a big werewolf before letting out another howl.
(Intro)
Meanwhile, at the McGrath-Ferrus apartment, Max, Steel in his Stephan droid, and the Ferrus Quintuplets were preparing for a movie night with their friends. "Xena, is the popcorn ready for popping yet?" Max asked as he was setting up. Xena held up a pack of corn. "It will be once I put it in the microwave." She said as she put the pack in the microwave and set the timer on for 5 minutes. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Zad walked over to the door and opened it to reveal Sydney, Kirby, Tawny and the team, minus C.Y.T.R.O. "Who's ready to get this movie night started?!" Kirby asked excitedly as they came in with snacks they brought. "Thanks for inviting us to your movie night with your moms' permission, Max." Sydney said. "No problem, Syd." Max said. "Yeah. It's good for us to spend time with our best friends." Xena said. "So, what movie are we watching?" Kirby asked. Stephan was looking through the DVD selection until he spotted a romantic horror movie about werewolves. "How about we watch this?" He asked, showing the movie to the gang. "Sounds like a good idea, Stephan." Max said. He took the movie and inserted the DVD disk into the player.
Just then, the microwave dinged, signaling that the popcorn was done. Xena put on an oven mitt on her right hand before she opened the microwave and took out the buffed-up popcorn bag. "Popcorn's done!" She called as she opened the bag and poured the popcorn into a bowl. She brought the bowl and sat down with the others as the movie began to play.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Copper Canyon, a local security guard was guarding a warehouse from the guard house. He was on the night shift, reading the newspaper about Max Steel and his team stopping the Hawaiian Shirt Gang from robbing the museum. "Hehe. Lucky thing Max Steel and his team are always around to stop those Hawaiian Shirt guys." He said. Just then, he heard a loud noise coming from inside the warehouse, catching his attention. "What was that?" As he stepped out of the guard house, he walked inside the warehouse to investigate. Using his flashlight to shine through the pitch-black hallways, he started looking around as he searched for any intruder that might've broken in. Just then, he found the source of the noise he heard. The window was broken in from the outside, meaning someone smashed through it to get inside the warehouse. "How on Earth?" But before he could start wondering, something whooshed past him from behind. He turned around, but didn't see anything. Just then, there was a dangerous growl in the dark. "Who goes there?" He called, feeling scared. But all he got was a silent reply. But then, he heard the same dangerous growl, this time, coming from right behind him. He slowly turned around and gasped in horror as he sees a big werewolf looming over him with big yellow eyes, glaring at him straight into his very soul. He screamed in terror as the werewolf let out a loud howl that echoed throughout the warehouse as the screen went black.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Max and his friends continued to watch their werewolf movie. "That wolf guy is so cool. I mean, protecting his human girlfriend from the evil werewolf, his arch enemy, like that." Kirby commented. "The wolf guy loves his human girlfriend so much; he'll do anything to protect her. Despite that ever since he met her, he was rather cold towards her. But he grew close to her when she showed him the kindness he needed when getting to know each other before eventually falling in love." Yeager explained. Before anyone could say anything else, Stephan received a call. "Max, we got a call from N-Tek." He whispered. "Sorry, guys. My mom's calling. She and Aunt Amelia need our help at their work." Max said as he and the rest of the team rushed out of the apartment. After they left, Sydney, Kirby and Tawny looked at each other and shrugged as they continued watching the movie.
Once the team was outside the apartment, they went into an alleyway as Steel answered Forge's call, revealing a hologram of him projecting through Stephan's droid eyes. "What's going on, Daddy?" Vandana asked. "There was a break-in at the local warehouse a while ago. I need you kids to investigate this right away." Forge said. "We're on it, Uncle Ferrus." Max said. With that said, as Stephan deactivated the hologram, the team suited up and headed off towards the warehouse.
A minute later, the team arrived at the warehouse as N-Tek arrived. They went inside the warehouse as they started the investigation. Just then, 2 N-Tek agents found the security guard mumbling to himself. "I…I saw a beast! It was big…hairy…and, and horrifying! W-W-Wer-Wer-Werewolf!" He mumbled in pure terror. He was taken away as he continued mumbling to himself. Max and his team caught him mentioning a werewolf and it surprised them. "A werewolf. But werewolves aren't real. They're just a myth." Wandella said, being skeptical. "Maybe Extroyer extroyed a new animal form via werewolf DNA." Alex suggested. "That's impossible. How could Extroyer find such DNA from a mythical creature when werewolves normally reside in the European areas?" Steel said. "Oh, good point." Alex said. Just then, Steel received a message. "Just got a message from Forge. Downtown is being terrorized by a big dog." He said. He pulled up the footage, and the team was shocked by what they saw. A werewolf was causing havoc in downtown and howling into the night sky. "How is this possible?" Max asked in shock as Steel replaced the footage with another hologram call from Forge. "I have a hunch to believe that the werewolf is another experiment created by ORCUS. Guess they decided to let their big mutt loose. You kids need to stop it before it causes any more damage." Forge said. "We're on it, Uncle Ferrus." Max said. After ending the call, the team headed downtown.
Later, as the team arrived downtown, they started looking around for any sign of the werewolf. Though it was foggy and they couldn't see much. "I don't see anything yet. You guys see anything?" Max asked. "No, it's too foggy out here." Rayne said. Suddenly, there was a loud howl in the air, startling them. (AN: Think of the last howl from The Wolfman 2010) "Well, I certainly heard that." Yeager said. Suddenly, they heard a low growl in the fog. They turned and saw a figure standing in the shadow of the fog. The team got ready to fight as the figure walked towards them, revealing itself to be a big werewolf with a slim female figure, dark brown fur, and a long ponytail strand of hair that reaches her tailbone. "I guess we found our werewolf." Zad said, summoning his mana katana. "Hold fast. Remember, werewolves are incredibly strong and agile." Max said. "Especially in the light of the full moon." Steel added.
