Chapter Five: Belly of the Beast
Shaggy had breathed in Alexa's scent plenty when they had been on the bus together. As such the full werewolf transformation seemed to regard her with some familiarity. This seemed to factor along with Scooby-Doo using his strange abilities to keep the wild beast instinct that had overtaken his transformed friend calm. And despite the brave front she had tried to put up before, Alexa admitted she was trembling slightly. Sweat crept down her flesh as the werewolf began to smell it coming off of her.
"As a rock at a seashore he standeth firm," Alexa began to say, reciting philosophy. "And the crashing of the waves disturbeth him not. In the instant of danger the courage of his heart sustaineth him. And the steadiness of his mind beareth him out."
After finishing her quote Alexa breathed out and focused on why she had come. In her heart of hearts she truly wanted an adventure of her own. Like those of her sisters Diana and Artemis. She had certainly found that with these two. And an adventure had elements of danger. This was just such an element.
She looked over the transformed face of her odd new friend. It was indeed more canine, the snout extending out like a true wolf's face while the ears, pointed though they were like a wolf's, remained at the sides of his head which still retained the human shape. The legs and feet had grown and bent to resemble the animal shape while the arms were still humanoid. This form was likely more powerful than the harrier man version she had seen earlier. Clearly it was more savage and his human mind was overtaken by the animal. Thankfully Scooby's Annunaki abilities were working to keep Shaggy calm. There was something else about that, about the Annunaki, that was important but she couldn't recall it for now.
She took the book out of her bag and began reading through it again. The act of reading calmed Alexa and this helped keep the newly transformed Shaggy calm, with the help of Scooby. As she read, Alexa gave a silent prayer to the moon Goddess Artemis, that this would be a peaceful night. She also prayed that her sister Artemis wasn't on the hunt right now.
Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, and Arthur Curry, better known as Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman walked through the woods of the Pacific Northwest to meet Barry's friend.
"So your old pen pal is living out here?" asked Hal.
"More or less for the past year or two," said Barry.
"Doing what?" asked Arthur.
"Hunting for Bigfoot, what else," said Barry.
"Seriously?" asked Arthur.
"Hey, with all that we've seen can either of you say Bigfoot might not be real?" said Barry. "I mean before he started hanging out with us Batman was designated as a cryptid. So were you Arthur."
"I'm still calling bullshit," said Arthur. "And I haven't seen this guy but I can tell, you're taking us to meet one giant nerd."
"I thought that was a given," said Hal.
"Okay guys, just keep an open mind and...yeah he's a bit of a nerd," said Barry. "But he's done a lot of field work in looking into these kinds of creatures like that jaguar/ape thing. Decrees in biology, archaeology, and anthropology, he's a legitimate researcher."
The three heroes came up to a trailer where a very distinct scent could be smelled.
"Is he also a...'baker'?" Arthur asked.
"It's legal here," said Barry, knocking on the trailer door.
"Oh, finally, I told you they could deliver out this far," a voice from inside the trailer said.
The door opened and an overweight bespectacled man with long blond hair, kept partially in a ponytail in the back opened the door.
"Okay so you guys are way over thirty minutes and...wow," the man said upon realizing who he was answering to.
"Nerd, called it," said Aquaman.
"Dell Chillman?" asked Flash.
"Uh...yeah...yeah," said the man, Dell.
"You used to be in contact with a friend of mine in Central City, Barry Allen," said Flash. "He mentioned you might be able to help us out with something if you've got the time."
"Brownies are ready," a feminine voice in the trailer said.
"Oh this is going to be fun," said Hal with a chuckle.
"This is going to be a waste of time," Aquaman said.
"We also got our own microbrewery," said Dell.
"Never mind," said Aquaman, heading into the trailer, to Dell's surprise.
"King of Atlantis, drinks like a fish," said Lantern.
The Watchtower, in addition to being a technological marvel, had several invisible mystical defenses placed on it by the various members versed in magic. One such member, Zatanna, was now assisting Batman in his autopsy of the cat-lady and the hybrid. While Batman examined the physical evidence, Zatanna read for any mystical signature.