The werewolf girl howled before charging towards the team. "Berto, Rayne, stop her!" Max exclaimed. Berto and Rayne fired their lightning attacks and shocked the werewolf girl, stopping her in her tracks. "I hope that was a shock." Rayne said. "Mana Quints, restrain her!" Max ordered. The Mana Quints lashed their mana whips and restrained the werewolf girl, forcing her on her knees as she struggled. "Well, that was way too easy." Iden said. "Yeah. I expected this thing to be a little tougher." Alex said. But then, the clouds in the night sky started to clear and unveiled a full moon. As the moon's light shined down on the werewolf girl, she looked up at it and her pupils shrank. She felt herself getting angrier and stronger. "Uh, something's happening." Rayne said with worry. Suddenly, as the werewolf girl let out a powerful howl, she broke free from the Mana Quints' restraints. The team was shocked to see that. "That's impossible! No creature could break out of a mana restraint!" Steel exclaimed. "I'll stop her!" Alex exclaimed as a red tiger appeared before it disappeared in his body. He leapt towards the werewolf girl with tiger strength. "No, Alex, wait!" Max exclaimed. But the werewolf girl lay on her back and kick-pushed Alex back in the air and into a brick wall. "Alex!" Wandella cried. The team was shocked by how much stronger the werewolf girl had gotten. "I'm gonna make you pay for that!" Wandella exclaimed as she charged up her mana punches and ran towards the werewolf girl. But the werewolf girl grabbed a nearby dumpster and threw it at Wandella, knocking her out. "No one does that to our sister!" Yeager exclaimed as he and Zad charged towards the werewolf girl. But the werewolf girl swatted Yeager in the face with her left paw before swatting Zad with her right, knocking them both down. Iden, sneaking around behind her, slashed her back with his claws. But to his shock, they didn't even leave a single scratch. The werewolf girl turned around, grabbed Iden and threw him into a fence.
Max felt his anger rising as he watched the werewolf girl take down his team, his friends, his family. "Max, you feeling okay?" Steel asked as the werewolf girl grabbed Rayne and tossed her across the street, knocking her out. Berto ran up, but the werewolf girl grabbed him by the throat and forced him against the wall before swatting him in the face, knocking him out. Vandana and Xena took off into the air, but the werewolf girl leapt up onto the building roof, bounced off it and pounced on Vandana and Xena, slamming them both into the street and knocking them out. "That's it." Max said, now very angry. He charged towards the werewolf girl and prepared to punch her, his right fist fueled with Turbo Energy. But the werewolf girl tackled him and pinned him down. She gave a great howl before she prepared to finish him off. But then, Max's eyes started to glow pure white again. "Whoa. Here we go again." Steel said, knowing what was coming. Suddenly, dark clouds started forming in the sky, covering the moon. Max had summoned a rainstorm as the rain started to fall. The werewolf girl was in shock as she slowly started losing her strength. Max managed to kick her off before getting back up. As he stood back up, while the werewolf girl recovered, Max motioned his arms, summoning 4 streams of the elements and fired a combination blast at the werewolf girl, knocking her out. Afterwards, Max motioned his arms and cleared up the rainstorm before falling unconscious again.
Later, Max groaned as he woke up in N-Tek's med bay. As he slowly sat up from his medical bed, he looked to see Steel, in his Stephan droid, sitting next to him. "Well, look who's finally awake. You okay?" Steel asked. "Yeah, I'm fine." Max said, rubbing his head. "What happened while I was out?" He asked. "Well, after you triggered that mysterious power of yours again, you defeated that werewolf and collapsed from exhaustion after the power wore off. But then, a group of ORCUS agents showed up and took the werewolf before N-Tek arrived. And boy, Forge was angry and annoyed that they got away again. But then, I discovered who that werewolf is." Steel explained, showing Max the hologram of the werewolf girl's profile through his droid's eyes. "Her name is Selene Wolfbeast. I figured that werewolf was a female due to her figure. But female werewolves are very rare, much like real wolves in the wild." He said as he deactivated the hologram. "Weird. How is it ORCUS had werewolf DNA? It's impossible." Max said. "Actually, that's the one thing I don't know. But I do remember something Forge said while you were unconscious. Not only does ORCUS kidnap children and experiment on them, forcing them into becoming their super soldiers. But they also research mythologies and search for real-life mythical creatures for their DNA. Using the DNA they found, they turned the children into real-life mythical creatures, or in this case; hybrids." Steel explained.
Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. "ORCUS is mad. They need to be stopped and save those children." He said. "But N-Tek's unable to locate their base thanks to their signal jamming device that prevents us from tracking them down." Steel said. Max looked down, feeling angry at ORCUS for using innocent children as living weapons. When he and the team first encountered Frozen Killer and learned his tragic backstory while he was locked up with Vosmuatine, he was heartbroken and felt pity towards poor Lorenzo, having been through so much when he was an innocent child before his life was turned cold. He vowed that he would find where ORCUS was hiding and shut down their operation for good.
Wow! How was that for a Halloween chapter? As Max and his friends were having a movie night, ORCUS unleashed their latest creation, Selene Wolfbeast, the Moon Beast, a human-werewolf hybrid. As the team tracks her down, Max activates his special element power again after Selene beats up the team. But after he passed out, ORCUS took Selene before N-Tek got there. Will Max fulfil his vow to shut down ORCUS' operation? Are there any other hybrids like Selene? Leave a review if you'd like. And Happy Halloween!