"The spider is clearly a symbol of power for whoever did this and..." Zatanna cut off with a shiver. "Believe me there's a lot of power and a lot of malice behind this."
Batman noticed Zatanna's discomfort even as he worked on understanding the hybrid.
"I'm alright," Zatanna assured. "It's just...the mystical energies used here are really something. As for the spiders, they're fairly common familiars for a lot of sorcerers. No one we've faced before so this is someone new."
"That's what we were figuring as well," said Batman.
While his machines continued to examine the hybrid creature, Batman brought up a container. It held the remains of one of the spiders that Flash had crushed.
"Do you think you can tell us more from this?" Batman asked.
"I'll give it a try," said Zatanna. "Leaver rouy retsam."
As her backwards spoken spell began its work, filling the room with golden slight, something went wrong. The spider began to glow red and webs of crimson light burst forth, entangling Zatanna. The mystical defenses of the Watchtower kicked in and mystic symbols lit up along the walls, firing out a golden light at the webs. These seemed to disrupt the webs enough to release Zatanna. Batman quickly ran over and checked Zatanna's vitals. They were weak and Zatanna was beginning to look emaciated. The golden lights outdid the crimson, completely disintegrating the remains of the spider. Clearly their foe was covering their tracks well and was powerful enough to attack back against even mystical tracking.
But Batman decided to worry about that later as he took Zatanna in his arms to carry her to the infirmary.
"I'll admit, this is damn good beer," said Aquaman.
"Thanks," said Minga, Dell's girlfriend.
The three superheroes sat on a fairly messy couch in the trailer, Aquaman enjoying the brew while Flash partook in some rather 'interesting' brownies. A benefit of both of their biological advantages was that the effects weren't as severe as for humans. For his own part Lantern abstained as the 'designated flyer', but did take tea when offered by Minga.
"Tremendous," said Dell, looking over photographic images of the hybrid creature and the pterodactyl-man. "Stupendous. You guys not only caught the Jaguaro but the Pterodactyl-Man?"
"So you do know about these guys then," said Flash.
"Yeah," said Dell, pulling out a few folders. "Jaguaro is a creature worshiped by various tribes in Brazil, although it's hard to tell for how long. But it wasn't until fairly recently, well about seventy years ago, that some reported sightings came in. And even the Pterodactyl-Man is rare even among Cryptids. A few of the standard blurry photos and he's actually fairly recent to."
"Let me guess, not up until seventy years ago?" said Lantern.
"Sixty years ago actually," said Dell. "Or fifty really, first sightings didn't really occur till the 70's."
"Okay but going back to the other guy, this Jaguaro," said Flash. "You said Brazil was where this thing came from."
"Yeah, but like I said it's hard to tell when some of the indigenous tribes began to worship it," said Dell. "And it wasn't until recently some idols of it had been found."
"So all you have to on it's history is that it had a few sightings from seventy years ago," said Aquaman. "Anything...else supposedly sighted? Invasive jackasses from Europe to be exact?"
Dell looked confused for a minute before it seemed to click.
"Oh, you mean like clones of Hitler or something?" Dell asked.
"Or something," said Flash. "We've kind of stumbled onto a case where our biggest lead is that these nasty fellows are hunting down a Nazi's old collection of stolen artifacts. Someone who seemed to try and create monster soldiers for the war."
"So you're saying Jaguaro and the Pterodactyl-Man might not be cryptids but the products of Nazi mad science?" asked Dell, sounded despondent at first before perking a bit. "That's till kind of cool in spite of...you know everything else."
"Yeah, well is there anything else you can tell us?" asked Lantern. "Like we have a lady were-cat who burst open with spiders along with this Jaguaro thing. Scared Flash shitless."
"Okay it did but you don't have to tell people," said Flash.
"Spiders?" asked Dell.
Flash pulled out images of the spider's remains.
"We already checked," said Flash. "Not part of any known breed so this..."
"I think I might have something," said Dell.
He went back to his filing cabinet and began looking through his files.
"It's smaller than this but the markings did remind me of something," said Dell, dropping a file.
He opened it, revealing an old German newspaper article and a photograph of a man holding up...a giant spider husk. Flash nearly vomited at the sight.
"What the hell is that?" asked Aquaman, the image sobering him even though he wasn't drunk.
"This was the main attraction of a carnival freak-show that had been traveling through Germany pre-World War One," said Dell. "The carnival owner paraded a molted husk he claimed belonged to a demon in the form of a great spider. The spider would have killed him but according to him actually spoke. It would allow him to live but in exchange he would offer up one of his star attractions. A supposed real-life vampire 'princess' he had managed to capture. To sweeten the pot the spider offered a molting, an easier exhibit to control. He took the deal and gave the demon a name which translates to 'Revolta'."
"No way that's real," said Aquaman.
"No, that's the same type of spider which I will now see in my nightmares forever," said Flash.
"Yeah, but the rest of that story is a little iffy," said Lantern. "But it'll give that the geography is important. All going back to Germany."
"On that note, Dell do the initials A.M.P mean anything to you?" asked Flash. "Especially related to all of this?"
"Well...let me think," said Dell. "Not really the initials but if you want a German name around that time period there is one. Phibes, P-H-I-B-E-S, name of a particularly infamous noble family that was said to dabble in...unnatural works. World War One had the Baron Pericles Phibes come under scrutiny for strange medical practices on wounded soldiers, of either side. Don't know if it's related though."
"It's somewhere to start," said Flash. "Thanks."
"No prob and, hey would one of you guys eh...mind guest starring on my podcast?" Dell asked. "Chillman's Chillers, I mean having a member of the Justice League come on and say my work was help for one of their cases, dude you can't get that kind of publicity."
"Give me a full keg of this stuff and I'll do it," said Arthur.
"Deal," said Dell.
"You guys go on I'll..."
An alarm rang out in the trailer.
"What is it?" asked Lantern, his ring flashing.
"One of our motion sensor cameras," said Minga.
She went over to a monitor and turned it on. Revealing a lumbering figure walking by, although the image was blurry.
"Blurry Bigfoot, of course," said Aquaman.
"How close is this?" asked Flash.
"Not far..."
Dell didn't finish when another motion sensor went off.
"We got a bunch around the perimeter of the trailer," said Dell. "It's coming here."
"Stay here, we'll take care of it," said Lantern. "Bigfoot or otherwise."
The three heroes burst out of the trailer ready for a fight. Just in time as it appeared that a three ready to fall on the trailer. Lantern created a giant saw construct and sliced the three in half, another construct flinging the top away. From his position Hal saw the shilouette of the figure.
"He's right ahead of us," Hal said.
"On it," said Flash who ran up to face the attacker.
He built up speed for a powerful punch and landed a blow on the creature. All that did was cause it to stagger. But in that moment Flash got a good look at the attacker. It wasn't Bigfoot, rather it was something far stranger.
"You're kidding me," he said.
This moment of distraction was enough for the creature to regain its composure and grab at Flash with a taloned claw. At that moment Aquaman ran up and he too saw the strange creature.
"Is that a...Chicken?" he said.
The creature now holding Flash indeed had the face and talons of a chicken. But the body-shape of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein.
Batman delivered Zatanna to the infirmary. Her vitals were stronger now and she was beginning to regain her youthful appearance. Alongside the Dark Knight stood the Man of Steel.
"We're clearly dealing with someone who means business," said Superman.
"And now they know for a fact we're onto them," said Batman. "But we still don't know anything about them. That puts us at the disadvantage."
"It also means the others out in the field could be in danger," said Superman. "We need to..."
Alarms rang out, putting the two on high alert. Then a tremor when through the whole station.
"What now?" growled Batman.
Superman looked through with his x-ray vision and saw a strange space-craft firing on the Watchtower.
"What are the chances we suddenly get invaded by aliens out of nowhere?" Superman asked.
"I don't believe in chance," said Batman.
Superman ran out and making his way swiftly to a hatch went out into the vacuum of space to fend off this invader. But as he charged forth against the ship, to his shock, he passed right through it.
When he turned to try and attack the ship again before it could reach the Watchtower another strange thing happened. From the ship came its occupant. A figure in glowing blue armor with a clear dome-like helmet. But the most bizarre feature was the glowing skull in the helmet. And in spite of the soundless void of space, Superman could swear he heard the kooky space fiend laugh.
Scooby's powers were still keeping Shaggy calmed in his full werewolf form. Alexa's own attempts at keeping herself calm were helping as well. Reading more into the book she looked with interest at the notes hand-written in German. The ones in which the Annunaki were referenced especially.
"I don't know if you can still understand me," Alexa said calmly. "But I believe I understand why this collection is so important. It's here in the book, the previous owner wrote in a theory of his. It reads: 'While my work, as well as the many instances of supernatural cases, demonstrate that animal hybridization is possible, the power of the Annunaki cannot be achieved by this means alone. Nor could the Annunaki take over a sentient being's physical form. And despite their power and advances the Annunaki's power could not transform an animal body into a humanoid form. My current hypothesis is that the Annunaki created the methods in which humans could achieve animal hybridization, through scientific or mystical means or even a mixture of both. In so that when the man to beast transformation began the consciousness of the human was overtaken. This would allow the Annunaki to overtake the transformed body, making it into an avatar through which greater power could be channeled than from the animal form alone. I also believe that it is from these avatar forms that mankind had the mental image of the hybrid gods featured in many cultures throughout the world. The actual gods, which my research leads me to believe do exist, came into being later when the collective thought energy mixed with the extra-dimensional energies of which these 'gods' are formed of."
The werewolf Shaggy didn't seem to comprehend or care about Alexa's words.
"Whoever is behind this wickedness is hoping to obtain the powers of the Annunaki," said Alexa. "But...I guess you'd find that more relevant when you're...feeling more yourself."
"I like it," said Scooby. "Sounds spooky."
"Indeed," said Alexa. "Did you know about it?"
"No," said Scooby. "I always thought I was a regular...talking dog."
"I'm not sure if people in man's world consider that regular," said Alexa. "It'd even get a slight raised eyebrow on Themyscira. Likely it would be seen as one of the gods pulling mischief. I have a sister whom Dionysus once tried to seduce in the form of a swan."
The memory did bring a bit of a chuckle to Alexa before her smile dropped a bit.
"You're lonely," Scooby said.
"I guess I am," she said. "This is the farthest I've been from my sisters. I can't imagine what Diana, let alone Artemis must be thinking about me running off like this. But I will keep my promise. I won't let them hurt Shaggy. Artemis is going to be...more difficult to sway than Diana though."
"Mean?" Scooby asked.
"No, just...Artemis is a warrior to the bone," said Alexa. "She's often tried to make me more of one as well. But it's only because we're actually blood sisters. She's the elder sister and only wants for my safety. I've just never been much of a warrior. And while I do like who I am as an Amazon I...I have always felt that...that I would like to try to be more of a warrior."
"Just like Shaggy and his dad," said Scooby.
"I suppose, yes," said Alexa, recalling what Shaggy had said about his father. "Your own father was with him wasn't he?"
"Da-da Doo," Scooby said.
"Exactly how long has your family been with the Rogers family?" Alexa asked.
"I don't know, forever," Scooby said.
Alexa hummed in thought, wondering what generations of exposure to Annunaki energy would do to a family line. A howl outside the jail was heard. This seemed to agitate Shaggy, who howled in reponse.
"Could it just be a coyote?" Alexa asked.
"No," said Scooby. "It's trouble."
Starting back at the motel, Artemis and Diana began tracking the likely trail Shaggy and Alexa would have taken. Going through the woods to avoid authorities the two Amazons, both experienced trackers, managed to find the remnants of a trail. Eventually coming to another town.
Asking questions of the people proved semi-fruitless as people could only vaguely recall maybe seeing a man, a woman, and a dog like what described. To be sure, Diana requested of all those they asked to hold onto the magic lasso. As many of them had been fans of Wonder Woman they did so under the auspice of taking selfies. This seemed to partially break through of a kind of spell they were under. The most came from the bus station. In which Diana was able to obtain a map of the routes.
"This one route leads to Scorpion Ridge," Diana said. "That's the route they must have taken."
"Let's just hope Alexa is still unharmed," said Artemis. "The moon is up."
"Alexa is clever, she'll find a way to manage," said Diana. "And from what Shagworth told me the dog seems to be a key factor in keeping Rogers' werewolf form."
"How?" asked Artemis.
"He didn't go into full detail," said Diana. "I'm sure we'll ask the young man when we meet him."
"Indeed," said Artemis, fingering her massive battle axe.
"No axe," said Diana. "Especially if Alexa says she went of her own free will with him."
"Do you know the last time Alexa was alone with a man?" asked Artemis. "I made sure they weren't alone for long. And her virtue has thankfully remained intact. Pray to the gods it is so now."
"Have faith," said Diana. "From what Batman and I have looked into this Shaggy Rogers and the rest of Mystery Incorporated appear to be righteous people. Lycanthropy aside in the case of Rogers."
A slight yip, barely audible to most, gained Diana's attention. She turned and saw what looked like a hobbled old woman with a large hat seated near them. Out of respect for the old woman Diana had originally let her be. But now she was suspicious. She handed Artemis the lasso and took a seat next to the old woman while Artemis stood behind her.
"Are you alright old mother?" Diana asked.
"Oh...oh me I'm quite alright dear," the 'old' woman said. "Just got this...cold I think. Nothing for you to really worry about dear."
"Are you sure?" Diana asked. "Are you traveling with family? They should be made aware if you're ill."
"Oh no I'm...traveling alone...in incognito," the 'old' woman said, her voice not sounding so 'old'. "Meeting...my friends at Scorpion Ridge for rendezvous."
Artemis drew back the lasso she had allowed drape on the 'old' woman's shoulder, also tearing off the hat and wig the old woman wore. Revealing the brown hair of a younger woman. A younger bespectacled woman.
"Velma Dinkley, an ally of Shaggy Rogers," said Diana.
Velma attempted to reach into her bag but Diana caught her wrist. Gentle enough to not attempt to seem as hostile but firm enough to show she was serious.
"Sister, we are both searching for people we care about," said Diana. "Perhaps we can help one another."
The desert wind kicked up sand into the air, little disturbing the four who walked its flat grounds. One of which crawled on all fours tethered by a leash. A leash held by a pale hand, belonging to a dark dressed man standing tall among the others. The light of the moon shining off his bald white head and pointed ears.
The leashed on howled, having caught a scent. A howl soon sounded in response.
"Beasts of a kind do know how best to find one another eh master?" asked the monocled hunchback.
Along with him and the pale man was the other hunchback, the same which helped in the initial attack on the Gateway Museum.
"Indeed, but this beast has more surprises," said the pale man. "Imagine my delight when my beloved sensed an Annunaki's energy interfering in our agents prior. These meddlers may be useful to our purpose. I want the wolf man and the dog alive. The Amazon as well if it can be helped. As a gift to my beloved goddess, she does like to collect pretty things. Doesn't she dear Winnie."
The she-wolf at the end of the leash growled only to be met by the yellow eyes of the pale man, forcing her to whimper in defeat.
"Still a bit of a spark of rebellion," said the monocled hunchback.
"A spark yes but one that will not grow into a flame," said the pale man. "In her or her unfortunate sisters. Whom I will now take her to rejoin. Retrieve these meddlers Herr Brunch and Crunch. Fail and you will find your humps with lumps."
"Of course sire," said the talking one, Brunch.
The other, Crunch, garbled unintelligibly.
"And take this," said the pale man, handing Brunch a glass container containing the eye torn from Professor Wickels. "I've made adjustments. Merely let it into the open air and this...Grim Creeper will deal with them."
"Of course sir," said Brunch.
As the two hunchbacks and their horrid new weapon went onto the ghost town. As they walked on, the two hunchbacks heard the sound of their master's wings.